Simon Oakland (August 28, 1915 – August 29, 1983) was an American actor of stage, screen, and television.
During his career, Oakland performed primarily on television, appearing in over 130 series and made-for-television movies between 1951 and 1983. His most notable big-screen roles were in ''
Psycho
Psycho may refer to:
Mind
* Psychopath
* Sociopath
* Someone with a personality disorder
* Someone with a psychological disorder
People with the nickname
* Karl Amoussou or Psycho, mixed martial artist
* Peter Ebdon or Psycho, English snook ...
'' (1960), ''
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid- ...
'' (1961), ''
The Sand Pebbles'' (1966), ''
Bullitt
''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The screenplay by Alan Trustman, Alan R. Trustman and H ...
'' (1968), ''
The Hunting Party'' (1971), and ''
Chato's Land'' (1972).
Early life and career
Oakland was born in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...
, the eldest of the three sons of immigrant Jewish parents, Jacob Weiss and Ethel Oaklander, born in Romania and Tsarist Russia, respectively.
His father was a plasterer and builder.
[ While he later claimed in media interviews to have been born in 1922][ (a date repeated in his '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' obituary), Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
and vital records
Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In ...
indicate he was born Simon Weiss in 1915; his stage name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
was derived from his mother's maiden name, Oaklander.
He began his performing
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
career as a musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...
(he was a violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
ist, an avocation
An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...
he pursued during his entire career as an actor). Oakland began his acting career in the late 1940s. He enjoyed a series of Broadway hits, including ''Light Up the Sky'', '' The Shrike'', and '' Inherit the Wind'', and theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
was one of his lasting passions. He was a concert violinist until the 1940s.
Film and television
In 1955, Oakland made his film debut, albeit uncredited, as an Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
state trooper in '' The Desperate Hours''. He next appeared in two films released in 1958: as Mavrayek in ''The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...
'' and as journalist Edward Montgomery in '' I Want to Live!''
Oakland's notable performance in ''I Want to Live!'' led to his playing a long series of bullying tough-guy types, usually in positions of authority, but sometimes as villains, or as an admixture of both. He appeared in ''Psycho'' as the psychiatrist who, at the end of the film, explains Norman Bates
Norman Bates is a fictional character created by American author Robert Bloch as the main antagonist in his 1959 thriller novel ''Psycho''. He has an alter, Mother, who takes from the form of his abusive mother, and later victim, Norma, wh ...
's multiple personality disorder
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states.
The di ...
. He appeared in ''West Side Story'', ''The Sand Pebbles'', and ''Bullitt''. He made two guest appearances on CBS's '' Perry Mason'', both times as the murder victim. He also appeared in the syndicated
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
crime drama, ''Decoy
A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lur ...
'', starring Beverly Garland
Beverly Lucy Garland (née Fessenden; October 17, 1926 – December 5, 2008) was an American actress. Her work in feature films primarily consisted of small parts in a few major productions or leads in low-budget action or science-fiction movie ...
. Oakland appeared once on the CBS Western '' Dundee and the Culhane'' and once on the series ''Sheriff of Cochise''.
He was a regular, as General Thomas Moore, on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
's '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'', starring Robert Conrad
Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk; March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020) was an American film and television actor, singer, and stuntman. He is best known for his role in the 1965–1969 television series ''The Wild Wild West'', playin ...
. He also appeared in two episodes of the original ''The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television program, television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dysto ...
'' TV series and in ''The Outer Limits ''The Outer Limits'' or ''Outer Limits'' may refer to:
Television
* ''The Outer Limits'' (1963 TV series), a black-and-white science fiction series that aired from 1963 to 1965
* ''The Outer Limits'' (1995 TV series), a revival of the older series ...
'' as the alien birdman in " Second Chance". In 1974 and 1975, he was a series regular on '' Kolchak: The Night Stalker'', playing newspaper editor Tony Vincenzo. (He had previously played the same character in the two made-for-television movies that served as the pilot for the series.)
During the 1970s, Oakland appeared in multiple episodes of ''The Rockford Files
''The Rockford Files'' is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigat ...
'', three times as blustery private detective Vern St. Cloud.
Personal life
Oakland was married to Lois Lorraine Porta. The couple had one daughter, Barbara.
Death
Oakland continued working up to the year of his death. His last credited acting appearance was in the episode "Living and Presumed Dead" on the CBS television series '' Tucker's Witch''. That episode aired three months before Oakland's death from colon cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...
in Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second lar ...
, on August 29, 1983, the day after his 68th birthday.
TV and filmography
Notes
References
External links
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*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakland, Simon
1915 births
1983 deaths
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from colorectal cancer
People from Brooklyn
Male actors from New York City
Male actors from Los Angeles
20th-century American male actors
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Western (genre) television actors