Ray Fulmer
Encyclopedia
Raymond Stover Fulmer, known as Ray Fulmer (born February 17, 1933), is a former actor
, originally from Philadelphia
, Pennsylvania
, best known for his role as Steve Baxter in the final season of Shirley Booth
's situation comedy
Hazel
, which aired on CBS
television
from September 13, 1965, to April 11, 1966.
Fulmer first began on Broadway
with a role in Auntie Mame
, co-starring with a number of different actresses in the lead role, including Rosalind Russell
, Greer Garson
, Beatrice Lillie
and Eve Arden
. His big acting break came in Chicago when he co-starred opposite Kathryn Crosby
in the play, Sunday in New York
. Crosby's husband, legendary singer Bing Crosby
, gave Hollywood producers rave reviews of Fulmer's work, which led to a number of roles.
Prior to Hazel, Fulmer had appeared once on film, in the role of "Aga" on Wild Is My Love in 1963 and four times on network television: as Holmes in the 1964 episode "Mail Call" of ABC
's war-time drama Combat! and in three segments between November 1964 and January 1965 of NBC's The Rogues
.
Fulmer was thirty-two when he assumed the new role of Steve Baxter, a fictitious real estate agent and younger brother of corporation attorney George Baxter. With his wife Barbara, portrayed by Lynn Borden
, Steve moves into the Baxter home while George, played by Don DeFore
and his wife Dorothy, portrayed by Whitney Blake
, are assigned overseas temporarily by virtue of George Baxter's work.
The twenty-nine episodes in which Fulmer appears are the last of the series, but Hazel had already run for 125 episodes on NBC
from 1961-1965. The name "Steve Baxter" had never been mentioned in the previous four years of the series. Hazel could have been renewed for a sixth season with Fulmer in the cast, as it had good ratings, but Shirley Booth's health issues at the time led instead to cancellation. Booth also owned her series.
Fulmer's debut episode is entitled "Who's in Charge Here?" His last segment, indeed the final of the series, is entitled "A Question of Ethics." In that final season, Bobby Buntrock
remained in his role as Harold Baxter, the son of George and Dorothy, while Julia Benjamin debuted in the role of Susie Baxter, the daughter of Steve and Barbara and cousin of Harold.
After the show was cancelled following his only season, Fulmer made no attempt to hide his criticism of the show's scripts, saying that they were repetitious, full of grammatical errors and sloppy writing, and had plot flaws. However, he had nothing but praise for Booth, saying, "What's amazing is how Shirley Booth can make something out of nothing. It has been an education to watch her work."
After Hazel, Fulmer portrayed Lee Gantry from November 1968 to 1971 on the CBS soap opera
The Guiding Light. He had a second soap opera role in 1974 as Martin Nell Dillard in the daytime drama Somerset
, a 1970-1976 spin-off of NBC's Another World
.
Fulmer's last television role was as Hugh Porter on the episode "The Razor's Edge," which was released on September 13, 1992, on the syndicated
series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati
. Fulmer later hosted infomercials for self-help guru Tony Robbins
.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, originally from Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, best known for his role as Steve Baxter in the final season of Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth was an American actress.Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950...
's 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...
Hazel
Hazel (TV series)
Hazel is a Screen Gems television series about a fictional live-in maid named Hazel Burke and her employers, the Baxters. The five-season, 154-episode series aired in primetime from September 1961 until April 1966...
, which aired on 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...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
from September 13, 1965, to April 11, 1966.
Fulmer first began on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
with a role in Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame is a 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis that chronicles the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his deceased father's eccentric sister, Mame Dennis. The book is a work of fiction inspired by the author's eccentric aunt, Marion Tanner, whose life and outlook in many...
, co-starring with a number of different actresses in the lead role, including Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, Greer Garson
Greer Garson
Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...
, Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
and Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
. His big acting break came in Chicago when he co-starred opposite Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby is an American actress and singer who also performed under the stage-name Kathryn Grant.-Early life and career:...
in the play, Sunday in New York
Sunday in New York
Sunday in New York, filmed in Metrocolor, is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Peter Tewksbury and starring Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Rod Taylor. It was one of Fonda's earliest films, and she was called "the loveliest and most gifted of all our new young actresses" by Newsday...
. Crosby's husband, legendary singer Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, gave Hollywood producers rave reviews of Fulmer's work, which led to a number of roles.
Prior to Hazel, Fulmer had appeared once on film, in the role of "Aga" on Wild Is My Love in 1963 and four times on network television: as Holmes in the 1964 episode "Mail Call" 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 war-time drama Combat! and in three segments between November 1964 and January 1965 of NBC's The Rogues
The Rogues (TV series)
The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964 to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and very unscrupulous mark...
.
Fulmer was thirty-two when he assumed the new role of Steve Baxter, a fictitious real estate agent and younger brother of corporation attorney George Baxter. With his wife Barbara, portrayed by Lynn Borden
Lynn Borden
Lynn Borden is an American actress best known for her role as "Barbara Baxter" in the final season of the Shirley Booth sitcom Hazel, which aired on CBS from 1965 to 1966.-Background:...
, Steve moves into the Baxter home while George, played by Don DeFore
Don DeFore
Donald John DeFore was an American actor who played "the regular guy" and "the good, ol' boy next door" in many films in the 1940s and 1950s.-Life and career:...
and his wife Dorothy, portrayed by Whitney Blake
Whitney Blake
Whitney Blake was an American film and television actress, director and producer.Blake was born as Nancy Ann Whitney in 1926 in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, the first child of Martha Mae Wilkerson and Harry Whitney...
, are assigned overseas temporarily by virtue of George Baxter's work.
The twenty-nine episodes in which Fulmer appears are the last of the series, but Hazel had already run for 125 episodes on 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...
from 1961-1965. The name "Steve Baxter" had never been mentioned in the previous four years of the series. Hazel could have been renewed for a sixth season with Fulmer in the cast, as it had good ratings, but Shirley Booth's health issues at the time led instead to cancellation. Booth also owned her series.
Fulmer's debut episode is entitled "Who's in Charge Here?" His last segment, indeed the final of the series, is entitled "A Question of Ethics." In that final season, Bobby Buntrock
Bobby Buntrock
Bobby Buntrock was an American child actor. Buntrock is best known for playing the character of Harold Baxter on the 1960s sitcom Hazel.-Biography:...
remained in his role as Harold Baxter, the son of George and Dorothy, while Julia Benjamin debuted in the role of Susie Baxter, the daughter of Steve and Barbara and cousin of Harold.
After the show was cancelled following his only season, Fulmer made no attempt to hide his criticism of the show's scripts, saying that they were repetitious, full of grammatical errors and sloppy writing, and had plot flaws. However, he had nothing but praise for Booth, saying, "What's amazing is how Shirley Booth can make something out of nothing. It has been an education to watch her work."
After Hazel, Fulmer portrayed Lee Gantry from November 1968 to 1971 on the CBS soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
The Guiding Light. He had a second soap opera role in 1974 as Martin Nell Dillard in the daytime drama Somerset
Somerset (TV series)
Somerset is an American television soap opera which ran on NBC from March 30, 1970 until December 31, 1976. The show was a spinoff of another NBC serial, Another World.-Overview :...
, a 1970-1976 spin-off of NBC's Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
.
Fulmer's last television role was as Hugh Porter on the episode "The Razor's Edge," which was released on September 13, 1992, on 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...
series, The New WKRP in Cincinnati
The New WKRP in Cincinnati
The New WKRP in Cincinnati is a sequel/spin-off of the original CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. It was made for the syndication market from 1991 to 1993....
. Fulmer later hosted infomercials for self-help guru Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins
Anthony "Tony" Robbins is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within...
.