A Look Back At John Anderson. Film and TV Actor

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John Anderson. 1922-1992.

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Blog Created: 6-19-2025

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John Robert Anderson (October 20, 1922 – August 7, 1992) was an American actor.

Life and career ~

Anderson was born in 1922 and raised in Clayton, Illinois. He served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He also held a master's degree in drama from the University of Iowa.

Anderson started out on Broadway, including an appearance in the musical Paint Your Wagon in 1951. He later worked primarily in film and television.

Standing 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm), he bore a strong resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, whom he portrayed three times. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) as used car salesman "California Charlie", who sells a car to Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). On television, he appeared in such series as The Rockford Files, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Laramie, Have Gun – Will Travel , The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Virginian, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Californians, Johnny Ringo, Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Trackdown, The Big Valley, Tales of Wells Fargo, Emergency!, The Incredible Hulk, MacGyver and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (episode "Cradle of the Deep").

Anderson was cast on The Rat Patrol four times (three of those occasions as the same character). He also made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, which include the episodes "The Case of the Calendar Girl" (1959), "The Case of the Bartered Bikini" (1959), and "The Case of the Greek Goddess". In 1959 Anderson appeared as Sergeant Bulla, in the TV series Steve Canyon in the Season 1/Episode 24, that was titled "The Bomb". In 1961 Anderson appeared as Hassayampa Edwards in the TV western Lawman in the episode titled "Hassayampa". He can also be seen in other series produced in this period, such as Overland Trail, The Tall Man, and The Legend of Jesse James. He portrays an eccentric farmer who jealously guards his prize watermelon with a shotgun in "For the Love of Willadean: A Taste of Melon", a story originally broadcast on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1964.

In 1966 he starred as "Les McConnell", the brains & front man for a murderous bank robbing gang in a rare two part episode of Gunsmoke called "The Raid" (S11, E19) along with actors Michael Conrad, Jim Davis, Richard Jaeckel & Gary Lockwood.

Anderson had a recurring role in MacGyver as Harry Jackson, MacGyver's grandfather. Other credits include: Man Without a Gun; Hawaii Five-O; M*A*S*H as Major General Collins; Once an Eagle; Rich Man, Poor Man Book II; Backstairs at the White House; Star Trek: The Next Generation and Dallas. A recurring Twilight Zone actor, he appeared in four different episodes: "A Passage for Trumpet", "The Odyssey of Flight 33", "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" and "The Old Man in the Cave". He was also The Interrogator on an episode of The Outer Limits titled "Nightmare".

The first release of the 1993 soundtrack album Music from the Television Series Quantum Leap was dedicated to him. He had been featured in the fourth season episode "The Last Gunfighter" of that sci-fi series as Pat Knight; the episode had first aired about six months before his death.

Personal life and death ~

On June 8, 1946, Anderson married Patricia A. Cason in the rectory of St. Boniface Catholic Church in Quincy and the couple moved to Iowa City, where Anderson studied in the liberal arts college at the University of Iowa and earned his master's degree in drama. Anderson was married to Cason until her death on February 18, 1989. Three years later, Anderson suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, at the age of 69.