Billy Gray (actor)
Encyclopedia
William Thomas "Billy" Gray (born January 13, 1938), is a former American
actor
known primarily for his role as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., in 193 episodes of the NBC
and CBS
situation comedy
, Father Knows Best
, which aired between 1954 and 1960. Gray's fellow cast members were Robert Young
, Jane Wyatt
, Elinor Donahue, and Lauren Chapin
. He is also a motorcycle
aficionado, and maintains a large collection of them.
, California
. His mother, Beatrice Alice Kimbrough Gray
(March 3, 1919 – November 25, 2009), was a native of Hollywood, who was a mostly uncredited actress in the 1930s and 1940s, having appeared in Otto Preminger
's Laura
, with Gene Tierney
and Dana Andrews
. In 1943, Billy Gray, at five years of age, appeared with his mother in separate scenes in the film
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
, with Bela Lugosi
. In 1951, at age 13, he appeared in the film Jim Thorpe -- All-American
, with Burt Lancaster
in the lead role. Gray portrayed the Indian
athlete Jim Thorpe
as a child. Later that year, he was chosen to play the pre-teen son of Patricia Neal
in the science fiction
picture, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Michael Rennie
played the part of the alien
who befriended the boy. Sam Jaffe
, later of ABC
's Ben Casey
, also appeared in the long-remembered film.
In 1953, Gray was slated to play the part of Tagg Oakley in the syndicated
western
series Annie Oakley
, starring Gail Davis
and Brad Johnson
and did appear in the episode "Bull's Eye". Instead, he joined the Father Knows Best cast, and the part of Tagg went to Jimmy Hawkins
. That same year, Gray obtained the part of Wesley Winfield in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon
, a musical starring Doris Day
. This was a sequel to On Moonlight Bay
(1951) in which Gray had previously played the role of Wesley Winfield. He also appeared as Alan in a 1953 episode "Shot in the Dark" of The Adventures of Superman
, starring George Reeves
. The character Alan took a photograph of Superman that could reveal information on the hero's secret identity.
In 1955, Gray appeared in "The Seven Little Foys," which stars Bob Hope
as famed vaudeville entertainer Eddie Foy
, in the teen role of Bryan Lincoln Foy.
In 1957, while still on Father Knows Best, Gray appeared as Mike Edwards in the episode "Come Back Darling Asta" of Peter Lawford
's NBC crime series The Thin Man
, based on the work of Dashiell Hammett
.
series, Stagecoach West
, a program similar to the longer-running Wagon Train
. That same year, he portrayed David Ross in the episode "Ginger's Big Romance" on the John Forsythe
comedy, Bachelor Father. In 1961, he played Johnny Blatner in the episode "Two-Way Deal" of the Henry Fonda
/Allen Case
NBC western The Deputy
. He appeared twice in 1961 in the anthology series General Electric Theater
, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan. That same year he was Perry Hatch in "The Hatbox" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents
. In 1962, he appeared on CBS's The Red Skelton Show
.
His other roles included appearances on two ABC series, The Greatest Show on Earth
, starring Jack Palance
in a circus
setting, and Combat!, a military drama set during World War II
and starring Vic Morrow
and Rick Jason
. He also guest starred in CBS's Rawhide
. In 1964, he was Colin Martin in "Tigers Are for Jungles" in ABC's crime drama Arrest and Trial
, with Chuck Connors
. He appeared in 1967 as Billy Nixon in the episode "Desperate Mission" of ABC's short-lived Custer
, starring Wayne Maunder
in the title role of General George Armstrong Custer
.
In 1962, at the age of twenty-four, Gray was arrested for possession of marijuana. The arrest in time cost him later roles in film and television. In 1971, he appeared as a heroin dealer known as "City Life" in the film Dusty and Sweets McGee. The critic Leonard Maltin
claimed incorrectly that Gray had been recruited for the role of "City Life" from actual addicts and narcotics dealers. Maltin did not remove the false information from his guide for another two decades and only after Gray filed suit for libel.
Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas
, a reunion of the entire cast from the former series which had left the air seventeen years earlier, including Lauren Chapin
, and veteran stars Robert Young
and Jane Wyatt
. Had the ratings been higher, CBS would have considered a revised Father Knows Best series. In a 1983 interview, Gray spoke disparagingly of Father Knows Best:
"I wish there was some way I could tell the kids not to believe it. The dialogue, the situations, the characters they were all totally false. The show did everyone a disservice. The girls were always trained to use their feminine wiles, to pretend to be helpless to attract men. The show contributed to a lot of the problems between men and women that we see today. . . . I think we were all well motivated, but what we did was run a hoax. 'Father Knows Best' purported to be a reasonable facsimile of life. And the bad thing is, the model is so deceitful. It usually revolved around not wanting to tell the truth, either out of embarrassment, or not wanting to hurt someone. If I could say anything to make up for all the years I lent myself to (that), it would be, 'You Know Best.'"
Over the years, Gray maintained contact with former Father Knows Best cast members. Young died in 1998, Wyatt in 2006.
He also hopes to revive Class A bike racing with a redesigned diamond-shaped course to permit sharper turns and to make the competition more thrilling. Gray raced competitively at dirt tracks in southern California from 1970–1995. He has since been a spectator and finds the sport is shrinking in availability.
Gray still resides at the house in Topanga
, located between Malibu and Santa Monica, California
, which he purchased in 1957 at the height of his Father Knows Best popularity. The house has over the years become something of a "motorcycle museum".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
known primarily for his role as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., in 193 episodes of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
, Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s.-Radio:...
, which aired between 1954 and 1960. Gray's fellow cast members were Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
, Jane Wyatt
Jane Wyatt
Jane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television comedy Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science fiction television series Star Trek...
, Elinor Donahue, and Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin, born May 23, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, is an American former child actress, most remembered for her role as the youngest child "Kathy Anderson" in the television show Father Knows Best, which was produced between 1954 and 1960. Chapin was awarded five Jr. Emmy's for Best...
. He is also a motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
aficionado, and maintains a large collection of them.
Early roles
Gray was born in Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. His mother, Beatrice Alice Kimbrough Gray
Beatrice Gray
Beatrice Gray was an American actress and dancer best known for her appearances in a series of western films during the 1940s and 1950s.Gray was born Bertrice Kimbrough on a farm near Carthage, Illinois...
(March 3, 1919 – November 25, 2009), was a native of Hollywood, who was a mostly uncredited actress in the 1930s and 1940s, having appeared in Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
's Laura
Laura (1944 film)
Laura is a 1944 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel of the same title by Vera Caspary....
, with Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
and Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
. In 1943, Billy Gray, at five years of age, appeared with his mother in separate scenes in the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a 1948 American comedy horror film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's horror film stable...
, with Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
. In 1951, at age 13, he appeared in the film Jim Thorpe -- All-American
Jim Thorpe -- All-American
Jim Thorpe – All-American is a 1951 biographical film produced by Warner Bros. and directed by Michael Curtiz, honoring Jim Thorpe, the great Native American athlete who won medals at the 1912 Olympics and distinguished himself in various sports, both in college and on professional teams.The film...
, with Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
in the lead role. Gray portrayed the Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
athlete Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe
Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe * Gerasimo and Whiteley. pg. 28 * americaslibrary.gov, accessed April 23, 2007. was an American athlete of mixed ancestry...
as a child. Later that year, he was chosen to play the pre-teen son of Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still , wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's , middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud , for which she won...
in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
picture, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
played the part of the alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
who befriended the boy. Sam Jaffe
Sam Jaffe (actor)
Sam Jaffe was an American actor, teacher, musician and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle and appeared in other classic films such as Ben-Hur and The Day the Earth Stood Still...
, later of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
, also appeared in the long-remembered film.
In 1953, Gray was slated to play the part of Tagg Oakley in the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley (TV series)
Annie Oakley is an American Western television series which fictionalized the life of famous sharpshooter Annie Oakley. It ran from January 1954 to February 1957 in syndication. ABC showed reruns on Saturday and Sunday daytime from 1959–1960 and from 1964-1965...
, starring Gail Davis
Gail Davis
Gail Davis was an American actress, best known for her starring role as Annie Oakley in the 1950s television Western series Annie Oakley.-Life and career:...
and Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson (actor)
Brad Johnson is an American actor and former Marlboro Man.Johnson's first acting credit was in the low-budget biker film The Nam Angels , and shortly after he had his first co-starring role in a major film when he played the role of Ted Baker in the 1989 film Always, directed by Steven Spielberg...
and did appear in the episode "Bull's Eye". Instead, he joined the Father Knows Best cast, and the part of Tagg went to Jimmy Hawkins
Jimmy Hawkins
James F. Hawkins , known as Jimmy Hawkins, and later, Jim Hawkins, is an American actor and film producer whose career began as a child actor to such Hollywood stars as Lana Turner, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, and Donna Reed...
. That same year, Gray obtained the part of Wesley Winfield in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (film)
By the Light of the Silvery Moon is a 1953 musical film. It is the sequel to On Moonlight Bay. Like its predecessor, the movie is based loosely on the Penrod stories by Booth Tarkington.-Plot:...
, a musical starring Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
. This was a sequel to On Moonlight Bay
On Moonlight Bay
On Moonlight Bay may refer to:* "On Moonlight Bay" , a popular song by Percy Wenrich * On Moonlight Bay , a musical starring Doris Day...
(1951) in which Gray had previously played the role of Wesley Winfield. He also appeared as Alan in a 1953 episode "Shot in the Dark" of The Adventures of Superman
Adventures of Superman (TV series)
Adventures of Superman is an American television series based on comic book characters and concepts created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The show is the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California...
, starring George Reeves
George Reeves
George Reeves was an American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television program Adventures of Superman....
. The character Alan took a photograph of Superman that could reveal information on the hero's secret identity.
In 1955, Gray appeared in "The Seven Little Foys," which stars Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
as famed vaudeville entertainer Eddie Foy
Eddie Foy
Eddie Foy, Sr. , was an actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian.-Early years:...
, in the teen role of Bryan Lincoln Foy.
In 1957, while still on Father Knows Best, Gray appeared as Mike Edwards in the episode "Come Back Darling Asta" of Peter Lawford
Peter Lawford
Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...
's NBC crime series The Thin Man
The Thin Man (TV series)
The Thin Man is a half-hour weekly television series based on the mystery novel The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. The 72 episodes were produced by MGM Television and shown on NBC for two seasons from 1957–1959 on Friday evening.-Overview:...
, based on the work of Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
.
Later roles
After Father Knows Best, Gray appeared in several dozen single-appearance television roles. In 1960, he guest starred as Frankie Niles in the episode "Dark Return" of the ABC westernWestern (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series, Stagecoach West
Stagecoach West (TV series)
Stagecoach West is a highly-acclaimed Western drama television series which ran for thirty-eight episodes on the ABC network from October 4, 1960, until June 27, 1961. Characters Luke Perry and Simon Kane operate the Timberland Stage Line from Missouri to San Francisco...
, a program similar to the longer-running Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
. That same year, he portrayed David Ross in the episode "Ginger's Big Romance" on the John Forsythe
John Forsythe
John Forsythe was an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning four decades and three genres: as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the sitcom Bachelor Father ; as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the crime drama Charlie's...
comedy, Bachelor Father. In 1961, he played Johnny Blatner in the episode "Two-Way Deal" of the Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
/Allen Case
Allen Case
Allen Case was an American television actor most noted for the lead role of Deputy Clay McCord in NBC's The Deputy opposite series regular Henry Fonda...
NBC western The Deputy
The Deputy (TV series)
The Deputy is a 1959-1961 half-hour NBC western series featuring Henry Fonda as Chief Marshal Simon Fry of the Arizona Territory and Allen Case as Deputy Clay McCord, a storekeeper who tried to avoid using a gun.-Production:...
. He appeared twice in 1961 in the anthology series General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan. That same year he was Perry Hatch in "The Hatbox" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
. In 1962, he appeared on CBS's The Red Skelton Show
The Red Skelton Show
The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as...
.
His other roles included appearances on two ABC series, The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth (TV series)
The Greatest Show on Earth is an American drama series starring Jack Palance about the American circus, which aired on ABC from September 17, 1963, to April 28, 1964...
, starring Jack Palance
Jack Palance
Jack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...
in a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
setting, and Combat!, a military drama set during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and starring Vic Morrow
Vic Morrow
Victor "Vic" Morrow was an American actor whose credits include a starring role in the 1960s TV series Combat!, prominent roles in a handful of other television and cinema dramas, and numerous guest roles on television...
and Rick Jason
Rick Jason
Rick Jason , born Richard Jacobson, was an American actor, born in New York City, and most remembered for his role as 2nd Lt. Gil Hanley in the ABC television drama Combat! .-Biography:...
. He also guest starred in CBS's Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
. In 1964, he was Colin Martin in "Tigers Are for Jungles" in ABC's crime drama Arrest and Trial
Arrest and Trial
Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American Police procedural/legal drama that ran during the 1963-64 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.The majority of episodes consisted of two segments...
, with Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
. He appeared in 1967 as Billy Nixon in the episode "Desperate Mission" of ABC's short-lived Custer
Custer (TV series)
Custer, also known as The Legend of Custer, is a 17-episode military-western television series which ran on ABC from September 6 to December 27, 1967, with Wayne Maunder in the starring role of then Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. During the American Civil War, Custer had risen to the...
, starring Wayne Maunder
Wayne Maunder
Wayne E. Maunder is a retired actor, originally from Canada, who starred in three American television series between 1967 and 1974.-Three television series:...
in the title role of General George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
.
In 1962, at the age of twenty-four, Gray was arrested for possession of marijuana. The arrest in time cost him later roles in film and television. In 1971, he appeared as a heroin dealer known as "City Life" in the film Dusty and Sweets McGee. The critic Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
claimed incorrectly that Gray had been recruited for the role of "City Life" from actual addicts and narcotics dealers. Maltin did not remove the false information from his guide for another two decades and only after Gray filed suit for libel.
Father Knows Best in retrospect
Gray's "Bud Anderson" character is a teenager prone to mischief but always brought in line by his understanding and all-wise father, James Anderson, Sr., with a lot of prodding too from his mother, Margaret Anderson. On December 18, 1977, Gray appeared in the television movieTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, a reunion of the entire cast from the former series which had left the air seventeen years earlier, including Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin
Lauren Chapin, born May 23, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, is an American former child actress, most remembered for her role as the youngest child "Kathy Anderson" in the television show Father Knows Best, which was produced between 1954 and 1960. Chapin was awarded five Jr. Emmy's for Best...
, and veteran stars Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
and Jane Wyatt
Jane Wyatt
Jane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television comedy Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science fiction television series Star Trek...
. Had the ratings been higher, CBS would have considered a revised Father Knows Best series. In a 1983 interview, Gray spoke disparagingly of Father Knows Best:
"I wish there was some way I could tell the kids not to believe it. The dialogue, the situations, the characters they were all totally false. The show did everyone a disservice. The girls were always trained to use their feminine wiles, to pretend to be helpless to attract men. The show contributed to a lot of the problems between men and women that we see today. . . . I think we were all well motivated, but what we did was run a hoax. 'Father Knows Best' purported to be a reasonable facsimile of life. And the bad thing is, the model is so deceitful. It usually revolved around not wanting to tell the truth, either out of embarrassment, or not wanting to hurt someone. If I could say anything to make up for all the years I lent myself to (that), it would be, 'You Know Best.'"
Over the years, Gray maintained contact with former Father Knows Best cast members. Young died in 1998, Wyatt in 2006.
Businessman
As the co-owner of a company called BigRock Engineering, Gray markets several products that he has invented, including a self-massager, high-technology guitar picks, and a candleholder for jack-o-lanterns.He also hopes to revive Class A bike racing with a redesigned diamond-shaped course to permit sharper turns and to make the competition more thrilling. Gray raced competitively at dirt tracks in southern California from 1970–1995. He has since been a spectator and finds the sport is shrinking in availability.
Gray still resides at the house in Topanga
Topanga, California
Topanga is a census-designated place in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. It is located in the Santa Monica Mountains. Occupying Topanga Canyon, it is often referred to by that name. Topanga is bounded on three sides by State Park or conservancy lands, and on the south by the Pacific...
, located between Malibu and Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, which he purchased in 1957 at the height of his Father Knows Best popularity. The house has over the years become something of a "motorcycle museum".