Max Showalter

About Max Showalter

Who is it?: Actor, Soundtrack, Music Department
Birth Day: June 02, 1917
Birth Place:  Caldwell, Kansas, United States
Died On: July 30, 2000(2000-07-30) (aged 83)\nMiddletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Birth Sign: Cancer
Resting place: Caldwell City Cemetery, Kansas, U.S.
Other names: Casey Adams
Occupation: Actor, composer, pianist, singer
Years active: 1935–84

Max Showalter Net Worth

Max Showalter was born on June 02, 1917 in  Caldwell, Kansas, United States, is Actor, Soundtrack, Music Department. Born in Kansas, Max Showalter picked up the "acting bug" as a toddler when mother used to take him to the local theater where she played the piano for silent movies. He acted in 92 shows at the Pasadena Playhouse between 1935 and '38, made his Broadway debut under the aegis of Oscar Hammerstein II in "Knights of Song" and acted for two years in the cast of Irving Berlin's traveling musical "This Is the Army." In addition to his films, TV appearances (over 1000), and stage shows, Showalter was a composer, a songwriter, and pianist. In his later years he lived in an 18th-century farmhouse in the Connecticut town he fell in love with while shooting the movie It Happened to Jane (1959).
Max Showalter is a member of Actor

💰Max Showalter Net worth: $1.5 Million

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Biography/Timeline

1889

Showalter was born in Caldwell, Kansas, the son of Elma Roxanna (Dodson) Showalter (1889–1953), a music Teacher, and Ira Edward Showalter (1887–1953), who worked in the oil industry and was also a banker and farmer. He developed a Desire for acting as a toddler while accompanying his mother to local theatres where she played piano for silent movies.

1930

By the late 1930s, Showalter had multiple stage roles under his belt, including acting in productions of the Pasadena Playhouse. He soon made his Broadway to debut in Knights of Song. Showalter also appeared in the traveling musical This Is the Army for two years and in other notable Broadway productions like Make Mine Manhattan and The Grass Harp. His most memorable stage role was as Horace Vandergelder in the Broadway hit show, Hello Dolly!. Showalter performed the role more than 3,000 times opposite Carol Channing, Betty Grable and Ethel Merman.

1940

In the late 1940s, Showalter was signed to 20th Century Fox as a featured contract player. His name was changed by Fox's founder, Darryl F. Zanuck to the more "bankable" Casey Adams.

1949

He made his feature film debut in Always Leave Them Laughing (1949). He first appeared on live television in the short-lived musical variety series The Swift Show (1948–49), also known as The Lanny Ross Show.

1950

In the 1950s, Showalter took a hiatus from his work in Hollywood, returning to Caldwell, Kansas, to care for his 15-year-old sister who was orphaned by the death of their parents in an automobile accident. Their deaths followed the death of Showalter's brother, Robert, in a car wreck two years earlier. After "a couple of years" he returned to Hollywood and resumed his career.

1952

Showalter's second feature film was the biopic With a Song in My Heart (1952), where he had a small role as a vaudeville performer. In the film, Showalter, along with David Wayne, sang the song "Hoe that Corn", which he also wrote. He appeared in Niagara (1953) alongside Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten. He made a cameo as a Life magazine Photographer in another Monroe movie, Bus Stop, in 1956.

1956

In 1956, Showalter (as Casey Adams) recorded an album of his own music, Casey Adams Plays and Sings Max Showalter Songs (Foremost Records FML-1004). He was one of the artists featured on The Secret Garden, a 1988 CBS Special Products album containing performances of music from the musical of that title that "has played the repertory circuit in England."

1960

In the 1960s, Showalter reclaimed his original name and continued to land roles in such big-budget films as Elmer Gantry (1960), The Music Man (1962), and How to Murder Your Wife (1965). He worked through the 1960s and 1970s. He made six appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murderer Carl Reynolds in the 1958 episode, "The Case of the Curious Bride," murder victim Burt Stokes in "The Case of the Wandering Widow" in 1960, and murderer Talbot Sparr in the 1964 episode, "The Case of the Ugly Duckling." He made appearances in other television series like The Twilight Zone (the iconic episode "It's a Good Life"), The Lucy Show, Gunsmoke, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Bewitched, Dr. Kildare, Surfside 6, The Doris Day Show, Kojak, Police Story, The Bob Newhart Show, as well as in cult films, Lord Love a Duck, The Anderson Tapes and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the 1979 film 10, he famously played a pastor whose hobby was writing (bad) songs. He was also a regular cast member in the short-lived 1980 TV series, The Stockard Channing Show. Showalter made his last onscreen appearance in the John Hughes film Sixteen Candles (1984).

1963

Show Business columnist Hedda Hopper reported in a 1963 newspaper column that Showalter had sold 139 paintings and would have his first one-man show.

1984

In 1984, Showalter retired from acting and moved to an 18th-century farmhouse in Chester, Connecticut, near the area where he acted in the film, It Happened to Jane (1959). Showalter became involved in local musical theatre, including the Ivoryton Playhouse, and went on to produce, direct, write, and narrate the Christmas musical Touch of a Child. Also, Showalter spent much of his free time painting oil miniatures.

2000

On July 30, 2000, Max Showalter died of cancer in Middletown, Connecticut. He was 83 years old.