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James Olson

Acting

Born October 8, 1930 · Evanston, Illinois, USA

Died April 17, 2022

Biography

James Olson (October 8, 1930 – April 17, 2022) was an American actor. From 1952 until 1954, he was a military policeman in the United States Army. He performed stage work in and around Chicago before his 1956 film debut in The Sharkfighters. His Broadway credits include Of Love Remembered (1967), Slapstick Tragedy (1966), The Three Sisters (1964), The Chinese Prime Minister (1964), Romulus (1962), J.B. (1958), The Sin of Pat Muldoon (1957), and The Young and Beautiful (1955). He starred alongside Joanne Woodward in the Academy Award nominee for Best Picture Rachel, Rachel in 1968. He made numerous stage, feature film, and TV appearances from the mid-1950s until 1990, when he retired. On television, Olson portrayed Mickey Mantle in The Life of Mickey Mantle. His other TV appearances included guest roles on scores of shows, including episodes of Kraft Television Theatre; Ironside; Murder, She Wrote; Little House on the Prairie; Hawaii Five-O; Battlestar Galactica; Lou Grant; The Bionic Woman; Wonder Woman; Mannix; Bonanza; Have Gun-Will Travel; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Police Woman; Barnaby Jones; The New Land; Columbo; Maude; The Virginian; The Streets of San Francisco; and Cannon. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Olson (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography38 titles

Columbo

1971as Paul Rifkin

Little House on the Prairie

1974as Reverend Jacob Danforth

Kung Fu

1972as Damion

Murder, She Wrote

1984as Clarence La Rue

Bonanza

1959as Vance

Have Gun, Will Travel

1957

McCloud

1970

Hawaii Five-O

1968as Bernie Brown

Battlestar Galactica

1978as Thane

The Andromeda Strain

1971as Dr. Mark Hall

Ragtime

1981as Father

The Bionic Woman

1976

Wonder Woman

1975as Wotan

Barnaby Jones

1973as Randall Stone

Police Story

1973

The Streets of San Francisco

1972

McMillan & Wife

1971as W.T. Knox

Maude

1972as Sen. Bob Myers

The Rookies

1972

Ironside

1967as Marvin Bosner

Mannix

1967

Commando

1985as Major General Franklin Kirby

Route 66

1960

Gunsmoke

1955as Bede Stalcup

Rachel, Rachel

1968as Nick Kazlik

Police Woman

1974

Wild Rovers

1971as Joe Billings

Paper Man

1971as Art Fletcher

Incident on a Dark Street

1973as Joe Dubbs

The Stalking Moon

1968as Cavalry Officer (uncredited)

Amityville II: The Possession

1982as Father Adamsky

The Sharkfighters

1956as Ens. Harold Duncan

The F.B.I.

1965as George Breen

Crescendo

1970as Georges Ryman / Jacques Ryman

The Spell

1977as Glenn

Moon Zero Two

1969as Capt. William H. Kemp

The Parade

1984as Andy Janacek

Strange New World

1975as Surgeon