Frank McGrath
Birthday: Born in 1903-02-02 in Mound City, Missouri, USA
Deathday: 1967-05-13
Benjamin Franklin McGrath (February 2, 1903 – May 13, 1967) was an American television and film actor and stunt performer who played the comical, optimistic cook with the white beard, Charlie B. Wooster, on the western series Wagon Train for five seasons on NBC and then three seasons on ABC. McGrath appeared in all 272 episodes in the eight seasons of the series, which had ended its run only two years before his death. McGrath's Wooster character hence provided the meals and companionship for both fictional trail masters, Ward Bond as Seth Adams and John McIntire as Christopher "Chris" Hale. McGrath was born in Mound City in Holt County in far northwestern Missouri. McGrath married Libby Quay Buschlen (1902–1978), a native of Ontario, Canada. He died May 13, 1967 at the age of sixty-four of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California, and was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. CLR From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
TV Credits
Tammy
Character:
Tammy is an American sitcom, starring Debbie Watson in the title role. Produced by Universal City Studios, 26 color half-hour episodes were aired on ABC from September 17, 1965 to March 11, 1966. Tammy was loosely based on the three Tammy films; Tammy and the Bachelor starring Debbie Reynolds; Tammy Tell Me True; and Tammy and the Doctor both starring Sandra Dee. The films themselves were adaptations of novels by Cid Ricketts Sumner. The series was also partially influenced by other rural theme...
The Virginian
Character: Neddie Henshaw
The Shiloh Ranch in Wyoming Territory of the 1890s is owned in sequence by Judge Henry Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Colonel Alan MacKenzie. It is the setting for a variety of stories, many more based on character and relationships than the usual western....
Cheyenne
Character: John Pike
Cheyenne is an American western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Brothers original series produced by William T. O...
Wagon Train
Character: Charlie Wooster
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne a...
Movie Credits
Hell Bound
Character: Detective (uncredited)
After WW2, a Los Angeles crime ring uses a complex scheme, involving a freight ship, a junkie, and a corrupt health officer, to smuggle drugs into the USA....
The Shakiest Gun in the West
Character: Mr. Remington
Jesse W. Haywood (Don Knotts) graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist. Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing (Barbara Rhoades) is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers. She tricks Haywood into a sham marriage as a disguise. Haywood inadvertently becomes the legendary "Doc the Haywood" after he guns down "Arnold the Kid"....
Hondo
Character: Lowes Partner
Army despatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and her son living in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector....
The Reluctant Astronaut
Character: Plank
Roy Fleming is a small-town kiddie-ride operator who is deathly afraid of heights. After learning that his father has signed him up for the space program, Roy reluctantly heads for Houston, only to find out upon arriving that his job is as a janitor, not an astronaut. Anxious to live up to the expectations of his domineering father, Roy manages to keep up a facade of being an astronaut to his family and friends. When NASA decides to launch a layperson into space to prove the worthiness of a new ...
Westward the Women
Character: Outrider (uncredited)
There's a deficit of good, honest women in the West, and Roy Whitman wants to change that. His solution is to bring a caravan of over 100 mail-order brides from Chicago to California. It will be a long, difficult and dangerous journey for the women. So Whitman hires hardened, cynical Buck Wyatt to be their guide across the inhospitable frontier. But as disaster strikes on the trail, Buck just might discover that these women are stronger than he thinks....
The Milkman
Character: Man (uncredited)
A dairy owner's son takes a job as milkman with a rival company....
The First Texan
Character: Mexican Horseman (uncredited)
After arriving in Texas to escape a scandal back east, lawyer Sam Houston just wants to hang out his shingle, keep a low profile, and stay out of any political intrigue. However, when President Jackson personally orders him to lead the fight for Texan independence, he overcomes his reluctance to become involved and leads his compatriots to a string of victories over the Mexican army....
Gunfight in Abilene
Character: Ned Martin
Fighting in the Civil War a man accidently kills his friend. Returning to Abilene after the war he finds his former sweetheart about to marry the brother of the man he killed. To pay his debt he not only refuses to win her back but takes the job of Sheriff, a job he doesn't want, when the brother asks him. Still haunted by the killing he refuses to carry a gun. But there is trouble between the ranchers and the farmers and when he finds the brother murdered he straps on a gun and heads after the ...
The Rainbow Trail
Character: Horseman
The wall to Surprise Valley has broken, and Jane Withersteen is forced to choose between Lassiter's life and Fay Larkin's marriage to a Mormon....
The Searchers
Character: Texas Ranger (uncredited)
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable....
Tammy and the Millionaire
Character: Uncle Lucius
A bayou girl (Debbie Watson) and her kin (Frank McGrath, Denver Pyle) have run-ins with some rich folks....
The Colter Craven Story
Character:
Dr. Craven feels he can't perform surgery any longer. When he joins the wagon train and his services are desperately needed, he realizes he may be wrong after Major Adams gives him a history lesson....
The Ox-Bow Incident
Character: Posse Member (uncredited)
A posse discovers a trio of men they suspect of murder and cow theft and are split between handing them over to the law or lynching them on the spot....
Wagon Master
Character: Posse Member (uncredited)
Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey....
The Last Challenge
Character: Ballard Weeks
An upstart outlaw baits a legendary gunslinger, now a marshal in love with a saloon keeper....
The Tin Star
Character: Jim Clark (uncredited)
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge....
Fort Apache
Character: Cpl. Derice (uncredited)
Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates....
The Red Badge of Courage
Character: Captain (uncredited)
Henry Fleming is a young Union soldier in the American Civil War. During his unit's first engagement, Henry flees the battlefield in fear. When he learns that the Union actually won the battle, shame over his cowardice leads him to lie to his friend Tom and the other soldiers, saying that he had been injured in battle. However, when he learns that his unit will be leading a charge against the enemy, Henry takes the opportunity to face his fears and redeem himself....
The Big Trail
Character: Pioneer (uncredited)
Young scout Breck Coleman leads a wagon train along the dangerous trail to Oregon as he tries to get the affection of the beautiful pioneer Ruth Cameron and plans his revenge on the harsh scoundrels who murdered a friend of his in the past....
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Character: Bugler / Indian (uncredited)
On the eve of retirement, Captain Nathan Brittles takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled....
Riders of the Purple Sage
Character: Pete
Lassiter discovers the judge who cheated his neice of her inheritance leads a gang of bad guys posing as vigilantes. This 1941 Fox production stars a young George Kennedy as Lassiter....
Sundown Jim
Character: Outlaw
US marshal Sundown Jim Majors main purpose in life is to bring a deadly frontier feud to a peaceful end. This requires him to clean out the local criminal element, which he does with determination....
The War Wagon
Character: Bartender
An ex-con seeks revenge on the man who put him in prison by planning a robbery of the latter's stagecoach, which is transporting gold. He enlists the help of a partner, who could be working for his nemesis....
Western Union
Character: Posse Rider
When Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2000....
High School
Character: Student in Fight
A teenager who's been raised and home-schooled at her father's Texas ranch must adjust to her new surroundings and being with other students when she's sent to a San Antonio high-school....
Robbers' Roost
Character: Mexican
Running from the law, Jim Hall joins Hays’ gang. Hays is foreman on the Herrick ranch and plans to rustle Herrick’s cattle. Attracted to Herrick’s sister Helen, Jim decides to tell the Sheriff about the raid. But when his plan is overheard he is made a prisoner....
The Sword of Ali Baba
Character: Pindar
Supposedly up to 70 percent of this feature was taken from the 1944 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Frank Puglia as Prince Cassim remains from the 21-year-old footage....
Ride, Vaquero!
Character: Pete
Ranchers in New Mexico have to face Indians and bandits....
Half Past Midnight
Character: Taxi Driver
A detective encounters a woman in a nightclub. He finds that she is being blackmailed by a dancer who is murdered that very night. Of course, the woman becomes the main suspect. She and the gumshoe team up and begin searching for the real killer....
Slaughter Trail
Character: Jamora (uncredited)
Three outlaws rob the stage and then flee. When their horses give out they murder some Indians to get fresh ones. But this puts the Indians on the war path and they have to take refuge in an Army fort to avoid them. The Indians then arrive offering peace if the three men are turned over to them. The fort's commanding Officer wants peace but the rules say the men must be tried in a white man's court leaving the Indians no choice but to attack....
The Flame and the Arrow
Character: Guard (uncredited)
Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency against their Hessian conquerors....
They Were Expendable
Character: 'Slim' - Bearded CPO (uncredited)
After a demonstration of new PT boats, navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. "Rusty" Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships....
Broken Arrow
Character: Barfly
Indian scout Tom Jeffords is sent out to stem the war between the Whites and Apaches in the late 1870s. He learns that the Indians kill only to protect themselves, or out of retaliation for white atrocities....
The Black Swan
Character: Pirate (uncredited)
When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight....