Jesse Bertram Kirkpatrick (October 2, 1897 – August 9, 1976) was an American film and television actor.
Life and career
Kirkpatrick was born in
Champaign County, Illinois
Champaign County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, its population was 205,865, making it the 10th-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Urbana.
Champaign County is part of the Champaign–Urbana, ...
. He attended the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
in the 1920s. Kirkpatrick was named in
Walter Eckersall
Walter Herbert "Eckie" Eckersall (June 17, 1883 – March 24, 1930) was an American college football player, official, and sportswriter for the ''Chicago Tribune''.
He played for the Maroons of the University of Chicago, and was elected to the C ...
Robert Zuppke
Robert Carl Zuppke (July 2, 1879 – December 22, 1957) was an American football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1913 until 1941, compiling a career college football record of 131–81 ...
’s all-time backfield.
Kirkpatrick supported himself at University by playing as a jazz dummer in a student
band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
*Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
. He was also a
singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
, appearing with
Earl Burtnett
Earl Burtnett (February 7, 1896 – January 2, 1936) was an American bandleader, songwriter and pianist who was popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
Life and career
Burtnett was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He attended Pennsylvania State Col ...
’s orchestra in 1931, and as a singer and master of ceremonies with Harold Stokes on the WGN radio show ''Melodies from the Sky''.
Kirkpatrick worked as an
announcer
An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event.
Television and other media
Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...
for the
radio broadcasting station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
Hollywood, California
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...
, starting his screen career playing a broadcaster in the 1946 film ''
My Dog Shep
''My Dog Shep'' is a 1946 American drama (genre), drama film directed by Ford Beebe.
It was made by Golden Gate Productions and released through the newly-formed Screen Guild Productions. They had just made ''Flight to Nowhere''.
Filming starte ...
''. He also played Patrick Riley in the 1949 film '' The Judge''. Kirkpatrick played as a
bartender
A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but a ...
for five episodes in the
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
television series ''
Johnny Ringo
John Peters Ringo (May 3, 1850 – July 13, 1882), known as Johnny Ringo, was an American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier boomtown Tombstone, Arizona Territory. He took part in the Mason County War ...
''.
Kirkpatrick appeared in films such as ''
D.O.A.
DOA may refer to:
* Dead on arrival
* Dead or Alive (disambiguation)
Film
* ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir''
* ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film
* '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the gene ...
Star in the Dust
''Star in the Dust'' is a 1956 American Western film directed by Charles F. Haas and starring John Agar, Mamie Van Doren and Richard Boone.
In the town of Gunlock, sheriff Bill Jorden is due to hang Sam Hall for cattle-stealing. Jorden has to ...
'', ''
The Private War of Major Benson
''The Private War of Major Benson'' is 1955 comedy film starring Charlton Heston, Julie Adams, Sal Mineo and Tim Hovey, about a tough-talking U.S. Army officer who must shape up the JROTC program at Sheridan Academy, a Catholic boys' military a ...
The Moonlighter
''The Moonlighter'' is a 1953 American 3D Western film directed by Roy Rowland and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Distributed by Warner Bros., it premiered alongside the 1953 Looney Tunes 3-D Bugs Bunny cartoon, '' Lumber Ja ...
Day of the Badman
''Day of the Badman'' is a 1958 American Western film directed by Harry Keller and starring Fred MacMurray, Joan Weldon and John Ericson.
Plot
Judge Jim Scott (Fred MacMurray) wants to sentence a killer to die, but the outlaw's family members i ...
'', ''
Ten North Frederick
''Ten North Frederick'' is a novel by John O'Hara, published by Random House in 1955. It tells the story of Joseph Chapin, an ambitious man who desires to become president of the United States, and his relationships with his patrician wife, two ...
'' and ''
A Millionaire for Christy
''A Millionaire for Christy'' is a 1951 American comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Fred MacMurray, Eleanor Parker and Richard Carlson. The film is a screwball comedy, in which Christy Sloane (Parker) is a legal secretary from ...
''.
He also guest-starred in numerous television programs including ''
Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character ...
'', ''
Bonanza
''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 13, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running western, the second-longest-running western series on U ...
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'' is the first Western television series written for adults, premiering four days before ''Gunsmoke'' on September 6, 1955. Two weeks later came the Clint Walker western ''Cheyenne''. The series is loosely base ...
'', ''
Petticoat Junction
''Petticoat Junction'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and B ...
Wagon Train
''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...
'', ''
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a cli ...
'', ''
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was ren ...
'', ''
McHale's Navy
''McHale's Navy'' is an American sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from October 11, 1962, to April 12, 1966, on the ABC television network. The series was filmed in black and white and originate ...
'', ''
The Real McCoys
''The Real McCoys'' is an American situation comedy starring Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan. Co-produced by Danny Thomas's Marterto Productions in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's Westgate Company, it ...
Tales of Wells Fargo
''Tales of Wells Fargo'' is an American Western television series starring Dale Robertson that ran from 1957 to 1962 on NBC. Produced by Revue Productions, the series aired in a half-hour format until its final season, when it expanded to ...
'', ''
Death Valley Days
''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...
'', ''
77 Sunset Strip
''77 Sunset Strip'' is an American television Private investigator#PIs in fiction, private detective drama series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith (actor), Roger Smith, Richard Long (actor), Richard Long (fr ...
'', ''
Man with a Camera
''Man with a Camera'' is an American television crime drama starring Charles Bronson as a war veteran turned photographer and investigator.
Throughout the 1950s, Bronson spent most of his early acting career performing in TV shows as well as s ...
'' and ''
The Beverly Hillbillies
''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from ...
''. His final credit was in the television series ''
Mayberry R.F.D.
''Mayberry R.F.D.'' (abbreviation for Rural Free Delivery) is an American television series produced as a spin-off continuation of ''The Andy Griffith Show''. When star Andy Griffith decided to leave his series, most of the supporting character ...
'' in 1969.
Death
Kirkpatrick died in August 1976 of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
while playing
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
with three doctors in
La Jolla, California
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...