Bill Bixby
Bill Bixby (
January 22,
1934 â€"
November 21,
1993), was an
American actor,
director and frequent
game show panelist who starred in three popular American television series that spanned nearly two decades, as Tim O'Hara in
My Favorite Martian (
1963â€"
1966), as Tom Corbett, the title role in
The Courtship of Eddie's Father (
1969â€"
1972); and as Dr. David Banner in
The Incredible Hulk (
1978â€"
1982) with
Lou Ferrigno. He also starred in
The Magician (
1973) and in a short-lived comedy,
Goodnight Beantown with
Mariette Hartley in
1984.
An only child, he was born as
Wilfred Bailey Bixby, a fourth-generation Californian, in
San Francisco, California, his father, Wilfred Everett Bixby, was a store clerk and his mother, Jane Bixby, was a department store owner. His father was enlisted in the
Navy during
World War II and traveled to the
South Pacific when Bixby was 8. At the time Bixby lived with his mother in
1942, cousin and aunt and it was his mother who encouraged him to become an actor just like his aunt was. While in the seventh grade, he attended
Grace Cathedral and was popular with the church's
choir. However, in one notable incident, whilst a member of the choir he shot the Bishop using a slingshot during one service and was kicked off the choir. In
1946, his mother encouraged him to take
ballroom dance lessons and from there he started dancing all around the city. While dancing, he attended
Lowell High School where he perfected his oratory and dramatic skills as a member of the
Lowell Forensic Society. He competed in high school speech tournaments regionally. After graduation, against his parents' wishes, he majored in drama at
San Francisco City College and attended the
University of California, Berkeley, the same university his parents went to. However, he did not graduate. Just four credits short of earning a
degree, Bixby dropped out of college and was drafted into the
Marines.
He then moved to
Hollywood where he had a string of odd jobs that included bellhop and lifeguard. He organized shows at a resort in
Jackson Hole,
Wyoming. In
1959, he was hired to work as a model and do commercial work for
General Motors and
Chrysler.
In
1961, Bixby was in the musical
The Boyfriend at the Detroit Civic Theater, returning to Hollywood to make his screen acting debut on an episode of
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. As his name became known Bixby became a highly regarded
character actors of the
1960s and guest-starred in many TV series such as
Ben Casey,
The Twilight Zone,
The Andy Griffith Show,
Dr. Kildare and
Hennessey, amongst many others. He also joined the cast of
The Joey Bishop Show in 1962. During the
1970s, he made many more guest-appearances on TV series such as
Ironside,
Insight,
Barbary Coast,
The Love Boat,
Medical Center, four episodes of
Love, American Style,
Fantasy Island and two episodes of
The Streets of San Francisco, on which he was nominated for an
Emmy Award in
1976 for
Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in Drama or Comedy.
Bixby started in the
CBS sitcom in
1963 co-starring role as young news reporter Tim O'Hara who befriended an extraterrestrial played by
Ray Walston. The show was a ratings winner in its first year and it was ranked #10 for primetime programming. But by 1966, bad scripts and high production costs forced the series to come to an end after 107 episodes.
After the cancellation of
Martian, Bixby starred in four box-office movies:
Ride Beyond Vengeance (
1966), in which he played the evil, Johnsy Boy Hood,
You've Got to Be Kidding (
1967), and two of
Elvis Presley's movies,
Clambake (
1967), and
Speedway (
1968). He also turned down the role as
Marlo Thomas's boyfriend in
That Girl and starred in two failed pilots.
In
1969 Bixby starred in his second high profile television role, as Tom Corbett in the successful
dramedy show,
The Courtship of Eddie's Father for
ABC. The series concerned a widowed father who wants to spend more time with his young son while dating women and was based on the popular
1963 movie, starring
1950s screen icon,
Glenn Ford and
Ron Howard. Bixby's co-star on the show was
child actor Brandon Cruz and the pair had such a close chemistry that they developed a close friendship off the set. The cast was rounded out by
Academy Award winning
actress Miyoshi Umeki who played the role of Tom's maid, Mrs. Livingston, and
James Komack (one of the series' producers) as Norman Tinker, the head of another family.
One episode of the show co-starred Bixby's future wife
Brenda Benet as one of Tom's girlfriends. He was nominated for a
Emmy Award for
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1971, but did not win. The following year, he won the Parents Without Partners Exemplary Service Award for 1972. He also made his directorial debut on the show in 1970.
By its final season,
Courtships ratings had slumped, the scripts focused more on Komack's character and this led to friction between star and producer.
ABC pulled the plug on the
sitcom in
1972 after 73 episodes.
Bixby's relationship with Cruz remained strong after the series ended and Cruz was one of the first people to learn that Benet had given birth to the couple's son, Christopher, two years after the series cancellation.
In
1973, Bixby starred in
The Magician, playing Anthony Blake, but the series only lasted one season. He became a popular game show panelist, appearing mostly on
Password and
The Hollywood Squares. He was also a panelist on the 1974 revival of
Masquerade Party hosted by
Richard Dawson (of
Hogan's Heroes and
Family Feud fame). He worked with
Susan Blakely on
Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), a beautiful miniseries starring
Peter Strauss and
Nick Nolte. He had also appeared with Dawson on "Cop-Out". He co-starred with
Tim Conway and
Don Knotts in
The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975). Unlike the previous movies that Bixby starred in, this one received mediocre ratings. An accomplished amateur magician, Bixby also hosted several TV specials in the mid-1970s which featured other amateur magicians.
In late
1977 Bixby starred in a two-hour pilot movie called
The Incredible Hulk. Its success (coupled with some theatrical releases of the film in Europe) convinced CBS to turn it into a weekly science-fiction series which began airing in early
1978. The series was a hit and was seen in over 70 countries.
Bixby's character, Dr. David Banner, was a scientist/physician who, after an overdose of gamma radiation, turned into a green monster (played by bodybuilder
Lou Ferrigno) when he became angry. This involved a physical transformation in which Banner split open his shirts and shoes as he changed. Bixby felt that the make-up requirements for his part were onerous. Although it was a courageous move to star in a
science-
fiction series Bixby decided to take the risk after reading the script. The pilot episode featured Banner's popular catch phrase, "Mr McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." This was shown as part of the credit sequence for each episode. The show made Bixby into a
pop icon of the
1980s.
During the show's run, he also invited two of his long-time friends,
Ray Walston and
Brandon Cruz to guest star with him in different episodes of the series. He also invited two more of his friends to guest star. In one episode,
Loni Anderson (of
WKRP in Cincinnati fame) played a model who murdered another model whom Dr. Banner suspected he had killed as the Hulk and
Mariette Hartley (who would later star with Bixby in his last show,
Goodnight Beantown) played the one-time wife of Dr. Banner who was a psychiatrist who had a problem of her own. In 1981 he directed one episode of the show but not soon after this the series was cancelled. Bixby was disappointed that his character was not cured of his condition in the final episode.
After finishing Hulk, Bixby turned more towards directing, from his own short-lived comedy,
Goodnight, Beantown with
Mariette Hartley to the successful satirical police sitcom
Sledge Hammer! In addition Bixby directed two of the three
Hulk TV revivals in the late '80s and early '90s. He was also lead director on the TV sitcom
Blossom. He hosted two 'Is Elvis Alive?' specials in August 1991 and January 1992 [
1].
Bixby lost his father in
1971 a month before his first wedding. Wilfred Bailey II died of a massive heart attack and Bixby scattered his ashes in the
Pacific off the island of
Maui. He was married three times: to actress and former
Miss USA Brenda Benet in
1971, who gave birth to their son Christopher on September 25, 1974. In addition to their earlier appearance together in Bixby's earlier sitcom, Benet guest-starred with him on
The Incredible Hulk in 1980 just before they were divorced. On
March 1,
1981, Bixby's six-year-old son Christopher died suddenly of a rare throat infection. His ashes are also scattered in the
Pacific off the island of
Maui as were his grandfather's. Benet herself committed suicide in April 1982.
Nine years later in
1989 he met and fell in love with Laura Michaels, who had worked on the set of one of his
Hulk movies. The couple married a year later in Hawaii. In early
1991, Bixby was diagnosed with
prostate cancer and underwent treatment for the disease. He was divorced in the same year. In late
1992, friends introduced him to an artist named Judith Kliban, the widow of
B. Kliban, a cartoonist who died of cancer. He married Judith in late
1993, just six weeks before he collapsed on the set of
Blossom.
In early
1993, after rumours began circulating about his health, Bixby decided to go public with his illness, discussing his disease and the energy needed to keep him alive. As a result, he made several guest appearances on shows such as
Entertainment Tonight (where he made two guest appearances),
The Today Show, and
Good Morning America among many others.
Unfortunately Bixby's cancer recurred and was diagnosed as inoperable. Six days after his final assignment, directing an episode of
Blossom, Bill Bixby died from complications arising from prostate cancer in
Century City, California on
November 21,
1993. His wife and another longtime friend of Bixby's,
Dick Martin, were both by his side. After his death, Bixby's ashes were scattered in the
Pacific off the island of
Maui, just as his father and son's were. A week after Bixby's death Judith's and Bill's family were joined by many mourners at a private memorial, including Martin,
Bob Newhart,
Mike Connors,
Lou Ferrigno,
Kenneth Johnson,
Paul Williams,
Mariette Hartley,
Harry Nilsson (who sang the theme song from
The Courtship of Eddie's Father),
Ray Walston,
Richard Crenna,
Brandon Cruz, and
Miyoshi Umeki. The entire cast of
Blossom showed up with the exception of
Mayim Bialik.
*
