Thayer David
Encyclopedia
Thayer David was a film, stage and television actor
. He was best known for his work on the cult ABC
serial Dark Shadows
(1966–1971) and as the fight promoter George Jergens in the Oscar-winning movie Rocky
(1976
). He also appeared as Count Arne Saknussemm in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth
in 1959. His raspy distinctive voice narrated many voice-overs in commercials and narrations of instructional films and commercials.
Company (1948–1952) in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, and established himself in the professional theatre.
1951 (Grumio); The Way of the World
1954 (Petulant); King Lear
1956 (Duke of Cornwall); Mister Johnson 1956 (Gollup); Saint Joan
1956; Protective Custody 1956 (Dr. Steidl); Oscar Wilde
1957 (Oscar Wilde); The Golden Six 1958 (Tiberius); A Man for All Seasons
1961; Andorra 1963 (pub keeper); The Seagull
1964 (Sorin); The Crucible
1964 (Danforth); Baker Street 1965; The Royal Hunt of the Sun
1965 (Miguel Estete); Ring Round the Moon
1966 (Messerchann); Those That Play the Clowns 1966 (Henning); Breakfast at Tiffany's
1966; The Sorrows of Frederick
1967; The Bench 1968; Uncle Vanya
1971 (Serebryakov); The Jockey Club Stakes 1973 (Sir Dymock Blackburn); The Dogs of Pavlov 1974.
. His roles on Dark Shadows were Matthew Morgan, Ben Stokes, Professor T. Elliot Stokes, Sandor Rakoski, Count Petofi, Timothy Stokes PT, Mordecai Grimes, and Ben Stokes PT. He also played Reverend Silas Pendrake in Little Big Man
(1971), the arsonist in Save the Tiger
(1973), the afflicted spymaster Dragon in The Eiger Sanction
(1975) with Clint Eastwood
, and fight promoter George Jurgens in "Rocky" (1976). He played numerous characters on different TV series including The Wild Wild West
, The Rockford Files
, Columbo, Ellery Queen
, Kojak
, Petrocelli
and Hawaii Five-O
.
David did several pilot films which included a villainous role in The Amazing Spider-Man
(1977).
In 1977, Thayer David played the title role in Nero Wolfe, Paramount Television
's made-for-TV movie based on the Rex Stout
novel The Doorbell Rang
. David portrayed the corpulent detective Nero Wolfe
, who took on clients grudgingly and solved mysteries dazzlingly. Intended to be the pilot for a series, the film was shelved by ABC. It eventually aired December 18, 1979, 17 months after David's death.
, who wrote and directed the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe. His fellow cast members on Dark Shadows
remembered him as a "walking encyclopedia" around the studio.
He was married to and divorced from film and television actress Valerie French
.
in New York City
at the age of 51. He and his former wife Valerie French were planning to remarry before he died.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He was best known for his work on the cult 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...
serial Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...
(1966–1971) and as the fight promoter George Jergens in the Oscar-winning movie Rocky
Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
(1976
1976 in film
The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
). He also appeared as Count Arne Saknussemm in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth
Journey to the Center of the Earth
A Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves a German professor who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the center of the Earth...
in 1959. His raspy distinctive voice narrated many voice-overs in commercials and narrations of instructional films and commercials.
Early life
Thayer David was born March 4, 1927, in Medford, Massachusetts. His father, Thayer Frye Hersey, was an executive in the paper pulp industry. David attended Harvard University in the 1940s but did not graduate, concentrating instead upon a career on the stage. With financial support from his father, he co-founded the Brattle TheaterBrattle Theatre
The Brattle Theatre is a repertory movie theater located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States of America. The theatre is a small movie house with one screen. It is one of the few remaining movie theaters, if not the only one, that use a rear-projection system; the...
Company (1948–1952) in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, and established himself in the professional theatre.
Stage career
He went on to act in The Taming of the ShrewThe Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
1951 (Grumio); The Way of the World
The Way of the World
The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London...
1954 (Petulant); King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
1956 (Duke of Cornwall); Mister Johnson 1956 (Gollup); Saint Joan
Saint Joan (play)
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
1956; Protective Custody 1956 (Dr. Steidl); Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
1957 (Oscar Wilde); The Golden Six 1958 (Tiberius); A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...
1961; Andorra 1963 (pub keeper); The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
1964 (Sorin); The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
1964 (Danforth); Baker Street 1965; The Royal Hunt of the Sun
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
The Royal Hunt of the Sun is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that portrays the destruction of the Inca empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro.-Premiere:...
1965 (Miguel Estete); Ring Round the Moon
Ring Round the Moon
Ring Round the Moon is a 1950 adaptation by the English dramatist Christopher Fry of Jean Anouilh's Invitation to the Castle . Peter Brook commissioned Fry to adapt the play and the first production of Ring Round the Moon was given at the Globe Theatre...
1966 (Messerchann); Those That Play the Clowns 1966 (Henning); Breakfast at Tiffany's
Breakfast at Tiffany's (musical)
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a legendary flop in Broadway musical history. The musical is based on the Truman Capote novella and 1961 film of the same name about a free spirit named Holly Golightly...
1966; The Sorrows of Frederick
Romulus Linney (playwright)
Romulus Zachariah Linney IV was an American playwright and professor.-Life and career:Linney was born in Philadelphia, the son of Maitland Clabaugh and Romulus Zachariah Linney III. His great-grandfather was Republican Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney. Linney was raised in Boone, North...
1967; The Bench 1968; Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
1971 (Serebryakov); The Jockey Club Stakes 1973 (Sir Dymock Blackburn); The Dogs of Pavlov 1974.
Film and television
From 1966 to 1971, David portrayed various characters on ABC's daytime phenomenon Dark ShadowsDark Shadows
Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...
. His roles on Dark Shadows were Matthew Morgan, Ben Stokes, Professor T. Elliot Stokes, Sandor Rakoski, Count Petofi, Timothy Stokes PT, Mordecai Grimes, and Ben Stokes PT. He also played Reverend Silas Pendrake in Little Big Man
Little Big Man
Little Big Man is a 1970 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 comic novel by Thomas Berger. It is a picaresque comedy about a Caucasian boy raised by the Cheyenne nation during the 19th century...
(1971), the arsonist in Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger is a 1973 film about moral conflict in contemporary America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film is directed by John G...
(1973), the afflicted spymaster Dragon in The Eiger Sanction
The Eiger Sanction (film)
The Eiger Sanction is a 1975 American action thriller based on the novel The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian, a pseudonym for the American author, Dr. Rodney William Whitaker. The film was directed by Clint Eastwood, who also starred as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock.-Plot:Dr...
(1975) with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, and fight promoter George Jurgens in "Rocky" (1976). He played numerous characters on different TV series including The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....
, The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...
, Columbo, Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen (TV series)
Ellery Queen is an American television detective mystery series that ran for one season from 1975 to 1976 on NBC. It starred Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, and David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen...
, Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
, Petrocelli
Petrocelli
Petrocelli is an American legal drama which ran for two seasons on NBC from September 11, 1974 to March 31, 1976.-Plot:Tony Petrocelli was an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who grew up in South Boston and gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a...
and Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
.
David did several pilot films which included a villainous role in The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man (TV series)
The Amazing Spider-Man is the first live-action TV series based on the popular comic book The Amazing Spider-Man, not counting his appearances on the educational The Electric Company series, and was shown in the USA between 1977-1979...
(1977).
In 1977, Thayer David played the title role in Nero Wolfe, Paramount Television
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
's made-for-TV movie based on the Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
novel The Doorbell Rang
The Doorbell Rang
The Doorbell Rang is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1965.-Plot introduction:Nero Wolfe is hired to force the FBI to stop wiretapping, tailing and otherwise harassing a woman who gave away 10,000 copies of a book that is critical of the Bureau and...
. David portrayed the corpulent detective Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
, who took on clients grudgingly and solved mysteries dazzlingly. Intended to be the pilot for a series, the film was shelved by ABC. It eventually aired December 18, 1979, 17 months after David's death.
Personal
A resident of Manhattan, Thayer David collected walking sticks, 18th-century European landscape paintings and Victorian furniture. "He was the most widely educated and best-read actor I've ever encountered," said Frank D. GilroyFrank D. Gilroy
Frank Daniel Gilroy is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film producer and director. He received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Subject Was Roses in 1965.-Early life:...
, who wrote and directed the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe. His fellow cast members on Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements...
remembered him as a "walking encyclopedia" around the studio.
He was married to and divorced from film and television actress Valerie French
Valerie French (actress)
Valerie French was a British film actress and later stage actress beginning in the 1950s.-Career:Born Valerie Harrison in London, England, French entered into film acting in her early 20s, with her first film appearance being in the 1954 film Maddalena...
.
Death
Thayer David died July 17, 1978, from a heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the age of 51. He and his former wife Valerie French were planning to remarry before he died.