Orson Bean.

Dallas Frederick Burrows entered the world on July 22, 1928 in Burlington, Vermont, a first cousin twice removed to President Calvin Coolidge. His father, George Frederick Burrows, was a policeman who later became chief of campus police at Harvard University; his mother, Marion Ainsworth Pollard, came from old New England stock. Dallas graduated from Boston’s Latin School in 1946 and served in the U.S. Army in occupied Japan from 1946 to 1947. After the war, he adopted the stage name Orson Bean — borrowing Orson from Orson Welles — and launched his comedy act at New York’s Blue Angel nightclub.

Orson Bean made his Broadway debut on April 30, 1954 in Men of Distinction, a flop that lasted only four performances. The following year he won a Theatre World Award for John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, a musical revue co-starring Harry Belafonte and Polly Bergen. He landed the leading role in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and earned a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the 1961–62 production Subways Are for Sleeping, directed by Michael Kidd. On screen, he played an Army psychiatrist in Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder 1959. He became a regular panelist on To Tell the Truth, made more than 200 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and later played Reverend Brim on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and store owner Loren Bray on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman 1993. He also appeared as 105-year-old Dr. Lester in the cult film Being John Malkovich 1999, though much of his footage was cut.

Orson Bean married three times: first to Rain Winslow from July 2, 1956 to 1962, then to Carolyn Maxwell from October 3, 1965 to 1981, and finally to actress Alley Mills from April 18, 1993 until his death. He had four children: Michele, Max, Susannah, and Ezekiel. Susannah married conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. Bean’s father, George, was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Bean himself was blacklisted in the 1950s for his liberal views — though he later became an ardent supporter of Richard Nixon. A devoted arts advocate, he co-founded the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, California.

Orson Bean performed across seven decades on Broadway, television, and film. His Tony nomination for Subways Are for Sleeping and his Theatre World Award for John Murray Anderson’s Almanac earned him recognition in mid-century musical theater. On TV, he made hundreds of talk show and game show appearances, especially as a panelist on To Tell the Truth. He voiced both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the 1980 animated The Return of the King, gaining a cult following among Tolkien fans. He also founded the Sons of the Desert, a national organization honoring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Bean is remembered for his warm screen presence and his death at 91 in a pedestrian accident.