If you love the classics like I do, you'll recognize this guy. No, not classic country songs, I'm talking classic television shows.

I love METV (and gee, I'm still holding out hope that MidContinent Cable will get it back on Channel 14) and the other cable stations that play our 'old' favorites.

There were a number of actors that would pop up on dozens of those great classics.  You know, the man or woman you'd see in an episode of Dragnet and think to yourself, "Hmm, he looks familiar," but you can't quite place him.

Well, you probably saw him (or her) in Bonanza. And Zorro. And Rawhide. And I Love Lucy. And a dozen other hit shows. And probably in some movies, too.

The great character actors. The people that are guest stars, or who help fill in the story for that episode. Maybe a lawyer, maybe a doctor, maybe the bad guy.

One of those guy's is the man pictured above. You know the face, but you don't know the name.

Well, the name is John Dehner. Between 1941 and 1988 television shows and films. From Rawhide to Combat, F Troop to Wild Wild West, The Rifleman to The Andy Griffith Show, John Dehner was in them all, and hundreds more.

Perhaps I remember him best from The Twilight Zone. He was in a famous episode called "The Jungle."  He was the guy that came back from Africa and brought along a curse with him that no one believes. Well, at the end there's a lion in his bed. Yeah, that's how The Twilight Zone worked.

Born in 1915 in Staten Island, New York, this great actor passed away at the age of 76 from emphysema and diabetes.

But wow!  Did he leave some great characters for us to enjoy from years past and for years to come!

 

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