Don Wilson, Announcer, Movie Personality?

[krledu]

I was watching a Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movie the other day on Youtube called Sailor Beware from 1952 and, much to my surprise, Don Wilson was playing a TV announcer. His part was not very large and rather dumb if you ask me. I have seen Don in a few other movies playing small parts of announcers and the like. Was Don really well-know outside of the Benny program? I know he was the announcer for many other programs on radio. Did he have as many announcing jobs on TV? Guess you don't really hear much about Don outside of the Jack Benny show. Maybe it was because he was not such a flamboyant personality like Rochester or Phil Harris.

[Yhtapmys]

Guess you don't really hear much about Don outside of the Jack Benny show. Maybe it was because he was not such a flamboyant personality like Rochester or Phil Harris.

I remember seeing Don on Batman years ago, along with Allen Ludden. They were playing reporters covering a bat-fight. The writer twisted the names of Huntley and Brinkley. It was pretty clever. Well, it was to me as a 10 year-old.

I'd say you don't hear much about Eddie Anderson outside the Benny show. Phil had a multi-faceted career. But Don was not an actor. He was an announcer by trade so his profile would be much lower than an actor.

Yhtapmys

[Maxwell]

Don Wilson had a part in "Niagara" starring Joseph Cotton and Marilyn Monroe in an early starring dramatic role. It's been years since I've seen the movie, so I don't remember much about his role.

[shimp scrampi]

Don in NIAGARA is pretty much Don on the Benny show - he's a Shredded Wheat executive who can't stop talking about how great Shredded Wheat is.

Oooh - Don on BATMAN would be great for the mystery photo thread...

He and his wife Lois co-hosted a long running local Palm Springs talk show in his later years. Probably a wiser career move for him than "acting", I agree.

As for Eddie Anderson - check him out in CABIN IN THE SKY.

[Yhtapmys]

I'd say you don't hear much about Eddie Anderson outside the Benny show. Phil had a multi-faceted career. But Don was not an actor. He was an announcer by trade so his profile would be much lower than an actor.

Yipe! I didn't mean to write this at all; I made a reference to Eddie but wasn't happy with the wording so I deleted one sentence and apparently only part of another. Sorry. And the board isn't set up to edit these posts (could someone take the time to go into the admin setting and fix that?).

The point I was going to make was the difference between Don and both Rochester and Phil is Don was not an actor, while Rochester and Phil were (granted, Phil started as a musician). So that's why you don't hear much about Don outside the Benny Show, but you will hear about the other two in other roles.

Yhtapmys

[krledu]

I guess I was suprised that you don't hear more about Don because he was a well-know announcer of the time and won lots of awards. In other shows, you do hear occasional references to different well known announcers like Harry von Zell and Kenny Delmar. (Though for the life of me, I can't remember any off hand)