Walter Brooke

Walter Brooke, born Gustav William Tweer Jr. on October 23, 1914, in New York, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. He died on August 20, 1986, in Los Angeles from emphysema at the age of 71, survived by his wife, Elizabeth Wragge Brooke, and their two children, Thomas Brooke and Christina Brooke.

Brooke's Broadway career ran from 1940 to 1957 and encompassed six productions. His first credit was Romeo and Juliet in 1940, followed by The Barber Had Two Sons in 1943 and Two Blind Mice in 1949. He appeared in Twilight Walk in 1951 and Seagulls Over Sorrento in 1952. His final Broadway credit was the drama Hide and Seek in 1957, which also played at the Shubert Theatre in Washington, DC.

His film work extended from You're in the Army Now in 1941 through Jagged Edge in 1985. Among his screen roles, he is perhaps best remembered for playing Mr. McGuire in The Graduate (1967), a friend of the Braddock family who delivers the single word "Plastics" as career advice to the young Benjamin Braddock.

On television, Brooke took on a number of recurring and series roles. He portrayed District Attorney Frank Scanlon in The Green Hornet and played several naval officers across multiple episodes of McHale's Navy. He appeared in two episodes of Perry Mason as an unnamed district attorney: "The Case of the Floating Stones" in 1963 and "The Case of the Wrathful Wraith" in 1965. His other recurring television work included four episodes of Mannix between 1968 and 1974, four episodes of The Rockford Files during the 1970s, and three episodes of The Incredible Hulk as Mark Roberts, an editor at the fictional National Register. Among his additional television credits were Clarence Johnson in The Waltons, Walter Montgomery in Paradise Bay, Billy Herbert in One Man's Family, Judge Howe in The Lawyers, and appearances in The Twilight Zone, The Wild Wild West, Bonanza, Death Valley Days, Cheyenne, and Bonanza.

Beyond performing, Brooke was active in the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, serving as a director at both the local and national levels, and he also held an officer position in Actors' Equity.