William Conrad (born John William Cann, September 27, 1920, in Louisville, Kentucky; died February 11, 1994 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California) was a radio actor, producer, director, voice-over artist and television actor.
Conrad served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a fighter pilot during World War II. Upon his discharge, he headed to Hollywood with a fellow soldier, Jack Webb, to make it as an actor. He landed roles in classic film noir movies like The Killers (1946) and Body and Soul (1947), but eventually stopped pursuing movie roles as his weight seemed to typecast him as a 'heavy' (no pun intended).
Instead, Conrad turned his attention to radio, appearing in an estimated 7,000 radio shows. He originated the role of Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, but while his magnificent voice was certainly befitting of a Western hero, his appearance was not, and he opted not to try out for the subsequent television series adaptation. James Arness landed the part of Marshal Dillon for TV.
While Conrad would make occasional on-screen acting appearances on series such as Bat Masterson and Target! The Corruptors, his weight tended to work against him, as he would often be cast in villain roles when he appeared on-screen. One exception: his old friend Jack Webb hired him to play his newspaper editor boss in the 1959 newspaper drama -30-.
Bill decided to work behind the scenes to keep his name active. He played the role of the frantic narrator in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, and his voice could also be heard in the narration of the short-lived series This Man Dawson, which he also produced for Ziv Television. As a director, Conrad oversaw episodes of Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and Route 66, among other shows.
1963 proved to be a banner year for Conrad. Webb, who was hired to head Warner Bros. Television, hired him to produce one of their flagship series, 77 Sunset Strip, as well as a new series, Temple Houston. When Webb was fired from his post, Conrad temporarily took over for him at Warner Bros. In addition, Conrad was hired by producer Quinn Martin to be the narrator for his new series, The Fugitive. Conrad's mellifluous baritone could also be heard in a number of commercials, including those for Hot Wheels and Chrysler.
Conrad continued his stellar voice work on The Fugitive and also directed feature films like Brainstorm. By the end of the 1960's, he had become less self-conscious and began appearing more often on camera. He made guest appearances on shows like The Name of the Game and The High Chaparral, as well as TV-movie appearances. He co-starred in two pilots for Jack Webb that became series, The D.A.: Conspiracy to Kill (which led to Webb's short-lived series with Robert Conrad -no relation-, The D.A.) and Operation: Cobra (the pilot for David Janssen's series O'Hara: United States Treasury), but it was another pilot he did for Quinn Martin, one in which he had the starring role, that led to a series and a Star-Making Role.
The pilot for Cannon aired on CBS in the Spring of 1971, with the subsequent series debuting that fall. Frank Cannon was a cop who quit the force following the deaths of his wife and son and set up shop as a private investigator. His love of fine food and wine led to his hefty appearance. Despite his girth, Cannon proved to be a serviceable private detective, using his weight to his advantage when it came to outwitting and fighting the bad guys. The series earned Conrad Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and led him from being one of Hollywood's best-kept secrets to major stardom.
Conrad and Quinn Martin decided to end the series after five seasons. A few months later, they teamed up again for the series Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected, a short-lived NBC anthology series. When that series ended, Conrad found himself to be a hot property for series pilots, including Keefer (a David Gerber production that cast him as a spy in World War II), Battles: The Murder That Wouldn't Die (a Glen A. Larson production in which he played a private detective and high-school football coach in Hawaii) and Turnover Smith, where he played a portly criminologist. None of those pilots sold, but the Battles film led to Conrad's relationship with producer Larson, who hired the actor to narrate his series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Conrad soon wound up playing another overweight sleuth, this time in the NBC series Nero Wolfe, based on the famous detective novels by Rex Stout. The pilot film, which aired a season or two earlier, in 1979, starred another corpulent actor, Thayer David, but a new actor was needed for the series when David unexpectedly passed away. The series ran for 13 episodes in 1981.
For most of the 1980's, Conrad was heard more than seen, as he became the voice for Glen Larson's production company, mainly doing the announcements ("[name of series] will continue in a moment", "Next on [name of series]"), but occasionally doing narrator work as well (the intros to both Manimal and The Highwayman). Occasionally, he did commercials (his voice could be heard extolling the virtues of First Alert smoke detectors, and he appeared on-camera for No-Sal salt substitute), he voiced the U.S. Air Force's "High Flight" short film used by many U.S. TV stations as part of their sign-off sequence, and he also made occasional guest appearances on series such as Murder, She Wrote, Hotel (1983) and Matlock. It was that latter appearance, as Prosecutor James L. McShane, that led to him being cast in another series from the same producers.
Conrad landed another series on CBS in the Fall of 1987. In Jake and the Fatmannote , he played a wily prosecutor, Jason Lochinvar 'J.L.' McCabe, affectionately nicknamed 'The Fatman' by those who worked closely with him. Joe Penny, who played the son of the defendant in the Matlock episode, co-starred as Jake Styles, a private detective who worked as McCabe's legman. Rounding out the cast was Alan Campbell, who also appeared in the Matlock episode, as McCabe's assistant, Derek Mitchell.
The ratings for Jake and the Fatman were less than stellar and the series was headed for cancellation, but the network intervened. One of their top-rated action series, Magnum, P.I., was ending, which left CBS with a very expensive studio facility in Hawaii that would be vacant. While Jake and the Fatman's ratings stunk, their demographics were similar to those of Magnum's, so the network approached the producers and cast with an offer... would they be willing to move the show's locale from L.A. to Hawaii? Everyone involved said yes, and so the production moved to Hawaii. The ratings went up as well with the move, and the series continued for two seasons in Hawaii. Eventually, they moved production back to California for a couple of reasons, one being that CBS lost the lease on the Hawaiian set, the other being that Hawaii was not a suitable locale for the film-noirish scripts that the writers were developing. Jake and the Fatman was set in L.A. for most of the fourth and all of the fifth (and final) season.
Once the series ended, Conrad decided to retire. He passed away, aged 73, of heart failure on February 11, 1994, less than two years after the series ended.
Films featuring William Conrad with TV Tropes pages:
- The Killers (as Max, 1946)
- Sorry, Wrong Number (as Moreno, 1948)
- The Naked Jungle (as Commissioner, 1954)
- Hudson Hawk (as Narrator, 1991)
Television series featuring William Conrad with TV Tropes pages:
- Bat Masterson (2 appearances, 1958-61, as well as directing four episodes, 1959-61)
- Highway Patrol (director, 1 episode, 1959)
- The Rifleman (director, 1 episode, 1959)
- Rocky and Bullwinkle (Narrator, 163 episodes, 1959-63)
- Route 66 (director, 1 episode, 1961)
- Have Gun – Will Travel (2 appearances, 1962, as well as directing six episodes, 1962-63)
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (as Sgt. Cresse, 1963)
- 77 Sunset Strip (4 appearances, 1963-64, as well as directing six episodes and producing the final season)
- The Fugitive (Narrator, 120 episodes, 1963-67)
- It Takes a Thief (1968) (voice of Strategy Room Announcer, 1970)
- Cannon (as Frank Cannon, 120 episodes, 1971-76)
- Barnaby Jones (as Frank Cannon in 2 crossover episodes, 1973-75)
- Gunsmoke (as Narrator, 2 episodes, 1973, as well as directing two episodes, 1963-71)
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (as Narrator, 1979-80)
- The Lone Ranger (1980) (voice of the Lone Ranger, 1980, credited as 'J. Darnoc')
- Nero Wolfe (as Nero Wolfe, 13 episodes, 1981)
- Police Squad! (as Stabbed Man, 1982)
- The Fall Guy (as himself, one episode, 1984)
- Murder, She Wrote (as Major Anatole Karzov, 1984)
- Hotel (1983) (as Art Patterson, 2 episodes, 1986)
- Matlock (as Prosecutor James L. McShane, 1986)
- Jake and the Fatman (as Jason Lochinvar 'J.L.' McCabe, 103 episodes, 1987-92)
