| abstract
| - Walter Lawrence Burke was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents Patrick Burke and Bessie McNamara. His father worked as a tanner in a shoe factory. Burke had three stepbrothers and one stepsister from his father's first marriage, as well as three brothers and three sisters of his own. At least two other siblings would die in infancy. Burke began acting on stage as a teenager, making his Broadway debut in Dearest Enemy at the Knickerbocker Theatre during 1925-1926. The following year, 1927, he performed in a musical revue, Padlocks of 1927, at the Shubert Theatre. He joined the American Opera Company's troupe in January 1928, performing a non-singing role in an English-language adaption of Faust. He continued with that company through January 1930, taking part in adaptions of Madame Butterfly and Yolanda of Cyprus at the Casino Theatre. He next appeared on Broadway with Help Yourself in 1937, and over the next ten years appeared in as many plays. Burke debuted in Hollywood films in 1948, with The Naked City, and the following year had a memorable role in the Oscar-winning film All the King's Men. Burke would appear in twenty-two more films, and three more Broadway productions, but both film and the stage would soon take a backseat to his television work. In 1951, Burke played a jockey in the early television series, Martin Kane. From then until 1980, he would appear in episodes of 103 different television series, as well as three made for TV movies. Though never a series regular, he often played different roles in multiple episodes of the same shows. In 1959-1960, he appeared five times as Tim Potter in the ABC western series Black Saddle starring Peter Breck. That same season, he appeared on John Cassavetes's detective series Johnny Staccato. He guest starred as Hatfield in the 1961 episode "The Drought" of the syndicated western series Two Faces West. In the 1962-1963 season, he appeared on the CBS anthology, The Lloyd Bridges Show. In the 1965-1966 season, Burke appeared on another ABC western, The Legend of Jesse James. Burke split most of his later life between Hollywood, where he worked, and his horse ranch in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. While back east, he would sometimes teach dramatics at a local college. A lifelong heavy smoker, he would succumb to emphysema in 1984, while living at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He is buried in Laurelwood Cemetery in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
- Walter Burke played Mr. O.M. in The Toymaker.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)