Walter Baldwin

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Walter S Baldwin Jr January 2 1889 January 27 1977 was a prolific character actor whose career spanned five decades and 150 film and television roles and numerous stage performances Baldwin was born in Lima Ohio from a theatrical family and served in the First World War He was probably best known for playing the father of the handicapped sailor in The Best Years of Our Lives He was the first actor to portray Floyd the Barber on The Andy Griffith Show Prior to his first film roles in 1939 Baldwin had appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays He played Whit in the first Broadway production of Of Mice and Men and also appeared in the original Grand Hotel in a small role as well as serving as the productions stage manager He originated the role of Bensinger the prissy Chicago Tribune reporter in the Broadway production of The Front Page In the 1960s he had small acting roles in television shows such as Petticoat Junction and Green Acres He continued to act in motion pictures and one of his last roles was in Rosemarys Baby Baldwin was known for playing solid middle class burghers although sometimes he gave portrayals of eccentric characters He played a customer seeking a prostitute in The Lost Weekend and the rebellious prison trusty Orvy in Cry of the City Walter Baldwin was featured in a lot of John Deere Day Movies from 194959 where he played the farmer Tom Gordon In this series of Deere Day movies over a decade he helped to introduce many new pieces of John Deere farm equipment yearbyyear In each yearly movie he would be shown on his in A Tom Gordon Family Film where he would be buying new John Deere farm equipment or a new green and yellow tractorA picture of Walter Baldwin playing Tom Gordon can be found on page 108 of Bob Pripps book John Deere Yesterday Today Hal Erickson writes in Allmovie With a pinched Midwestern countenance that enabled him to portray taciturn farmers obsequious grocery store clerks and the occasional sniveling coward Baldwin was a familiar if often unbilled presence in Hollywood films for three decades