Stage, screen and television character great Bill Erwin turns ninety-six today. Oh, believe me, I just heard practically everyone out there in the blogosphere saying: “Who?” But if you’ve seen the classic Seinfeld episode “The Old Man” you’ll know to whom I’m referring—the one where Jerry, George and Elaine volunteer to spend time with some senior citizens and Jerry is stuck with a irascible, cranky old codger named Sid Fields, who ends up losing his dentures in a garbage disposal in a comedy of errors involving Kramer and Newman’s moneymaking scheme to sell vintage vinyl records. Erwin received an Emmy Award nomination for his falling-down funny portrayal of Fields—a character whose name was inspired by the real-life comic actor-writer who enjoyed a long association with Bud Abbott & Lou Costello (he was “Professor Melonhead” on radio and their landlord on their TV series).
Born in Honey Grove, TX, Bill graduated from the University of Texas in 1935 with a journalism degree, and then completed his Master of Theatre Arts in 1941 at California’s Pasadena Playhouse. One of his first show business jobs, believe it or don’t, was serving as Edgar Bergen’s stage manager when the famous ventriloquist toured in 1941 with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd (“I was in charge of the dummies,” Erwin once quipped). After serving a stint in the U.S. Army as a captain briefly in WW2, Bill was ready to make his film debut…in the ironically-titled You’re in the Army Now, which starred Phil Silvers.
Erwin’s cinematic resume includes such films as The Velvet Touch, Battleground, Man from Del Rio, Fight for the Title, The Night Runner, The Cry Baby Killer (as the father of Jack Nicholson’s character), Terror at Black Falls, Candy Stripe Nurses and Somewhere in Time. He’s also been a noticeable presence in several films by the late John Hughes: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, Home Alone and Dennis the Menace are the first titles to come to mind.
On the small screen, Bill has been everywhere from A (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) to Z (Zane Grey Theater). He was in quite a few Gunsmoke outings according to his stats at the always reliable IMDb; in fact, I just happened to catch one of them—an episode called “The Squaw” (11/11/61)—the other day as I was staring at some random reruns. (I must reluctantly admit, however, that I didn’t recognize him right off.) His last IMDb credit was an episode of My Name is Earl—and though he’s been idle since then a man with nearly 250 movie and television credits is entitled to a little downtime, I guess.
Our other nonagenarian celebrating a birthday today—number ninety-two, to be precise—is bandleader Milton DeLugg, born in the City of Angels on this date, and an individual who was pretty much the “Doc Severinson” of his day. DeLugg, a talented accordionist who made appearances in “soundies” and the occasional feature film (It’s Great to Be Young), was also a regular on radio’s The Abe Burrows Show before being hired as the bandleader and musical director of TV’s Broadway Open House, the precursor to what would later become The Tonight Show.
