Donald Woods

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Donald Woods born Ralph Lewis Zink December 2 1906 March 5 1998 was a CanadianAmerican film and television actor whose career in Hollywood spanned six decades Born in Brandon Manitoba Woods moved with his family to California and was raised in Burbank A son of William and Margaret Zink Presbyterians of German descent His younger brother Clarence Russell Zink also became an actor Russ Conway Woods graduated from the University of California Berkeley and made his film debut in 1928 His screen career was spent mostly in B movies for example as lawyer Perry Mason in the 1937 film The Case of the Stuttering Bishop He also occasionally played major roles in bigger feature films like A Tale of Two Cities 1935 Anthony Adverse 1936 Watch on the Rhine 1943 The Bridge of San Luis Rey 1944 and Roughly Speaking 1945 Of considerable importance to his acting career were several seasons as leading man with the Elitch Gardens Theatre Company in Denver Colorado where he performed in 1932 1933 1939 1941 1947 and 1948 In the early days of television Woods starred as the title character in the 1951 syndicated TV series Craig Kennedy Criminologist and he was the host of Damon Runyon Theater on CBSTV He played himself on the dramatic series Hotel Cosmopolitan also on CBS and he was one of three hosts of The Orchid Award on ABCTV He portrayed Walter Manning on Portia Faces Life on CBS He also appeared in such anthology series as The Philco Television Playhouse Armstrong Circle Theatre Robert Montgomery Presents The United States Steel Hour Crossroads and General Electric Theater On April 11 1961 Woods appeared as Profesor Landfield in the episode Two for the Gallows on NBCs Laramie western series Series character Slim Sherman John Smith is hired under false pretenses to take Landfield into the Badlands to seek gold Landfield however is really Morgan Bennett a member of the former Henry Plummer gang who has escaped from prison Slim has no idea that Lanfield is seeking the loot that his gang had hidden away Series character Jess Harper Robert Fuller Pete Dixon played by Warren Oates and Petes younger brother soon come to Slims aid The title stems from the talk that the undisciplined Dixon brothers might eventually wind up on a hangmans noose Woods later was a regular in the role of John Brent on the shortlived series Tammy and made guest appearances on Bat Masterson Wagon Train Ben Casey 77 Sunset Strip Hawaiian Eye Stoney Burke Bourbon Street Beat Bonanza Coronet Blue Ironside Alias Smith and Jones The Wild Wild West and Owen Marshall Counselor at Law among many others before retiring from acting in 1976 Besides his film career he also worked as a successful real estate broker in Palm Springs where he lived with his wife childhood sweetheart Josephine Van der Horck They were married from 1933 until his death and had two children Linda and Conrad He was interred at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City California