Simon Oakland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon Oakland
Born August 28, 1915(1915-08-28)
Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Died August 29, 1983 (aged 68)
Cathedral City, California
United States

Simon Oakland (August 28, 1915 – August 29, 1983) was an American actor of stage, screen, and television. He was born in Brooklyn, New York City.

Contents

[edit] Early career

Oakland began his performing arts career as a musician (he was a violinist, a vocation he would enjoy his entire career as an actor). He began his acting career in the late 1940s. He enjoyed a series of Broadway hits, including Light Up the Sky, The Shrike and Inherit the Wind, and theater was one of his lasting passions. He was a concert violinist until the 1940's.

[edit] Moving to films and television

Simon Oakland as Anthony Vincenzo on Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
Simon Oakland as Anthony Vincenzo on Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Oakland made his film debut as the "tough, but compassionate" journalist who speaks up for Susan Hayward's Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! in 1958. Oakland would wind up playing this type often over the course of his career.

He went on to play a long series of tough guy types, usually on the right side of the law (or in positions of authority), most notably in Psycho, West Side Story, Captain Bennett in Bullitt, and as the cantankerous Antonio Vincenzo (Kolchak's boss) in the science fiction television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. A gifted actor, he often accepted roles that were inferior to his acting ability and often played on type rather than talent. He was highly respected by his co-workers as an actor; he died of cancer, one day after his 68th birthday (29 August 1983), in Cathedral City, California.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External links

Languages