Ned Payne Austin (April 29, 1925 – February 10, 2007) was an American character actor; he was also a member of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

and AFTRA. Austin was in several films, including ''

Annie Hall ''Annie Hall'' is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay written by Allen and Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer ...

'' and '' The Happy Ending'', and some regional movies and industrial films. He played the bridgemaster in

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

's directorial debut, ''

Maximum Overdrive ''Maximum Overdrive'' is a 1986 American horror film written and directed by Stephen King, in his only directorial effort. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, John Short, Yeardley Smith and Christopher Murney. The scr ...

'', where he introduced the phrase, "Can't you see we've got a situation here?!". After two seasons of summer stock in Surry, Maine, Austin starred as

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (, 1734September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyo ...

for the first three years (1952–1954) of '' Horn in the West'' in

Boone, North Carolina Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters of the disaster and me ...

and then moved to

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, where he appeared in about forty stage productions, in various theatre companies. His television credits include several children's shows and parts in '' Movin' On'', ''

Alias Smith and Jones ''Alias Smith and Jones'' is an American Western television series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973. The show initially starred Pete Duel (and, after Duel's death, Roger Davis) as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy ...

'', '' Route 66'', and a CBS movie of the week, '' Company of Killers'', as well as numerous commercials. Austin's son, Sam Austin, starred in the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

film '' Mountain Born'' in 1970, shot in

Telluride, Colorado Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County, Colorado, San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River (Colorado), San M ...

. Sam wrote the title song and became one of the youngest members of

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

at the age of 12. In 1972, Austin returned to

to live, and he continued to act in community theatre productions and in regionally produced films. He lived there for the remaining 35 years of his life, and died peacefully, in the house in which he was born.

External links

* American male film actors American male stage actors American male television actors People from Boone, North Carolina 1925 births 2007 deaths Male actors from Denver Male actors from North Carolina 20th-century American male actors {{US-theat-actor-1920s-stub