O.Z. Whitehead
Known For
Acting
Born
1911-03-01 in New York City, New York, USA
Died
1998-07-29
Biography
American character actor of rather bizarre range, a member of the so-called John Ford Stock Company. Originally a New York stage actor of some repute, Whitehead entered films in the 1930s. He played a wide variety of character parts, often quite different from his own actual age and type. He is probably most familiar as Al Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940). But twenty-two years later, in his fifth film for Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Whitehead at 51 was playing a lollipop-licking schoolboy! He continued to work predominantly on the stage, appearing now and again in films or on television. In his last years, he suffered from cancer and died in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, where he had lived in semi-retirement for many years.
Most Known For
Perry Mason
as Harry Beacom
Studio One
as Peter Kovalesky
Gunsmoke
as Hank Blenis
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Mr. Newton
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Simms
Hazel
Suspense
as George Vance
Cavalcade of America
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
as Herbert Carruthers
The Horse Soldiers
as Otis 'Hoppy' Hopkins
The Grapes of Wrath
as Al Joad
The Lion in Winter
as Bishop of Durham
The Body Beautiful
as Oscar Blunt
Two Rode Together
as Lt. Whitehead
The Last Hurrah
as Norman Cass Jr.
The Scarf
as Whoopie
A Song Is Born
as Professor Oddly
Road House
as Arthur
Summer Magic
as Mr. Perkins
Comin' Round the Mountain
as Zeke