Russell Lee Arms (February 3, 1920 – February 13, 2012) was an American

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

Career

Arms was born on February 3, 1920 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, gaining acting experience via the

Pasadena Playhouse Pasadena Playhouse is a Tony Award-winning historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engag ...

. He began his career on

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

, including working at WNEW in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He moved up to minor screen roles 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 ...

as a contract player with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

In his screen debut, he played Richard, the son of the Stanleys, in 1942's ''

The Man Who Came to Dinner ''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' is a comedy play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939, at the Music Box Theatre in New York City, where it ran until 1941, closing after 739 performances. It then enjoyed a number of ...

''. He later worked as a freelance performer, mostly in

Westerns The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...

. Subsequently, he appeared in supporting roles in both

feature films A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. In 1953 he played the role of Chester Finley, a piano instructor and hopeful suitor to

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...

, in the film '' By the Light of the Silvery Moon''. From 1952 to 1957, he was best known as a

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

on ''

Your Hit Parade ''Your Hit Parade'' is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During its 24-year r ...

'', an NBC

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

that reviewed the popular

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s of the day and on which a regular cast of vocalists would perform the top seven songs of the week. Arms and Eileen Wilson (who starred on the show from 1950 to 1952) were the only surviving lead performers from the show until Arms' death in 2012. He authored an autobiography in 2005, ''My Hit Parade... and a Few Misses''. During his career as a singer, he was also well known for his 1957 hit single, "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)", which entered the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

on January 12, 1957 and stayed there for 15 weeks, peaking at No. 22. In 1957, he released the album ''Where Can A Wanderer Go'', on the Era label. The same year he was a singer on ''The Hidden Treasure Show'', "the first nationwide quiz show in which home viewers win the money...". The syndicated program was sponsored by

Disabled American Veterans The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is an organization created in 1920 by World War I veterans for disabled military veterans of the United States Armed Forces that helps them and their families through various means. It was issued a federal ch ...

. On television dramas, Arms made three guest appearances on ''

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 Attorney Everett Dorrell in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Credulous Quarry", and as Roger Correll in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Greek Goddess". Additionally, he appeared in the 1961 episode "Bad Sheriff" on the long-running series ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central charact ...

'', portraying a crooked lawman who tries to keep the money seized by

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

robbers. For the next two decades he continued to act periodically in other television series, including 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 ...

sitcom ''

Ichabod and Me ''Ichabod and Me'' is an American sitcom television series starring Robert Sterling and George Chandler that aired in the United States during the 1961–62 United States network television schedule, 1961–62 television season. It depicts the l ...

'' in 1962 and the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

drama '' Gibbsville'' in 1976. A 1958 newspaper story about Arms noted, "Although Arms started in show business as an actor, he became a singer 'by accident,' and now he can't get anyone to believe he can act. 'I'm now in the process of proving them wrong,' he said."

Personal life

Arms and his second wife, Mary Lynne, resided in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

for many years. They then moved to

Hamilton, Illinois Hamilton is a city in Hancock County, Illinois, Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,753 at the 2020 census, a decline from 2,951 in 2010. The city is located directly across the Mississippi River from Keokuk, Iowa. Hami ...

, where Arms died on February 13, 2012, aged 92.

Filmography

Partial discography

*''The Touch'' (1954 - Epic 5-9079) *''Cinco Robles'' (1957 - Era 1026) *''Evangeline'' (1957 - Era 1033)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arms, Russell 1920 births 2012 deaths Male actors from Berkeley, California American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male pop singers American male television actors Era Records artists Musicians from Berkeley, California United States Army officers 20th-century American male actors American male radio actors Singer-songwriters from California Male actors from Palm Springs, California People from Hamilton, Illinois Country musicians from California Country musicians from Illinois 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Illinois Military personnel from California Military personnel from Illinois