Henry Beckman (26 November 1921 – 17 June 2008) was a Canadian stage, film and television actor.

Career

Beckman appeared in well over 100 productions in the United States and Canada, including recurring roles as Commander Paul Richards in the 1954 ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes Space warfare in science fiction, space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, i ...

television series, Bob Mulligan in the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

I'm Dickens, He's Fenster ''I'm Dickens, He's Fenster'' is an American sitcom starring John Astin and Marty Ingels that ran on ABC from September 28, 1962, to May 10th, 1963. Synopsis The series starred John Astin and Marty Ingels as Harry Dickens and Arch Fenster, ...

'', George Anderson in the television adaptation of '' Peyton Place'', Captain Clancey in the Western comedy-drama ''

Here Come the Brides ''Here Come the Brides'' is an American comedy Western television series from Screen Gems that aired on the ABC television network from September 25, 1968, to April 3, 1970. It was loosely based on Asa Mercer's efforts in the 1860s to import m ...

'', Harry Mark on '' Bronk'', conniving

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Douglas Harrigan in ''

McHale's Navy ''McHale's Navy'' is an American sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine that aired 138 half-hour episodes over four seasons, from October 11, 1962, to April 12, 1966, on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network. The series was filmed i ...

'', Colonel Platt in the 1965 movie '' McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force'', and as a sheriff in an episode of '' Rango''. He made four guest appearances on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

courtroom drama series ''

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and four short stories, all of which involve a ...

'', including the role of David in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Flighty Father", as Sydney L. Garth in the 1962 episode "The Case of the Captain's Coins", as Albert King in the 1965 episode "The Case of the Wrongful Writ" and as William March in the 1966 episode "The Case of the Dead Ringer". He made a guest appearance as Cody on '' Honey West'' "A Matter of Wife and Death" (episode 4) in 1965. In the 1980s he appeared in '' Kane & Abel'', played the security guard Alf on the

Don Adams Donald James Yarmy (April 13, 1923 – September 25, 2005), known professionally as Don Adams, was an American actor. In his five decades on television, he was best known as bumbling Maxwell Smart (Secret Agent 86) in the television situa ...

sitcom '' Check It Out!'', and was also a non-celebrity contestant on the TV game show ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...

''. He continued to act through his late seventies on shows like ''

The Commish ''The Commish'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC in the United States from September 28, 1991, to January 11, 1996. The series focuses on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in fictional Eastb ...

'' and ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the MacGyver (1985 TV series), 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in Mac ...

'', and he had a recurring role in ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...

'' for several seasons.

Awards/legacy

Beckman won two Canadian Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor, in 1975 for '' Why Rock the Boat?'' and in 1978 for '' Blood and Guts''. With his first wife, actress Cheryl Maxwell, Beckman founded the Dukes Oak Theater in

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

, and served as the theater company's producer.

War service

He served with the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army () is the command (military formation), command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also re ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, including the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

Landings at

Juno Beach Juno and or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allies (World War II), Allied invasion of German occupation of France during World War II, German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the World War II, Second Wo ...

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, on 6 June 1944.

Family

He is the father of astrophysicist and software engineer Brian Beckman.

Death

Beckman died in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain on 17 June 2008 with his second wife Hillary at his side.

Selected filmography

Television

References

External links

*
How to Sell your Film Project
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

Brian Beckman: On Analog Computing, Some Beckman History, and Life in the Universe
at Channel 9 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beckman, Henry 1921 births 2008 deaths Canadian male television actors Canadian male film actors Canadian male voice actors Canadian non-fiction writers Male actors from Halifax, Nova Scotia Writers from Halifax, Nova Scotia Best Supporting Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners 20th-century non-fiction writers Canadian expatriate male actors in the United States Canadian military personnel of World War II