William Redfield

William Henry Redfield (January 26, 1927 – August 17, 1976) was a New York-born actor and author whose career spanned Broadway, film, television, and radio. The son of Henry C. Redfield, a conductor and music arranger, and Mareta A. George Redfield, a former Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, Redfield began performing at the age of nine with an appearance in the 1936 Broadway production Swing Your Lady. He went on to become a founding member of New York's Actors Studio and maintained an active presence on Broadway from 1937 to 1972.

His early stage work included Excursion and Virginia, both in 1937, followed by the original 1938 Broadway production of Our Town and Stop-over that same year. Subsequent Broadway appearances included Junior Miss, Snafu, U.S.A., and Barefoot Boy With Cheek in 1947. Redfield also sang and danced the role of Mercury in Cole Porter's Out of This World. His Broadway credits continued through the following decades with Montserrat in 1949, Misalliance in 1953, Double in Hearts in 1956, Midgie Purvis in 1961, and A Man for All Seasons. Later productions included A Minor Adjustment in 1967, The Shock of Recognition, Dude, and The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks in 1972.

Among his most significant stage work was his role as Guildenstern in the 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, conceived and directed by Sir John Gielgud as a modern-dress rehearsal of the play, with Richard Burton in the title role. During rehearsals in Toronto, Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were married for the first time. Redfield documented the experience in a series of letters to his friend Robert Mills, written between January and August of 1964, which he later compiled into the book Letters From An Actor, first copyrighted in 1966. The book chronicles the rehearsal process and the challenges of performing in and directing Hamlet while managing the production's surrounding celebrity. The volume went out of print for several decades before a new edition was published in March 2024, in part prompted by Jack Thorne's play The Motive and the Cue, which drew on Redfield's account of the Gielgud-Burton production. Sam Mendes, who directed The Motive and the Cue, wrote the foreword to the new edition. Redfield was also a columnist for Playfare Magazine and collaborated with Wally Cox on Mr. Peepers, a book based on the television character of that name.

His film work included a childhood appearance in Back Door to Heaven, as well as The Connection, Fantastic Voyage, Morituri alongside friend Marlon Brando, A New Leaf, Such Good Friends, and For Pete's Sake. His most prominent film role was Dale Harding in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It was during the filming of that production that a doctor on set observed symptoms leading to Redfield's diagnosis of leukemia.

On television, Redfield played the title role in the DuMont series Jimmy Hughes, Rookie Cop in 1953 and appeared in numerous programs including The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, The United States Steel Hour, Lux Video Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke, Naked City, As the World Turns, Bewitched, Maude, Rich Man Poor Man Book II, and The Bob Newhart Show. His most recognized television role was Floyd, the younger brother of Felix Unger as played by Tony Randall, on The Odd Couple.

During his acting career, Redfield served in the United States Army as an infantryman in World War II, holding the rank of technician fifth grade. He died on August 17, 1976, at Saint Clare's Hospital at the age of 49, with the cause of death recorded as a respiratory ailment complicated by leukemia. He was survived by his wife, a son, actor Adam Redfield, and a daughter. Redfield is buried at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.