Ray Walston(1914-2001)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ray Walston started his acting career as
a spear carrier with a local stock company. When the family moved to
Houston, Texas, Walston's father wanted to teach him the oil business,
but Walston instead joined a traveling repertory company (selling
tickets as well as acting). He went on to associate with
Margo Jones at the Houston Civic
Theater for six years, then spent three seasons with the Cleveland
Playhouse before arriving in New York in 1945. He has won a Tony Award
for his performance as the Devil in Broadway's "Damn Yankees", two Emmy
Awards for
Picket Fences (1992), and
become a household name playing the extraterrestrial "Uncle Martin" on
My Favorite Martian (1963).
Ray Walston died at age 86 of lupus on New Year's Day 2001 in Beverly
Hills, California.