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Thomas Gordon Poston 1921 - 2007

Thomas Gordon Poston of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA was born on October 17, 1921 in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio United States, and died at age 85 years old on April 30, 2007 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA.

Thomas Gordon Poston
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Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA 90067
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October 17, 1921
Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, United States
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April 30, 2007
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States
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Thomas Gordon Poston Thomas Poston (1921 - 2007)
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Thomas Gordon Poston's History: 1921 - 2007

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  • Introduction

    TOM POSTON ACTOR a/k/a Thomas Gordon Poston (October 17, 1921 – April 30, 2007) was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950. He appeared as a comic actor, game show panelist, comedy/variety show host, film actor, television actor, and Broadway performer. According to USA Today Life editor Dennis Moore, Poston appeared in more sitcoms than any other actor. In the 1980s, he played George Utley opposite Bob Newhart's character on Newhart. Early life Poston was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of George and Margaret Poston. His father was a liquor salesman and dairy chemist. After completing high school, Poston attended Bethany College in West Virginia, but did not graduate. While there, he joined the Sigma Nu Fraternity. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1941. Accepted to officer candidate school and then graduating from flight training, Poston served as a pilot in the European Theater in World War II; his aircraft dropped paratroopers for the Normandy invasion. Poston served in North Africa, Italy, France, and England. After his discharge, he began studying acting in New York City, graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Career In 1953, as Thomas Poston, he was cast as "Detective" in the film City That Never Sleeps. In 1957, Poston gained recognition as a comedic "Man in the Street" (along with his colleagues Louie Nye, Dayton Allen and Don Knotts) on The Steve Allen Show. For these performances, Poston won the 1959 Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series. In the fall of 1959, when the Allen program moved west to Los Angeles, Tom remained in New York, appearing frequently on Broadway and television game shows. He was a regular panelist on many Mark Goodson-Bill Todman CBS Television panel shows, including To Tell the Truth and What's My Line?. Poston's film career was limited, with appearances in films such as William Castle's Zotz! (1962), The Old Dark House (1963), Soldier in the Rain (1963), Cold Turkey (1971), The Happy Hooker (1975), Rabbit Test (1978), Up the Academy (1980) and Carbon Copy (1981). However his television career was expansive, covering the better part of five decades, and saw him contributing his comedic talents in virtually every corner of the medium, from made-for-TV movies to variety shows to situation comedies to talk shows and even to voice-overs for cartoons. When Mel Brooks submitted his idea for the television show Get Smart to the ABC network, ABC wanted Poston for the lead role of Maxwell Smart. When ABC passed on the show, the lead went to Don Adams. Poston, however, made a guest appearance on the show during its run on NBC. Poston also appeared in Thriller during its second season in 1961. The episode, number six, was entitled "Masquerade" and also starred Elizabeth Montgomery. In the summer of 1968, Poston played the role of the Scarecrow, at The Municipal Opera Association of St. Louis, production of The Wizard of Oz. Lana Cantrell played Dorothy Gale, and Betty Low played the Sorceress of the North, also known as Glinda. The handprints of Tom Poston in front of Hollywood Hills Amphitheater at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park. Poston was a recurring guest star on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s. He later played the role of Franklin Delano Bickley on Mork & Mindy. A longtime friend of Bob Newhart, Poston played George Utley, bumbling country handyman of the Stratford Inn, on Newhart and appeared with Newhart in Cold Turkey as the town drunk, Edgar Stopworth. He was nominated for an Emmy Award three times for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance on Newhart in 1984, 1986, and 1987. He had a third role with Newhart in the short-lived Bob. Poston had regular roles on many other television series: Family Matters, Murphy Brown, Home Improvement, Cosby, Malcolm & Eddie, ER, Grace Under Fire, That '70s Show (as Kitty Forman's father, Burt Sigurdson), Will & Grace, and guest starred in an episode of The Simpsons as the Capital City Goofball. He played dentist/jeweler, Art Hibke, on ABC's Coach, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1991. He guest-starred on Home Improvement as a surly airport clerk in Alpena, Michigan when Tim and Al get stuck there during a snowstorm on Christmas Eve, and again as that character's brother in the episode "The Tool Man Delivers". In 2001, he appeared in The Lone Gunmen episode of "The Cap'n Toby Show"[7] and in "King of the Hill" episode "Now Who's The Dummy?" as Mr. Popper (voice). In 2005, he played the character "Clown" on the brief-lived NBC series Committed and guest-starred on the ABC series 8 Simple Rules as Rory's unlawful friend Jake in the episode "Good Moms Gone Wild". In 2006, Poston guest-starred on an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody entitled "Ah! Wilderness" as Merle, which was his final role. Poston appeared in supporting roles in films, including Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), The Story of Us (1999), Beethoven's 5th (2003) and two released in 2004, Christmas with the Kranks and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. The band They Might Be Giants mentioned Poston as a writer for The New York Times in its song "Critic Intro". Personal life Poston and actress Jean Sullivan were married in 1955 and divorced in 1968. Their daughter is actress Francesca Poston. Poston married Kay Hudson in 1968. They had two children, daughter Hudson Poston and son Jason Poston. They divorced in 1975 but remarried in 1980 and remained together until her death in 1998 from ALS. In 2001, Poston married actress Suzanne Pleshette, who played the wife of Newhart's character Bob Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show, his fourth marriage. Poston had an affair with Ms. Pleshette in 1959. Tom Poston enjoyed fishing in northern Wisconsin. Death After a brief illness, Poston died of respiratory failure on April 30, 2007 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 85. Although he was not Jewish, he was interred in the Jewish Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery as his widow, the late Suzanne Pleshette, was Jewish.
  • 10/17
    1921

    Birthday

    October 17, 1921
    Birthdate
    Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio United States
    Birthplace
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  • Military Service

    He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1941. Accepted to officer candidate school and then graduating from flight training, Poston served as a pilot in the European Theater in World War II; his aircraft dropped paratroopers for the Normandy invasion. Poston served in North Africa, Italy, France, and England. After his discharge, he began studying acting in New York City, graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. His studies were interrupted by World War II, in which he served as a pilot with the Army Air Corps in Europe.

  • Professional Career

    Tom Poston in the role of George Utley in the television sitcom series “Newhart.” (CBS) BY DENNIS MCLELLAN MAY 2, 2007 12 AM PT TIMES STAFF WRITER Tom Poston, a familiar comedic presence on television since the 1950s, when he was an Emmy Award-winning regular on “The Steve Allen Show” but who may be best remembered as the bumbling handyman on the popular situation comedy “Newhart,” has died. He was 85. The husband of actress Suzanne Pleshette, Poston died Monday at his home in Los Angeles after a brief illness, said family representative Tanner Gibson. Poston launched his career in 1947 in Jose Ferrer’s Broadway production of “Cyrano de Bergerac.” He later appeared in live television dramatic anthologies such as “Studio One” and “Goodyear Television Playhouse.” But he soon established himself as a comedic actor who gained national exposure on Allen’s comedy-variety show, which ran from 1956 to 1961, first on NBC and then ABC. In the 1970s, Poston made occasional guest appearances on “The Bob Newhart Show” as Newhart’s college chum. But he earned lasting recognition playing handyman George Utley on “Newhart” throughout the sitcom’s 1982-90 run. In a statement Tuesday, Newhart described his friend Poston as a “versatile and veteran performer and a kindhearted individual” who “was always the go-to guy on ‘Newhart.’ ” Peter Scolari, a fellow “Newhart” cast member, said that “as a comedian, Tom was truly unique.” “Here’s a guy who worked on Broadway with Bert Lahr [in a Burlesque revue] and Jose Ferrer,” Scolari told The Times. “On ‘Newhart,’ he was by then about 70 and as fresh and feeling a comedic actor as you’d ever want to work with. There was an unbridled joy in Tom.” Poston had appeared in Broadway comedies such as “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” in the 1950s. But it was his work as host of “Entertainment,” a local daily comedy-variety show in New York, that caught the attention of two writers for “The Steve Allen Show,” whose comedic stock company included Don Knotts and Louis Nye. In Allen’s famous man-in-the-street sketches, Poston was the man who could never remember his name. When Allen was auditioning actors for the sketch, Poston recalled in a 1982 interview with the Newhouse News Service, “I was, naturally, scared to death.” “He asked me my name and darned if my mind didn’t go blank. I sat there like a big dope and held my head. Steve thought I was kidding. He said, ‘Hey, that’s great! We’ll use it.’ From then on, I was a regular.” Tim Conway, a longtime friend who toured with Poston in “The Odd Couple,” was an early fan. Poston, Knotts and Nye, Conway said, “all had a way of presenting comedy without ever saying anything. You could read it on their faces. They didn’t need words. Don with that character of the scared guy and Tom as that character of just being vague [in the man-in-the-street sketches] was enough to bring laughter.” Of his comedic characters such as George Utley on “Newhart,” Poston told United Press International in 1983: “These guys are about a half-step behind life’s parade. The ink on their instruction sheets is beginning to fade. But they function and cope and don’t realize they are driving people up the walls.” Poston seemed to prefer playing second bananas. Asked whether he’d like to one day star in his own show, he said: “I don’t know if I would want to see [his supporting roles] stretched to the point of having to carry the burden of a show.... I’d rather be working my head off as a supporting actor than be a giant star unable to get a job. “Anyhow, my parts are really prime roles for an actor to play. They are terrific fun. I’m having the time of my life doing what I do.” Born in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 17, 1921, Poston was a student at Bethany College in West Virginia when he enlisted in the Army Air Forces during World War II. After serving as a pilot in France, he enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Among his numerous other TV credits are “Mork & Mindy,” in which he played Franklin Delano Bickley. He also was a regular panelist on the game show “To Tell the Truth.” His film credits include “Soldier in the Rain,” “Cold Turkey,” “Christmas with the Kranks” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.” In addition to Pleshette, his third wife, Poston is survived by his children, Francesca, Hudson, and Jason. A private funeral service will be held for his immediate family. Details of his public memorial service are pending. Instead of flowers, the family suggests contributions be made to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. [contact link]
  • 04/30
    2007

    Death

    April 30, 2007
    Death date
    Heart failure.
    Cause of death
    Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States
    Death location
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  • Obituary

    Tom Poston, Virtuosic Comic Actor, Is Dead at 85 By Margalit Fox May 2, 2007 Tom Poston, an Emmy-winning comic actor whose television characters ranged from the slow-witted Everyman on "The Steve Allen Show" to a cantankerous closet-dwelling clown on the recent sitcom "Committed," died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85. Mr. Poston died after a short illness, his wife, the actress Suzanne Pleshette, said. A long-faced, buggy-eyed second banana, Mr. Poston was for a half-century a Paganini of the bewildered, the benighted, and the befuddled. His best-known television roles include George Utley, the sublimely incompetent handyman on "Newhart"; Mr. Bickley, the troublesome neighbor on "Mork & Mindy"; and Cliff Murdock, Mr. Newhart's doltish college chum on the original "Bob Newhart Show." Mr. Poston appeared on Broadway and in films, among them "Christmas With the Kranks" (2004); "The Princess Diaries 2" (2004); and "Cold Turkey" (1971). He was also, variously, a pilot, an amateur boxer, a tumbler with the Flying Zebleys, an aspiring chemist, and a panelist on the game show "To Tell the Truth." It seemed Mr. Poston would do anything for a part. For his first Broadway appearance -- a tiny role in a 1946 production of "Cyrano de Bergerac," the audition consisted of falling off a parapet onto his head, as the character did. Mr. Poston and his head withstood the test admirably. Six decades later, Mr. Poston tried out for "Committed," broadcast on NBC in 2005. His character, a surly, dying clown known simply as Clown, lives out his days in the closet of one of the show's main characters. (Clown came with the apartment.) The audition required aspirants to pull down their pants, as called for in the script. Most actors did so only in pantomime. Mr. Poston complied in full, with electrifying results. "He dropped his trousers and had on these gold lamé boxer shorts," Eileen Heisler, an executive producer of the show, told The Associated Press in 2005. Whether Mr. Poston had been tipped off about what the audition would entail is unrecorded. Thomas Gordon Poston was born in Columbus, Ohio. As a boy, he wanted to be a prizefighter, and as a young man, he boxed in several hundred amateur fights. He also learned tumbling, performing with the Zebleys as a child. In the late 1930s, he enrolled at Bethany College in West Virginia, where he studied chemistry. His studies were interrupted by World War II, in which he served as a pilot with the Army Air Corps in Europe. After the war, he moved to New York and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Mr. Poston's Broadway appearances include "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" (1955); "Mary, Mary" (1961); and the 1972 revival of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." In 1959, starring on Broadway in "Golden Fleecing," Mr. Poston met Ms. Pleshette. The two began a romance, though they later married others. In early television, Mr. Poston was the host of "Entertainment" (1955), a 2 1/2-hour, five-day-a-week live variety show on ABC. "I once timed it and I ad-libbed 35, 36 minutes a day," he told The Associated Press in 2005. "You can imagine how clever that was. It was filled with, 'Wasn't that wonderful!' 'Yes, that was wonderful!' 'Isn't that wonderful!' " But Mr. Poston's ability to think on his feet earned him a regular role on Mr. Allen's show. There, in the company of Don Knotts and Louis Nye, he played a roster of supporting characters, chief among them Everyman, who is rendered dazed and speechless whenever he is asked a question in the show's "Man on the Street" segments. (A typical question: "What's your name?") For his work on the Allen show, Mr. Poston won an Emmy in 1959. Mr. Poston was married four times, to three women. His first marriage, to Jean Sullivan, ended in divorce, as did his second, to Kay Hudson. He and Ms. Hudson later remarried; the marriage lasted until her death in 1998. He married Ms. Pleshette in 2001. Besides Ms. Pleshette, Mr. Poston is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Francesca Poston of Nashville; two children from his marriage to Ms. Hudson, a son, Jason Poston of Los Angeles, and a daughter, Hudson Poston of Portland, Ore.; and a sister, Rosalie Cassou, of Fredericksburg, Va. Before she married Mr. Poston, Ms. Pleshette laid down one ironclad condition: she wanted "a big rock," she said in a telephone interview yesterday. So Mr. Poston gave her exactly that. A piece of unpolished granite the size of a large marble, it was culled from the gravel in his driveway. He had it put in a platinum setting. The rock worked like a charm, Ms. Pleshette said. She added: "Of course, he later was taught the pleasures of diamonds."
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10 Memories, Stories & Photos about Thomas

Skitch Henderson on the Steve Allen Show.
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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03/28/2021
Skitch Henderson on the Steve Allen Show.
I met everyone in the photograph and gave them all tributes!
Don Knotts, Louis Nye, Tom Poston, Steve Allen and Skitch Henderson.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Tom Poston and Amanda Stevenson
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Tom Poston and Amanda Stevenson
A photo of Louis Nye's buddy on the Steve Allen Show.

I was Sandy Svendsen then. Later I took my middle name Amanda and anglicized it to Stevenson.
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Kay and Thomas G Poston
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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10/30/2017
Kay and Thomas G Poston
A photo of Thomas G Poston with wife Kay Hudson.
People in photo include: Kay (Hudson) Poston
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Thomas G Poston and Suzanne Pleshette
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Thomas G Poston and Suzanne Pleshette
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Thomas G Poston
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Thomas G Poston
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Thomas G Poston
A photo of Thomas G Poston who loved fishing.
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Thomas G Poston and Suzanne Pleshette
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Thomas G Poston and Suzanne Pleshette
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Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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10/30/2017
Ironically I met them both for the first time when I was fifteen years old and they were both really friendly.
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Thomas G Poston
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Thomas G Poston
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Thomas G Poston
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Other Biographies

Other Thomas Poston Biographies

Poston, Thomas (Aug 22, 1943 - Dec 30, 1997) Poston, Thomas (Jun 22, 1927 - Jul 7, 1990) Poston, Thomas (Jan 28, 1956 - Apr 6, 2008) Poston, Thomas (Feb 9, 1932 - Oct 9, 1994) Poston, Thomas (Aug 4, 1900 - Jan 1978) Poston, Thomas (Apr 10, 1925 - May 1966) Poston, Thomas (Jan 20, 1917 - Jun 1, 2001) Poston, Thomas (Sep 11, 1938 - Feb 27, 2007) Poston, Thomas (Mar 31, 1883 - Aug 1973) Poston, Thomas (Aug 10, 1937 - Oct 13, 2006)
Poston, Thomas (Jul 20, 1902 - Jul 1972) Poston, Thomas (Aug 16, 1899 - Apr 1985) Poston, Thomas (Aug 9, 1930 - Nov 1974) Poston, Thomas (Jan 1, 1894 - Mar 1967) Poston, Thomas (Aug 31, 1948 - Aug 8, 2009) Poston, Thomas (Dec 30, 1944 - Dec 26, 2010) Poston, Thomas (May 12, 1926 - May 1977) Poston, Thomas (Mar 13, 1940 - May 1983) Poston, Thomas (Jul 7, 1913 - Dec 1974) Poston, Thomas (Oct 4, 1942 - Nov 5, 1991)

Other Poston Family Biographies

Poston, Catherine (Born Jun 14, 1932) Poston, James (Born 1938) Poston, Richard (Born 1940) Poston, Delma (Sep 24, 1913 - Dec 8, 2008) Poston, Elizabeth (Nov 2, 1926 - Apr 23, 2001) Poston, Maureen (Sep 15, 1930 - Oct 15, 1996) Poston, Willa (Jun 19, 1943 - Apr 1, 2008) Poston, Ruth (Jan 20, 1920 - Mar 28, 2002) Poston, Barbara (Jan 25, 1918 - Jan 1982) Poston, William (Jun 13, 1919 - Mar 27, 1986)
Poston, Richard (Apr 7, 1920 - Apr 1986) Poston, Irving (Oct 22, 1895 - Mar 1966) Poston, Jean (Oct 27, 1918 - Oct 1992) Poston, Annette (Oct 12, 1933 - Jul 9, 2009) Poston, Margaret (Mar 2, 1901 - Dec 15, 1966) Poston, Anne (Feb 19, 1918 - Oct 3, 2007) Poston, Viola (Feb 19, 1932 - Mar 15, 2009) Poston, Barbara (Jul 22, 1956 - Jun 8, 2007) Poston, Peggy (Mar 6, 1936 - Jan 24, 2003) Poston, Elizabeth (Aug 25, 1919 - Nov 27, 1991)
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