Byron Foulger

About Byron Foulger

Who is it?: Actor
Birth Day: August 27, 1899
Birth Place:  Ogden, Utah, United States
Died On: April 4, 1970(1970-04-04) (aged 70)\nHollywood, California, U.S.
Birth Sign: Virgo
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1920–70
Spouse(s): Dorothy Adams (1921–70 his death) (1 child)
Children: Rachel Ames

Byron Foulger Net Worth

Byron Foulger was born on August 27, 1899 in  Ogden, Utah, United States, is Actor. One of those wonderfully busy character actors whose face is familiar if not his name, mild-mannered actor Byron Foulger began performing with community theater, and stock and repertory companies after graduating from the University of Utah. He met his future wife, character actress Dorothy Adams, in one of these companies. The marriage lasted nearly five decades and ended only with his death.Making his Broadway debut in a 1920 production of "Medea" that featured Moroni Olsen as Jason (of the Argonauts), and went on to appear in several other Olsen Broadway productions and in close succession (including "The Trial of Joan of Arc," "Mr. Faust" and "Candida"). While touring the country with Olsen's stock company, he ended up at the Pasadena Playhouse where he both acted and directed. Thereafter he and wife Dorothy decided to settle in Los Angeles.Together the acting couple tried to stake a claim for themselves in 30s and 40s Hollywood films. Both succeeded, appearing in hundreds of film parts, both together and apart, albeit in small and often unbilled bits. A man of meek, nervous countenance, Foulger's short stature and squinty stare could be used for playing both humble and shady fellows. In the 1940s, the actor became a part of Preston Sturges' company of players, appearing in five of his classic films -- The Great McGinty (1940), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) and The Great Moment (1944).Although predominantly employed as an owlish storekeeper, mortician, professor, or bank teller, his better parts had darker intentions. He was exceptional as weaselly, mealy-mouthed, whining henchmen who inevitably showed their yellow streak by the film's end.The character actor eased into TV roles in the 1950s and '60s, displaying a comedy side in many folksy, rural sitcoms. His final regular TV role was as train conductor Wendell Gibbs in the final years of the Petticoat Junction (1963) series. The father of actress Rachel Ames, Foulger died of a heart ailment on April 4, 1970.
Byron Foulger is a member of Actor

💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Biography/Timeline

1920

He was born in Ogden, Utah. Foulger attended the University of Utah, and started acting through his participation in community theatre. Foulger was of the Mormon faith. He made his Broadway debut in March 1920 in a production of Medea featuring Moroni Olsen, and performed in four more productions with Olsen on the 'Great White Way', back-to-back, ending in April 1922. He then toured with Olsen's stock company, and ended up at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he both acted and directed.

1921

In real life, Foulger was not as much of a pushover as the characters he played. In one memorable incident at a party he threatened to punch Errol Flynn for flirting with his wife, the Actress Dorothy Adams, with whom he was married from 1921 until his death in 1970.

1932

Foulger made his first three films in 1932 and 1936 with small roles in Night World (1932), The Little Minister, and The President's Mystery, the latter based on a story by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. However, his film career did not start in earnest until 1937 after he performed opposite Mae West in a racy 'Adam and Eve' Sketch on the Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy network radio program which resulted in West being banned from the airwaves almost immediately. (Foulger played the voice of the serpent.) From this point on, Foulger worked steadily in motion pictures.

1940

In the 1940s, Foulger was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in five films written by Sturges, The Great McGinty, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (recreating the role of McGinty's secretary he played in The Great McGinty) and The Great Moment. In "A" pictures, such as those of Sturges', Foulger would often not receive a screen credit: in B movies such as 1939's The Man They Could Not Hang, he would get more substantial billed parts.

1950

Beginning in 1950, Foulger made over 90 appearances on television, in programs such as Death Valley Days, I Love Lucy, The Cisco Kid, My Little Margie, The Man Behind the Badge, The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Lawman, The Red Skelton Show, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Burke's Law, Daniel Boone, Hazel, The Patty Duke Show, The Monkees, Perry Mason, Laredo and Gunsmoke. He played multiple-episode characters on Dennis the Menace ("Mr. Timberlake"), Lassie ("Dan Porter") and The Andy Griffith Show ("Fred, the hotel clerk"). On Petticoat Junction he played two recurring roles: "Mr. Guerney" and Engineer "Wendell Gibbs".

1959

Notable later television credits included the 1959 Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance" – in which Gig Young tells Foulger, who is playing a drugstore counterman, that he thinks he's seen him before, to which Foulger replies: "I've got that kind of face" – the short-lived comedies My Mother the Car (as one of the villain's browbeaten advisors) and Captain Nice (as the hero's often silent father), and The Mod Squad, his last appearance in episodic television.

1970

Byron Foulger's last film appearances were in The Love War, a made-for-TV movie, and There Was a Crooked Man..., both in 1970. He died of heart problems in Hollywood on 4 April of that year at the age of 70, and is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Foulger died on the same day the final episode of Petticoat Junction was broadcast, in which he played train Engineer Wendell Gibbs in the 1968–1969 season. He was survived by his wife Dorothy Adams and daughter, Rachel Ames, both actresses.