February 8 Birthday Wishes

Burt Mustin [1884 - 1977]

Charles Ruggles [1886 - 1970]

King Vidor [1894 - 1982]

Lyle Talbot [1902 -1996]

Alejandro Rey [1930 - 1987]

Burt Mustin, like Clem Bevans, always seemed to be old. He was a great character actor, like his part in Cat Ballou (the old geezer who went to introduce himself saying, "I'm old....I'm old..." and drifts off not remembering what his name was) or as Gus the Fireman on Leave It To Beaver. Lyle Talbot was another of the great old character actors that Jim and I had the opportunity to know. He was a star in the early 30's and then moved on to character roles in westerns, TV and serials, more often than not as the villain. But he was also the next door neighbor to Ozzie and Harriet Nelson on their TV show. A well rounded actor and a great guy. Alejandro Rey we just saw the other day on one of those old Boris Karloff hosted "Thriller" TV series. King Vidor gave us some great movies as a director (Duel in the Sun, Man Without a Star,Northwest Passage) and Charlie Ruggles was another of those fine character actors (his role in Joel McCrea's "Ramrod" being one of my favorites).
Birthday greetings to you all in the celluloid heavens.

Burt Mustin was always one of the "oh, it's that guy" actors. You never knew his name, but you'd see him and say, "oh it's that guy!" And I didn't know his name until the late 1990s when TV Land did a promo montage with a jingle that said, "It's a name that you can trust in...It's Burt Mustin!" And Tom's right...he looked perpetually old!Of course he was in his 70s when he played Gus on Leave It To Beaver, so...

Howdy Pards!!

As Tom said, Burt Mustin always looked and played the part of an old man in every role he ever did. I think this fella appeared in every 50's and 60's t.v. western you can name and thats a bunch. Like another good supporting actor we talked about a few days ago, Mustin was always being threatened by some bad guy with a gun or knife and the star/hero of the series had to save his bacon. He had this part down pat.

Lyle Talbot was also a 50's actor, who used to always play the scheming, cunning, outlaw chief or larcenous banker or rancher, with some dastardly plot on his mind.

Although Alejandro Rey also appeared in a couple of Elvis movies, I remember him best from the t.v. series with a young Sally Field as The Flying Nun!! He played a fella named Ramirez, I believe, who was kinda a straight man for Sally Field on this cute sitcom, who was always bringing her problems and could never figure out how Sally Field could get from one place to another and right the existing situation so fast. If he hadda asked me, I coulda told him it wuz her big ole Nun's hat!!

Ed