William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television.
A radio writer and actor, he moved to Hollywood after serving in World War II as a fighter pilot and played a series of character roles in films, beginning with the film noir The Killers (1946). He originated the role of Marshal Matt Dillon for the radio series Gunsmoke (1952–1961) and narrated the television adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959–1964), Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties (1959–1964), The Fugitive (1963–1967), and Hoppity Hooper (1964–1967).
Finding fewer onscreen roles in the 1950s, he changed from actor to producer-director with television work, narration, and a series of Warner Bros. films in the 1960s. Conrad found stardom as a detective in the TV series Cannon (1971–1976) and Nero Wolfe (1981) and as district attorney Jason Lochinvar "J. L., Fatman" McCabe in the legal drama Jake and the Fatman (1987–1992).
Early life William Conrad (also known as John William Conrad) was born John William Cann Jr., on September 27, 1920, in Louisville, Kentucky.Ancestry.com, 1930 Federal Census [database online]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2002. Year: 1930; Census Place: Olustee, Jackson, Oklahoma; Roll: 1907; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0027; Image: 1132.0; FHL microfilm: 2341641. Retrieved 2015-07-21. His parents, John William Cann and Ida Mae Upchurch Cann, owned a movie theatre,Ancestry.com. State of California. California Death Index, 1940–1997. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics and Conrad grew up watching movies. The family moved to Southern California where as William Cann he attended Excelsior Union High School in Norwalk. He majored in drama and literature at Fullerton College, in Orange County, California, and began his career as an announcer, writer, and director for Los Angeles radio station KMPC.Kahana, Yoram, "The Wolfe Man in His Lair." The Australian Women's Weekly, January 29, 1982, pp. 95–96. Retrieved from the National Library of Australia, May 27, 2013
Conrad served as a fighter pilot in World War II. On the day he was commissioned in 1943 at Luke Field, he married June Nelson (1920–1977) of Los Angeles.Cedar Rapids Tribune, January 13, 1955 He left the United States Army Air Forces with the rank of captain and as a producer-director of the Armed Forces Radio Service.
Career
Radio Conrad estimated that he played more than 7,500 roles during his radio career.William Conrad at the National Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 23, 2022. At KMPC, the 22-year-old Conrad produced and acted in The Hermit's Cave (c. 1940–1944), the Los Angeles incarnation of a popular syndicated horror anthology series created at WJR Detroit.
Conrad was among the supporting cast for the espionage drama The Man Called X (1944–1948);Dunning, op. cit., "The Man Called X" pp. 431–432 the syndicated dramatic anthology Favorite Story (1946–1949);Dunning, op. cit., "Favorite Story" p. 244 the adventure dramas The Count of Monte Cristo (Mutual 1947–1948),Dunning, op. cit., "The Count of Monte Cristo" p. 181 The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen (Mutual 1947–1948),Dunning, op. cit., "Voyage of the Scarlet Queen" pp. 706–707 The Green Lama (CBS 1949),Dunning, op. cit., "The Green Lama" p. 299 and Night Beat (NBC 1950–1952);Dunning, op. cit., "Night Beat" pp. 507–508 Romance (1950);Dunning, op. cit., "Romance" p. 583–584 Hollywood Star Playhouse (1950–1953);Dunning, op. cit., "Hollywood Star Playhouse" p. 326 Errol Flynn's The Modern Adventures of Casanova (Mutual 1952);Dunning, op. cit., "The Modern Adventures of Casanova" pp. 466–467 and Cathy and Elliott Lewis's On Stage (CBS 1953–1954).Dunning, op. cit., "On Stage" pp. 512–514
Conrad was the voice of Escape (1947–1954), a high-adventure radio series.Dunning, op. cit., "Escape" pp. 232–234 He played Warchek, a menacing policeman, in Johnny Modero: Pier 23 (Mutual 1947),Dunning, op. cit., "Johnny Modero, Pier 23" p. 374 a detective series starring Jack Webb, and was in the cast of Webb's crime dramas Dragnet (NBC, 1947–1951) and Pete Kelly's Blues (NBC, 1951).Dunning, op. cit., "Pete Kelly's Blues" p. 541 He played newspaper editor Walter Burns opposite Dick Powell's reporter Hildy Johnson in the ABC radio drama The Front Page (1948).Dunning, op. cit., "The Front Page" p. 273 He was Dave the Dude in the syndicated drama anthology series The Damon Runyon Theater (1948);Dunning, op. cit., "The Damon Runyon Theater" p. 189 Lt. Dundy in the NBC radio series The Adventures of Sam Spade (1949–1950);Dunning, op. cit., "The Adventures of Sam Spade" pp. 12–14 boss to government special agent Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Silent Men (NBC 1951);Dunning, op. cit., "The Silent Men" p. 615 and a New Orleans bartender in the NBC adventure drama Jason and the Golden Fleece (1952–1953).Dunning, op. cit., "Jason and the Golden Fleece" p. 368
Most prominently, Conrad's deep, resonant voice won him the role of Marshal Matt Dillon on CBS Radio's gritty Western series Gunsmoke (1952–1961). The producers originally rejected him for the part because of his ubiquitous presence on so many radio dramas and the familiarity of his voice, but his impressive audition could not be dismissed, and he became the clear choice for the role. Conrad voiced Dillon for the show's nine-year run, and he wrote the June 1953 episode "Sundown". When Gunsmoke was adapted for television in 1955, executives at CBS did not cast Conrad or his radio costars despite a campaign to get them to change their minds.
His other credits include Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; Lux Radio Theatre; Fibber McGee and Molly; and Suspense. In "The Wax Works", a 1956 episode of Suspense, Conrad performed every part. Because of his CBS Radio contract, he sometimes appeared on shows on other networks under the pseudonym "Julius Krelboyne".
In January 1956, Conrad was the announcer on the debut broadcast of The CBS Radio Workshop, a two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which Huxley himself narrated. "On the air, The CBS Radio Workshop was a lightning rod for ideas," wrote radio historian John Dunning, who cites Conrad's tour de force performances in the subsequent broadcasts "The Legend of Jimmy Blue Eyes" (March 23, 1956) and "A Matter of Logic" (June 1, 1956).Dunning, op. cit., "The CBS Radio Workshop" pp. 143–145 Conrad directed and narrated the 1957 episode "Epitaphs", an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters's poetry volume Spoon River Anthology.The CBS Radio Workshop. J. David Goldin, radioGOLDINdex database. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
"And '1489 Words' (Feb. 10, 1957) remains a favorite of many, a powerful Conrad performance proving that one picture is not necessarily worth a thousand words," Dunning concluded. "A lovely way to end a day, a decade, or an era."Dunning, op. cit., "The CBS Radio Workshop" (quote) p. 145
Film
As an actor in feature films, Conrad was often cast as a threatening figure. His most notable role may be the first for which he was credited, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate Burt Lancaster in The Killers (1946). Conrad also appeared in Body and Soul (1947), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Joan of Arc (1948), and The Naked Jungle (1954).
In 1961, Conrad moved to the production side of the film business, producing and directing for Warner Bros. film studio."Warner Brothers Names Conrad to Head Feature Unit." The New York Times, December 14. 1965. "Mr. Conrad … has been under contract to the studio as a producer-director for the last four years." In 1965 he produced and directed Two on a Guillotine, My Blood Runs Cold and Brainstorm as well as narrating the opening of Battle of the Bulge. Brainstorm was a latter-day film noir that has come to be regarded as "a minor masterpiece of the 1960s"Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward, eds., Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1979, p. 41. and "the final, essential entry in that long line of films noir that begins at the end of the Second World War."Christopher, Nicholas, Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997 (revised ed., Emeryville, California: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2006, p. 231).
Conrad was the executive producer of Countdown (1968), a science-fiction thriller starring James Caan and Robert Duvall that was the major studio feature début of director Robert Altman.
Conrad narrated the documentary Design for Disaster, produced by the Los Angeles City Fire Department, about the November 1961 Bel Air wildfire that gutted several neighborhoods, at the time the worst conflagration in Los Angeles history. Alt URL
As a token of appreciation from Jack L. Warner, head of Warner Bros., Conrad received one of the two original lead-metal falcon statues used in the classic film The Maltese Falcon (1941). The falcon sat on a bookshelf in Conrad's house from the 1960s. Standing 11.5 in (29.2 cm) high and weighing 45 lb (20.4 kg), the figurine had been slashed during the making of the film by Sydney Greenstreet's character Kasper Gutman, leaving deep cuts in its bronze patina. After Conrad's death, the statue was consigned by his widow Tippy Conrad to Christie's, which estimated it would bring $30,000 to $50,000 at auction. In December 1994, Christie's sold the falcon for $398,500. The purchaser was Ronald Winston, president of Harry Winston, Inc. jewelers.Berry, Heidi L., "Lights, Camera, Auction! Movie Memorabilia Is This Month's Star, From Mae West's Bed to a Maltese Falcon," The Washington Post, December 1, 1994. "Maltese Falcon, Other Movie Memorabilia, Sold at Auction," Associated Press, December 6, 1994. The purchaser was Ronald Winston, president of Harry Winston, Inc. jewelers. In 1996, Winston resold the prop to an unknown European collector "at an enormous profit"for as much as $1 million.LeDuff, Charles, "Bird Made Him a Sleuth". The New York Times, June 29, 1997
Late in life, Conrad narrated the opening and closing scenes of the 1991 Bruce Willis feature film Hudson Hawk.
Television
Voice As "Bill Conrad", he narrated and contributed character voices to Jay Ward's animated Rocky and Bullwinkle series from 1959 to 1964. Conrad's "narrator" voice in this series was far removed from his usual rumbling baritone. He adopted a brisk, high-pitched, nasal tenor that suited the mock urgency of the narratives. He reserved this voice for the Rocky cartoons and did not employ it elsewhere.
Conrad narrated This Man Dawson, a 33-episode syndicated crime drama starring Keith Andes in the 1959–1960 television season, and then became the familiar voice narrating The Fugitive, starring David Janssen, on ABC television from 1963 to 1967. He also introduced Count Basie's Orchestra and Frank Sinatra on Sinatra's 1966 Live at the Sands album.