Ned Payne Austin (April 29, 1925 – February 10, 2007) was an American character actor; he was also a member of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

and AFTRA. Austin was in several films, including ''

Annie Hall ''Annie Hall'' is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay written by him and Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer, w ...

'' and ''

The Happy Ending ''The Happy Ending'' is a 1969 drama film written and directed by Richard Brooks, which tells the story of a repressed housewife who longs for liberation from her husband and daughter. It stars Jean Simmons (who received an Oscar nomination), ...

'', and some regional movies and industrial films. He played the bridgemaster in

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

's directorial debut, ''

Maximum Overdrive ''Maximum Overdrive'' is a 1986 American comedy horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short ...

'', where he introduced the phrase, "Can't you see we've got a situation here?!". After two seasons of summer stock in Surry, Maine, Austin starred as

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

for the first three years (1952–1954) of ''

Horn in the West ''Horn in the West'', by Kermit Hunter, is an outdoor drama produced every summer since 1952 in the Daniel Boone Amphitheater in Boone, North Carolina. The show, the oldest revolutionary war drama in the United States, was about the life and t ...

'' in

Boone, North Carolina Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters for the disaster a ...

and then moved to

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, where he appeared in about forty stage productions, in various theatre companies. His television credits include several children's shows and parts in '' Movin' On'', ''

Alias Smith and Jones ''Alias Smith and Jones'' is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973. The show initially starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, outlaw cousins who are tryin ...

'', ''

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

'', and a CBS movie of the week, '' Company of Killers'', as well as numerous commercials. Austin's son, Sam Austin, starred in the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film ''

Mountain Born ''Mountain Born'' is a children's historical novel by Elizabeth Yates. Set in the sparsely populated Rocky Mountains during the 19th century, it describes the life of a shepherd's family. The novel, illustrated by Nora Spicer Unwin, was first ...

'' in 1970, shot in

Telluride, Colorado Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains. The first ...

. Sam wrote the title song and became one of the youngest members of

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

at the age of 12. In 1972, Austin returned to

to live, and he continued to act in community theatre productions and in regionally produced films. He lived there for the remaining 35 years of his life, and died peacefully, in the house in which he was born.

External links

* * American male film actors American male stage actors American male television actors People from Boone, North Carolina 1925 births 2007 deaths Male actors from Denver Male actors from North Carolina 20th-century American male actors {{US-theat-actor-1920s-stub