“Forgotten Hollywood”- The F.B.I. Star Has Died…
Manny P. here…
There were two kinds of households in the US during the 1960s; families who watched the Ed Sullivan Show, and folks who turned to The F.B.I. as a television alternative. My dad never missed the weekly crime drama. The star of the iconic cop show was Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (right), who played Lewis Erskine.
He was the son of violin virtuoso Efrem Zimbalist and Alma Gluck, an acclaimed opera singer. Young Efrem studied the violin too, but, he developed more interest in acting. He spent the majority of his career in television, starring in 77 Sunset Strip, and guest starred on Maverick. Other small screen roles were on the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Murder She Wrote, and Hotel. In motion pictures, Zimbalist appeared in Harlow, Wait Until Dark, and Airport ’75. His daughter Stephanie also took up acting — and small-screen detective work, in the 1980s series Remington Steele. Her father had a recurring part as a con man.
Zimbalist joined fellow actors William Lundigan, Chill Wills, and Walter Brennan, in making appearances on behalf of US Senator Barry M. Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against President Lyndon B. Johnson. Zimbalist also maintained a strong personal relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, who requested technical accuracy for The F.B.I., and that agents be portrayed in the best possible light. Actors who played FBI employees were required by Hoover to undergo a background check. The Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation honored the character of Lewis Erskine in 1985 with a set of retired credentials. On June 8, 2009, FBI Director Robert Mueller presented Zimbalist with a plaque of an honorary special agent for his work on the television series.
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was 95.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2014 at 12:01 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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