Dan Tobin
{{Short description|American actor (1910–1982)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dan Tobin
| image = Dan Tobin in Four Star Playhouse (The Gift).jpg
| caption = Tobin in the TV series Four Star Playhouse (1953)
| alt =
| birth_name = Daniel Malloy Tobin
| birth_date = {{birth date|1910|10|19}}
| birth_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1982|11|26|1910|10|19}}
| death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.
| resting_place =
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1939–1974
| spouse = {{marriage|Jean Holloway|1951}}
| partner =
| children =
| awards =
}}
Daniel Malloy Tobin (October 19, 1910 – November 26, 1982) was an American character actor in films, television and on the stage. He generally portrayed gentle, urbane, rather fussy, sometimes obsequious and shifty characters, sometimes with a concealed edge of malice.
Early years
Tobin was a native of Cincinnati, and he attended the University of Cincinnati.{{cite news|title=Invited Out!| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11750002/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/| newspaper=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle| date=November 19, 1939| page=32| via=Newspapers.com| accessdate=June 17, 2017}} {{Open access}}
Career
Tobin made his Broadway debut in American Holiday in 1936.{{cite journal| title=Dan Tobin: Performer| url=https://www.playbill.com/person/dan-tobin-vault-0000041793| journal=Playbill| accessdate=16 March 2020| archiveurl=https://archive.today/20170617214744/http://www.playbill.com/searchpage/search?shows=on&people=on&theatres=on&q=Dan+Tobin&qasset=00000150-ac7e-d16d-a550-ec7e99210001| archivedate=17 June 2017| url-status=dead}} He then joined a touring troupe in England and was seen by an impresario in a production of Ah, Wilderness! As a result, he won roles in Behind Your Back at London's Strand Theatre (1937) and Mary Goes to See at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket (1938). File:Philadelphia-Story-Stage-2.jpg (1939)]]Tobin then played Alexander 'Sandy' Lord in the original 1939 Broadway production of Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story.
File:Dan Tobin-Cary Grant in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.jpg in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)]]
Tobin's most memorable roles were as the overbearing secretary, Gerald, in the 1942 film Woman of the Year and the top-billed scientist in Orson Welles's innovative, Peabody Award-winning, unsold television pilot The Fountain of Youth, filmed in 1956 and televised once two years later as an instalment of NBC's Colgate Theatre. Tobin's final film role was opposite John Huston in Welles's The Other Side of the Wind, shot in the early 1970s and released in 2018.
On television, Tobin was a regular on I Married Joan,{{cite book| last1=Terrace| first1=Vincent| title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YX_daEhlnbsC&q=tobin| date=January 10, 2014| publisher=McFarland & Company| location=Jefferson, N.C.| isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7| page=493| edition=2nd}} My Favorite Husband,{{r|etvs|page1=729}} Mr. Adams and Eve, and Where Were You?{{r|etvs|page1=1170}} In 1966, he became a regular during the final season of Perry Mason as the proprietor of Clay's Grill. He'd made a prior Mason appearance in 1964, as Dickens the butler in "The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor". TV Guide credits him with 44 television appearances.{{cite journal| title=Dan Tobin| url=https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/dan-tobin/credits/189740/| journal=TV Guide| accessdate=16 March 2020}}
Personal life
Tobin was married to film and television screenwriter Jean Holloway (born Gratia Jean Casey) from 1951 to his death in 1982.{{Cite news |date=13 October 1951 |title=Radio-TV |pages=15 |work=Cincinnati Post |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=EANX-NB&docref=image/v2%3A13E376E28E0F8354%40EANX-NB-1680FE9185565B4A%402433933-1680FB79F595D784%4014-1680FB79F595D784%40}} They met on the set of The First Hundred Years.
Death
Tobin died in Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, in November 1982, at age 72.{{cite news| title=Character actor Dan Tobin, whose career ranged from movies...|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/11/28/Character-actor-Dan-Tobin-whose-career-ranged-from-movies/3657407307600/| accessdate=17 June 2017| work=United Press International Archives| agency=United Press International| date=November 28, 1982|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617213513/http://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/11/28/Character-actor-Dan-Tobin-whose-career-ranged-from-movies/3657407307600/| archivedate=17 June 2017}}
Filmography
class="wikitable" | |||
Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|
1939 | Black Limelight | Roberts - Reporter | |
1942 | Woman of the Year | Gerald Howe | |
1946 | Undercurrent | Professor Joseph Bangs | |
1947 | A Likely Story | Phil Bright | |
1947 | The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer | Chester Walters | Released as Bachelor Knight (UK) |
1948 | The Big Clock | Ray Cordette | |
1948 | Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House | Bunny Funkhauser | Uncredited |
1948 | The Velvet Touch | Jeff Trent | |
1948 | Sealed Verdict | Lt. Parker | |
1948 | Miss Tatlock's Millions | Clifford Tatlock | |
1949 | Song of Surrender | Clyde Atherton | |
1950 | The Magnificent Yankee | Dixon | Uncredited |
1951 | Queen for a Day | Owen Cruger | |
1951
| | |||
1953 | Dream Wife | Mr. Brown | |
1956 | The Catered Affair | Hotel Caterer | |
1956 | It's Always Jan | Jack Adams | TV series, episode "Guilty Conscience" |
1957 | Mr. Adams and Eve | Burt Stewart | TV series, regular cast |
1958 | Colgate Theatre | Humphrey Baxter | TV series, episode "The Fountain of Youth" |
1959 | The Last Angry Man | Ben Loomer | |
1961 | The Andy Griffith Show | "Gentleman" Dan Caldwell | |
1961 | The Twilight Zone | Mr. Bagby | S2E16 |
1962 | Who's Got the Action? | Mr. Sanford | |
1965-1967 | Bewitched | Mr Sanders, Ed Pennybaker, Mr Ames, Mayor | S1E23 S2E28 S3E23 S3E32 |
1965 | The Dick Van Dyke Show | Ferguson | S5 e7, "The Great Petrie Fortune," |
1965 | The Munsters | Reginald Stubbs | TV series, episode "Country Club Munsters" |
1963 & 1966 | Gunsmoke | “Foote” & “The Professor” | TV series, episodes “Panacea Sykes” & "Champion of the World" |
1967 | How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying | Johnson | |
1968 | Hogan%27s Heroes | General von Treger | |
1969-1970 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | Mr. Hampton / Dr. Ryan McNally | TV series, 2 episodes |
1974 | Herbie Rides Again | Lawyer | |
2018 | The Other Side of the Wind | Dr. Burroughs | (final film role, scenes filmed in the early 1970s) |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
- {{IMDb name|0864921}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{Find a Grave|25508762}}
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{{Authority control}}
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Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:20th-century American male actors