William Demarest

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Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 27, 1983) was an American character actor best known for playing Uncle Charley in My Three Sons.

Demarest, a veteran of World War I, became a prolific film and television actor, appearing in more than 140 films, beginning in 1927 and ending in the 1970s.

He appeared in a number of pessimistic but positive roles.

Early life

Carl William Demarest was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and was the youngest of three sons of Wilhelmina (née Lindgren) and Samuel Demarest. The family immigrated to New Bridge, a hamlet in Bergen County, New Jersey, during William's infancy.

During World War I, Demarest served in the US Army.

Personal life and later years

Demarest was married twice before. Estelle Collette, born Esther Zichlin, was his first wife. She moved her daughter, author Phyllis Gordon Demarest, from her earlier marriage in 1907 to English poet and novelist Samuel Gordon, who had divorced Zichlin before his death. Lucille Thayer, born Lucille Theurer, was Demarest's second wife, who married in Prescott, Arizona, on August 31, 1942. Thayer, who later became an activist on motion picture issues, was appointed as the ANA's lay-chairman in October 1960 and was named as the California's deputy chairman of the ANA fundraising effort in October 1960.

Hunting, fishing, golf, and playing the cello were among Demarest's favorite recreations.

Sam Warner was killed by his own brothers, according to Beverly Be Thy Name, Jack Warner's 1993 memoir and Cass Warner Sperling. This allegation, which was leveled in 1977, was never corroborated, and Demarest's credibility was questioned due to his long reliance on alcohol.

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Career

Demarest began working in vaudeville, first with his two older brothers and then with his wife Estelle Collette, "Demarest and Colette." He then went to work in the "legitimate theatre" on Broadway. By 1926, Demarest began working in film productions, many in Preston Sturges' directed films and as a member of a "stock" troupe of actors that Sturges frequently cast in his screen roles. He appeared in ten films directed by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction, including The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Demarest was such a familiar figure at the Paramount studio that just his name was used in the film Sunset Boulevard as a potential actor for William Holden's unsold baseball screenplay.

In the 1958 episode "And the Desert Shall Blossom" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Demarest appeared with veteran Western film actor Roscoe Ates.

In 1959, Demarest was named as the lead actor of the 18-week sitcom Love and Marriage on NBC, in the 1959-1960 season. Demarest played William Harris, the owner of a failing music business who refuses to deal with popular rock and roll music, which may have saved the company from bankruptcy.

In the 1961–62 season of the Western film Tales of Wells Fargo, he played folksy Jeb Gaine, an occasional sidekick to the main character.

In the film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Demarest appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), as well as in a memorable episode ("What's in the Box") of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, portraying a hen-pecked husband who murders his wife.

He appeared on ABC and later CBS sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972, starring Uncle Charley O'Casey. William Frawley was replaced by him, who's failing health had made purchasing insurance impossible. Demarest had worked with Fred MacMurray (1935), Hands Across the Table (1945), On Our Merry Way (1948), and The Far Horizons (1955), and was a personal friend of MacMurray.

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