Bill Bixby

At 59 years old, Bill Bixby has this physical status:

Wilfred Bailey Everett "Bill" Bixby III (January 22, 1934 - November 21, 1993) was an American actor, director, and frequent game-show panelist.

His career spanned more than three decades, including appearances on stage, in films, and on television series.

Tim O'Hara in the ABC sitcom My Favorite Martian, Tom Corbett of Eddie's Father, and stage illusionist Anthony Blake in the NBC crime drama series The Magician are all well-known, but he is perhaps best known for his role as scientist Dr. Gregor.

In The Incredible Hulk, CBS science-fiction drama drama The Incredible Hulk's David Banner appears.

Early life

Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III, a fourth-generation Californian of English descent, was born in San Francisco, California, on January 22, 1934, as an only child. Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby II, his father, was a store clerk. Jane (née McFarland) Bixby, the son of Jane (née McFarland) Bixby, was a senior manager at I. Magnin & Co. Bixby's father enlisted in the Navy during World War II and traveled to the South Pacific in 1942, when Bixby was eight years old. Bixby attended Grace Cathedral and performed in the church's choir when she was in the seventh grade. He fired the bishop with a slingshot during a service and was kicked out of the choir, triggering one of his most notable events. His father urged him to take ballroom dance lessons in 1946, and from there, he began performing all around the region. He studied at Lowell High School, where he refined his oratory and dramatic abilities as a member of the Lowell Forensic Society. Despite average marks, he also competed in high-school speech tournaments nationally.

He majored in drama at City College of San Francisco after graduating from high school in 1952, against his parents' wishes.

Bixby was drafted just after his 18th birthday during the Korean War. Bixby joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve rather than transferring to the Army. He worked mostly in personnel management with Marine Attack Squadron 141 (VMA-141) at Naval Air Station Oakland and attained the rank of private first class before his 1956 discharge.

Later, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, his parents' alma mater, but left just a few credits shy of obtaining a degree. He then migrated to Hollywood, California, where he worked in bellhop and lifeguard. He arranged shows at a resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and in 1959 was hired to serve as a model and do commercial work for GM and Chrysler.

Personal life

Brenda Benet, Bixby's first marriage, was arranged. They married in 1971 and Christopher Ellis gave birth to their son in September 1974. In 1980, the couple married. Christopher died while skiing at Mammoth Lakes with Benet a few months later, in March 1981. When he had acute epiglottitis, he went into cardiac arrest after doctors used a breathing tube. Benet committed suicide the following year.

In 1989, Bixby first met Laura Michaels, who had been on set of one of his Hulk films. They married in Hawaii a year later. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 1991 and underwent therapy. In the same year, he was divorced.

Bixby, the widow of the cartoonist B. Kliban, was introduced by friends in late 1992. He married her in October 1993, just six weeks before he died on Blossom's set.

Bixby went public with his illness in early 1993 and appeared on television shows such as Entertainment Tonight, Today, and Good Morning America, among others.

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Career

Bixby appeared in The Boy Friend at the Detroit Civic Theater in 1961, making his television debut on an episode of Dobie Gillis' Many Loves. Ben Casey, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Kildare, Straightaway, and Hennesey were all well-known character actors and appeared in numerous television series, including Ben Casey, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Kildare, Straightaway, and Hennesey. In 1962, he appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and was also involved in the cast. In 1963, he appeared in the film Irma La Douce, a romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine based on the 1956 French musical, he played a sailor with a Napoleon tattoo. He made guest appearances on television shows such as Ironside, Insight, Barbary Coast, The Love Boat, Medical Center, four episodes of Love, American Style, Fantasy Island, and two episodes of The Streets of San Francisco and Rod Serling's Night Gallery during the 1970s.

In the 1963 CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian, Tim O'Hara appeared as young reporter Tim O'Hara, in which he co-starred with Ray Walston. Despite high production costs, the series came to an end after 107 episodes in 1966. Bixby starred in four films: Ride Beyond Vengeance, Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!, and two of Elvis Presley's films, Clambake and Speedway, after its cancellation. He turned down the role of Marlo Thomas' boyfriend in the hit That Girl, but he later appeared on the show and appeared in two failed pilots.

In 1969, Bixby appeared in his second high-profile television role as Tom Corbett in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, a comedy drama on ABC. The series concerned a widowed father raising a young son, the helm of a major syndicated newspaper, and simultaneously trying to re-enter the dating scene. This series was based on other 1960s and 1970s sitcoms that dealt with widowhood, such as The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons. Eddie was played by rookie actor Brandon Cruz. Both the two men formed a close rapport that led to an off-camera friendship. The main cast was rounded out by Academy Award-winning actress Miyoshi Umeki, who appeared as Tom's housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston, James Komack (one of the series's producers), and actress Kristina Holland as Tom's secretary, Tina, as Norman Tinker, Tom's pseudo-hippie, eccentric photographer. Brenda Benet, Bixby's future wife, appeared in one episode of the series as one of Tom's girlfriends.

In 1971, Bixby was nominated for the Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He received the Parents Without Partners Exemplary Service Award for 1972 in the following year.

Bixby made his directorial debut on the sitcom in 1970, directing eight episodes. At the end of season three, ABC cancelled the sitcom in 1972.

Bixby and Cruz stayed in touch after the show was cancelled, with Cruz appearing on Bixby's later series The Incredible Hulk as a guest. In 1981, Bixby's only child's death brought Bixby and Cruz closer. Until Bixby's death in 1993, the two remained in touch. Lincoln Bixby Cruz, Cruz's own son, was born in 1995.

"We dealt with problems that were discussed, but never brought up on television," Brandon Cruz said of the show that developed a professional father-son relationship, in comparison to The Andy Griffith Show. Bill wasn't the first actor to portray a single widowed father, but he became one of the most popular ones because of his commodious attitude of this odd little boy." "He was looking for the best dolly grip," Brandon, and the boom operator, that if something was called specifically and failed, Bill could be agitated." "Bill will never talk to me," Bill said of the kind of relationship he had with his co-star Brandon. Bill was treated as a human being by Bill. He made sure that we had a lot of time together, but that he'd get a glimpse of what actually made a kid tick. After breaking down weeping, Bill's real-life father died in 1971, Cruz said, "He had the kind of mentality that the show must continue."

"I thought it's about time" Bill Bixby's fame was supposed to honor him for a celebrity on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in a 2011 interview with Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith. Bill Bixby had an impressive body of work, not only in courtship but also as an actor, as a director, and many others. He has never been formally recognized by the Academy. And he doesn't have a celebrity on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That is criminal. I know there are people who are not relevant, but I would not be concerned with spitting on their actors. Compared to them, Bill's talent would take a few blocks of actors. Bill isn't included, but it certainly demeans the whole thing."

Bixby appeared in The Magician in 1973. The series was well-received, but it was only for one season. He hosted several TV specials in the mid-1970s that featured other amateur magicians, and he was a respected member of the Hollywood magic club, The Magic Castle, an exclusive club for magicians. Bixby welcomed a few old acquaintances along for the role, such as Pamela Britton (in her last role), Kristina Holland, and Ralph O'Hara during the show's long-lived production.

He appeared in Steambath, a play by author Bruce Jay Friedman, on PBS with Valerie Perrine and Jose Perez in 1973.

Bixby became a well-known game-show panelist, appearing mainly on Password and The Hollywood Squares. He served on the 1974 revival of Masquerade Party, which was also hosted by Richard Dawson. On Cop-Out, he had also appeared on Dawson. In 1974–1975, he directed four episodes of Mannix's eighth season, guest-starring Mannix's companion-turned-villain in one of the episodes.

In 1975, he co-starred with Tim Conway and Don Knott in the Disney film The Apple Dumpling Gang, which was well-received by the public.

Bixby, who is back to television, appeared on Rich Man, Poor Man, a highly acclaimed television miniseries from 1976. In an episode of the short-lived 1976 CBS adventure series Spencer's Pilots starring Gene Evans, he played a daredevil stunt pilot. He co-starred in the pilot for Fantasy Island in 1977; appeared in "No Way Out," the final episode of NBC's Tales of the Unexpected, starring Rod Taylor and Andrew Stevens; and in the NBC anthology series Tales of the Unexpected, starring Donna Mills, Richard Jaeckel and William Shatner. Two episodes of The Oregon Trail were produced by Bixby.

In 1976, he received two Emmy Award nominations, one for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in Drama or Comedy for The Streets of San Francisco, and the other for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series for Rich Man, Poor Man.

On PBS, Bixby hosted Once Upon a Classic from 1976 to 1980.

In the pilot film The Incredible Hulk, based on the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Marvel characters, Bixby appeared in the role of Dr. David Banner. Kenneth Johnson, a producer, producer, and writer, said that Bixby was his only option to act. However, when Bixby was given the opportunity, he declined it – until he read the script and discussed it with Johnson. The pilot's success (coupled with some theatrical releases of the film in Europe) prompted CBS to convert it into a weekly series, which began airing in 1978. Susan Sullivan, a pilot who plays Dr. Elaina Marks, who is trying to assist the dissatisfied and widowed Dr. Banner beats his "problem" and falls in love with him in the process. Glenn Greenberg's retrospective on The Incredible Hulk revealed Bixby's appearance to be the series's "foremost" strength, insisting that he "masterfully articulated Dr.'s profound loneliness and sadness. Banner contributes to the role with a slew of warmth, intelligence, humor, nobility, likability, and, above all else, humanity.

During the series's run, Bixby invited two of his longtime acquaintances, Ray Walston and Brandon Cruz, to guest-star with him in various episodes. He coproduced on the series with his friend, film actress Mariette Hartley, who later appeared in Bixby's last film, Goodnight, Beantown, 1983. Hartley appears in the well-regarded double-length episode "Married" and has since received an Emmy Award for her guest appearance. During the first season, futuristic actor Loni Anderson appeared with Bixby as a guest. In 1980, Bixby produced one episode of "Bring Me the Head of the Hulk" (original airdate: January 9, 1981). After the following season, the show was cancelled, but leftover episodes were released as late as the next June. Bixby later executive produced and reprised the role in three television films: The Incredible Hulk Returns, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, and The Death of the Incredible Hulk – the last two of which he also produced and directed, and the first of which he has unofficially co-directed.

Bixby was executive producer and co-star of the short-lived sitcom Goodnight, Beantown (1983–84). He has also written three episodes of the series. Bixby produced several episodes of another short-lived television series, Wizards and Warriors, which premiered in 1983. From 1983 to 1984, he hosted Against the Odds, a Nickelodeon documentary series. This series, which was cancelled after only two seasons, is based on short biographies of famous people from history. True Confessions, a syndicated weekday anthology series, appeared on television from 1986 to 1987. He produced eight episodes of the satirical police comedy comedy Sledge Hammer!, including the episode "Hammer Hits the Rock" in season two, where he made an uncredited appearance as Zeke in 1987.

The Elvis Files (1991) and The Elvis Conspiracy (1992) were two bixby specials on Elvis conspiracy theories and his suspected sightings.

Bixby made his last acting appearance in 1992, when he appeared in the television film Diagnosis Murder.

He completed his career by directing 30 episodes (in seasons two and three) of the NBC sitcom Blossom.

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