Lawrence Dobkin (September 16, 1919 – October 28, 2002) was an American television director, character actor and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades.
Dobkin was a prolific performer during the Golden Age of Radio. He narrated the western Broken Arrow (1950). His film performances include Never Fear (1949), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), North by Northwest (1959) and Geronimo (1962). Before the closing credits of each episode of the landmark ABC television network series Naked City (1958–1963), he said, "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."[1]
While playing Louie, "The Saint"'s cab-driving sidekick on NBC Radio in 1951, he was asked to step into the lead role of Simon Templar to replace Tom Conway for a single episode — making Dobkin one of the many actors to portray Leslie Charteris' literary creation.[5]
Other radio work included Escape (1947–1954); Gunsmoke (1952–1961); Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1956–1960); and the anthology series Lux Radio Theater. "The few of us who are left," Dobkin said of his radio days not long before he died, "keep telling each other that we never had it so good."[1]
Dobkin began a prolific career in television in 1946, having worked as an actor, narrator and director. In 1953, he guest-starred on Alan Hale, Jr.'s short-lived CBS espionage series set in the Cold War, Biff Baker, U.S.A.. He was cast in a 1957 episode of the syndicated series The Silent Service, in "The Ordeal of the S 38", based on true stories of the submarine division of the United States Navy, in which he was the lead actor and was credited incorrectly as Lawrence Bodkin. He appeared also in the religion anthology series, Crossroads, based on experiences of American clergymen, and later on the ABC religion drama, Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly.
In the 1950s situation comedyI Love Lucy Dobkin played the roles of "Restaurant Man" in episode 66 ("Ricky and Fred Are TV Fans"), "Waiter" in episode 70 ("Equal Rights"), and "Counterfeiter" in episode 145 ("Paris at Last").[6]
In 1957, Dobkin appeared in the third episode of the first season of the CBS Television western Have Gun – Will Travel, entitled "The Great Mohave Chase", as the owner of water rights in the small western town of Mohave.
In the May 9, 1958 episode of the CBS Television western series Trackdown entitled, "The End of the World", he portrays a con man named Walter Trump who promises to save a town from destruction by building a wall. Internet posts of this episode have gone viral due to its resemblance to real life US President Donald Trump and his controversial policy on immigration.[7][8]
In 1960, Dobkin appeared as Kurt Reynolds in the episode "So Dim the Light" of the CBS anthology seriesThe DuPont Show with June Allyson, and as an escape artist on the run from a possible murder charge in Wanted: Dead or Alive. That same year he played "Esteban Garcia" (a long time friend of Marshal Dillon where things go very wrong) in the TV Western Gunsmoke, in the episode "Don Matteo" (S6E7). He appeared in the David Janssen crime drama series, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Dobkin appeared in four episodes of The Rifleman playing four different characters, including a heartfelt portrayal of General Philip Sheridan from the American Civil War. He appeared in an episode of The Tab Hunter Show in 1961. In 1964 he narrated the USIS documentary film about the Republican and Democrat conventions called "1964 The Conventions."
He began directing for television in 1960, and his work in this area included episodes 1, 9, 10, and 13 of The Munsters (1964),[12] 16 episodes of The Waltons (1972–1981), and an episode of Sara (1976). Dobkin also guest-starred on a 1983 episode of Knight Rider.
Films
Dobkin's notable supporting film roles include Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Julius Caesar (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Defiant Ones (1958), Johnny Yuma (1966) and Patton (1970). He had a cameo appearance in the 1954 sci-fi thriller Them. In an uncredited performance in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Dobkin has a memorable line as an intelligence official who remarks on the plight of the hapless protagonist, on the run for murder after being mistaken for a person who doesn't exist: "It's so horribly sad. Why is it I feel like laughing?" [citation needed]
Personal life
On June 24, 1962, Dobkin married actress Joanna Barnes; they had no children, but he had one daughter, Debra Dobkin, by his first wife, Frances Hope Walker. Dobkin married actress Anne Collings in 1970 and had two children: identical twin daughters, Kristy and Kaela.[citation needed]
Death
On October 28, 2002, Dobkin died of heart failure at age 83 at his Los Angeles home.[2]
^Nick at Nite's Classic TV Companion. pp. 358–359, 361–363. The episodes are numbered in the order they were broadcast which is not the same order in which they were filmed which notes that episode 2 was actually made first
