Peter Whitney (born Peter King Engle; May 24, 1916 – March 30, 1972) was an American actor in film and television. Tall and heavyset, he played brutish villains in many Hollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s.
In the 1958–1959 season, Whitney had a co-starring role as Buck Sinclair, a former sergeant of the Union Army, in all 39 episodes of the ABC Western series The Rough Riders.[2] He also guest-starred on the ABC/Warner Brothers Western series Colt .45. He performed the part of Ralph in the 1958 episode "Mantrap".[3] He played United States Secret Service agent Gunnerson in the episode "Savage Hills," and Brock in "Dodge City or Bust" on the ABC/WB series, Maverick. In 1960, in the episode "Surface of Truth" of another ABC/WB Western series, Lawman, Whitney played Lucas Beyer, a crude white man who has lived for ten years with the Cheyenne Indians.[4]
Whitney made three guest appearances on the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason: in 1961 he performed as the character Roger Gates in "The Case of the Pathetic Patient"; in 1962, as prison escapee Stefan "Big Steve" Jahnchek in "The Case of the Stand-in Sister"; and in 1965, as Captain Otto Varnum in "The Case of the Wrongful Writ."
He also did well as a comedy actor, making four appearances on "The Beverly Hillbillies" as the oafish Lafayette "Lafe" Crick.
Peter Whitney's final role on television was that of a grave robber in writer Rod Serling's series Night Gallery, in a 1972 episode segment titled "Deliveries in the Rear".[5]
Wagon Train (1958–1965, TV Series) – Buster Blee / Sheriff Pincus / Judd / Kempton / Sergeant Pat Galloway / El Landron / Rodney Miller
The Rifleman (1959–1963, TV Series) – Nebeneezer Jackman / Vantine / Neb Jackman / John Holliver / Vince Fergus / Ott Droshek / Andrew Bechtel / John Jupiter / Tracey Blanch
Rawhide (1960, TV Series) – Anton Zwahlen (A Swiss gunsmith sabotages the drovers' weapons in an ingenious attempt to rustle part of the herd. Kessle: Peter Whitney (not Werner Klemperer) Maria: Lili Kardell. Favor: Eric Fleming. Rowdy: Clint Eastwood.)[citation needed]
Death Valley Days (1961–1966, TV Series) – Captain Joe Fuller / Judge Roy Bean / Peter the Hunter / Nat Halper / Joe Meekes
Perry Mason (1961–1965, TV Series) – Roger Gates / Stefan "Big Steve" Jahnchek / Captain Otto Varnum
Straightaway (1961) – Sam Cook (episode "The Heist")
^Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 912. ISBN978-0-7864-6477-7.