Tod Andrews

Tod Andrews, born Theodore Edwin Anderson on November 9, 1914, in El Paso, Texas, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, screen, and television. He was the son of Henry and Lydia Anderson, who had married in Pima, Arizona, on November 18, 1913. Andrews and his sister, Gertrude Anderson Pierucci, grew up in southern California. He completed his secondary education at Los Angeles High School before attending Washington State College. Andrews died of a heart attack on November 7, 1972, in Los Angeles, two days short of his 58th birthday, and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

Andrews launched his stage career under the name Michael Ames at the Pasadena Playhouse before relocating to New York City to pursue work on Broadway. He performed with the Margo Jones Company in New York from 1944 to 1948, a period that brought him to the attention of director Joshua Logan. When Henry Fonda departed the title role in Mister Roberts, Logan cast Andrews as his replacement in the road production. His Broadway appearances, some billed under the name Michael Ames, included Quiet, Please! in 1940, My Sister Eileen, which ran from 1940 to 1943, and three 1944 productions — Storm Operation, Mrs. Kimball Presents, and Public Relations — as well as That Old Devil the same year. He later appeared in Summer and Smoke, which ran from 1948 to 1949, and A Girl Can Tell. His performance in Summer and Smoke earned him a Theatre World Award in 1949.

Andrews's film career began after he signed a contract with Warner Bros., making his debut in Dive Bomber in 1941, frequently working under the Michael Ames name during this period. His final Warner Bros. film, The Last Ride, was shot in 1942 but not released until 1944. He returned to film work in 1965, playing Captain Tuthill in Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way. In 1968, he appeared as a defense attorney in Ted Post's Hang 'Em High, and two years later reunited with Post on Beneath the Planet of the Apes, portraying Colonel Skipper Maddox, the dying commanding officer of James Franciscus's character. His final film appearance came in 1973's The Baby, also directed by Post, in which he played a doctor.

Andrews began his television career in 1949. From 1957 to 1958, he starred in The Gray Ghost, a syndicated series centered on Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby. In 1959, he headlined the 13-episode syndicated series Counterthrust, in which he played a secret agent operating in the Far East. He also made a screen test for the Perry Mason television series, playing the title character opposite Raymond Burr as Hamilton Burger; that test was later included in the Perry Mason 50th Anniversary DVD set released in 2008. Among his many other television appearances, Andrews was cast as Captain Lynn Parker in a 1960 episode of Death Valley Days, appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, portrayed Holt in a 1962 episode of Rawhide, and appeared in The Twilight Zone episode The Bewitchin' Pool in 1964, which was the series' final original broadcast episode. In 1973, he played the U.S. President in the made-for-television film The President's Plane is Missing.

Andrews was married three times. His first two marriages, to Gloria Eleanor Folland and Alice Kirby Hooker, ended in divorce. He was married to his third wife, Karolyn Rainwater, at the time of his death.