Don Porter
Birthday: Born in 1912-09-24 in Miami, Oklahoma, USA
Deathday: 1997-02-11
Donald "Don" Porter was an American actor who appeared in a number of films in the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron. On television, he portrayed the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom Gidget. Besides his work in film and television, Porter was active on stage, as he acted in more than 200 plays, including The Front Page, Plaza Suite, and Any Wednesday. He appeared in various films in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern), on the 1950s sitcom Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, titled The Ann Sothern Show. It featured many of the same actors, including Porter as hotel manager James Devery in the venue of a fashionable New York City hotel. He later guest starred on episodes of Green Acres, Love, American Style, The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, Three's Company (on which he played Jack Tripper's uncle), and Switch.
TV Credits
The Rookies
Character:
The Rookies is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1972 until 1976. It follows the exploits of three rookie police officers working in an unidentified city for the fictitious Southern California Police Department....
Green Acres
Character:
Green Acres is an American sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a rural country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series was first broadcast on CBS, from September 15, 1965 to April 27, 1971. Receiving solid ratings during its six-year run, Green Acres was cancelled in 1971 as part of the "rural purge" by CBS. The sitcom has been in syndication and is available in DVD and VHS releases. In 1997, the two-part ep...
Here's Lucy
Character: Ken Richards
...
Gidget
Character: Professor Russell Lawrence
Gidget is an American sitcom about a surfing, boy-crazy teenager called "Gidget" and her widowed father Russ Lawrence, a UCLA professor. Sally Field stars as Gidget with Don Porter as father Russell Lawrence. The series was first broadcast on ABC from September 15, 1965 to April 21, 1966. Gidget was among the first regularly scheduled color programs on ABC, but did poorly in the Nielsen ratings and was cancelled at the end of its first season....
The F.B.I.
Character: Mason Hammond
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only....
The Love Boat
Character: Slade Summerhill
Passengers who search for romantic nights aboard a beautiful ship travelling to tropical or mysterious countries, decide to pass their vacation aboard the "Love Boat", where Gopher, Dr. Bricker, Isaac, Julie, and Captain Stubing try their best to please them, and sometimes help them fall in love. Things are not always so easy, but in the end, love wins....
The Bionic Woman
Character:
After fully recovering from her near fatal bout of bionic rejection, Jaime Sommers, the first female cyborg, is assigned to spy missions of her own....
Matlock
Character:
Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show, produced by The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, Viacom Productions and Paramount Television originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC; and from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC. The show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason, with Matlock identifying the perpetrators and then confronting them in dr...
Hawaii Five-O
Character: Jonathan Cavel
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for 12 seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. Jack Lord portrayed Detective Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, the head of a special state police task force which was based on an actual unit that existed under martial law in the 1940s. The theme music composed by Morton Stevens became especially popular. Many episodes would end with McGarrett...
Hotel
Character:
Hotel is an American prime time drama series which aired on ABC from September 21, 1983 to May 5, 1988 in the timeslot following Dynasty. Based on Arthur Hailey's 1965 novel of the same name, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling and set in the elegant and fictitious St. Gregory Hotel in San Francisco. Establishing shots of the hotel were filmed in front of The Fairmont San Francisco atop the Nob Hill neighborhood. Episodes followed the activities of passing guests, as well as the personal ...
The Mod Squad
Character:
The Mod Squad was the enormously successful groundbreaking "hippie" undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochren, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. The iconic counter-culture police series earned six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy ...
Three's Company
Character:
Three's Company is an American television sitcom that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. Developed by Don Nicholl, Michael Ross and Bernie West, it is based on the British sitcom Man About the House created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. The story revolves around three single roommates: Jack Tripper, Janet Wood, and Chrissy Snow, who all platonically live together in a Santa Monica, California apartment complex owned by Stanley and Helen Roper. The ...
Dallas
Character: Matt Devlin
The world's first mega-soap, and one of the most popular ever produced, Dallas had it all. Beautiful women, expensive cars, and men playing Monopoly with real buildings. Famous for one of the best cliffhangers in TV history, as the world asked "Who shot J.R.?" A slow-burner to begin with, Dallas hit its stride in the 2nd season, with long storylines and expert character development. Dallas ruled the airwaves in the 1980's....
Vega$
Character:
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike....
Switch
Character: Paul Lorimer
Switch is an American action-adventure, tongue-in-cheek detective series starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner, who work as private eyes, for a deceptive sting operation. It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975 and August 20, 1978, bumping the Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights....
City of Angels
Character:
City of Angels is a 1976 television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, who had previously worked together on The Rockford Files. American mystery novelist Max Allan Collins has called City of Angels "the best private eye series ever."...
Judd for the Defense
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High-priced Houston lawyer Clinton Judd and his assistant Ben Caldwell take difficult cases throughout the U.S....
Ellery Queen
Character:
Ellery Queen is an American television detective mystery series based on the fictional character Ellery Queen. It aired on NBC during the 1975-76 television season and stars Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen, and Tom Reese as Sgt. Velie. Created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, the title character "breaks" the fourth wall to ask the audience to consider their solution....
The Paper Chase
Character:
Critically lauded drama about the life and pressures of a group of students at a prestigious Eastern law school, with a strict and domineering contract-law professor named Charles Kingsfield, who alternately inspires and terrifies the students....
Love, American Style
Character:
An anthology comedy series featuring a line up of different celebrity guest stars appearing in anywhere from one, two, three, and four short stories or vignettes within an hour about versions of love and romance....
The Six Million Dollar Man
Character: Dr. Stanley Bacon
Follow the adventures of Steve Austin, cybernetically enhanced astronaut turned secret agent, employed by the OSI, under the command of Oscar Goldman and supervised by the scientist who created his cybernetics, Rudy Wells. Steve uses the superior strength and speed provided by his bionic arm and legs, and the enhanced vision provided by his artificial eye, to fight enemy agents, aliens, mad scientists, and a wide variety of other villains....
Hawaii Five-O
Character: Alex Kelsey
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for 12 seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. Jack Lord portrayed Detective Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, the head of a special state police task force which was based on an actual unit that existed under martial law in the 1940s. The theme music composed by Morton Stevens became especially popular. Many episodes would end with McGarrett...
Switch
Character: Salvensen
Switch is an American action-adventure, tongue-in-cheek detective series starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner, who work as private eyes, for a deceptive sting operation. It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975 and August 20, 1978, bumping the Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights....
Barnaby Jones
Character: Jeremy Markham
Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father- and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles. The show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973 to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement. William Conrad guest starred as Frank Cannon of Cannon on the first episode of Barnaby Jones, "Requiem for a Son" and the two series had a two-part crossover episode in 1975, "The Deadly Conspiracy"....
Movie Credits
The Candidate
Character: Senator Crocker Jarmon
Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment....
The Racket
Character: R. G. Connolly
The big national crime syndicate has moved into town, partnering up with local crime boss Nick Scanlon. McQuigg, the only honest police captain on the force, and his loyal patrolman, Johnson, take on the violent Nick....
Buck Privates Come Home
Character: Capt. Christie
Two ex-soldiers return from overseas--one of them having smuggled into the country a French orphan girl he has become attached to. They wind up running into their old sergeant--who hates them--and getting involved with a race-car builder who's trying to find backers for a new midget racer he's building....
White Line Fever
Character: Cutler
An independent trucker with a pregnant wife fights cargo crooks and the big shot they work for....
711 Ocean Drive
Character: Larry Mason
A telephone repairman in Los Angeles uses his knowledge of electronics to help a bookie set up a betting operation. After the bookie is murdered, the greedy technician takes over his business. He ruthlessly climbs his way to the top of the local crime syndicate, but then gangsters from a big East Coast mob show up wanting a piece of his action....
The Turning Point
Character: Joe Silbray
Special prosecutor John Conroy hopes to combat organized crime in his city and appoints his cop father Matt as chief investigator. John doesn't understand why Matt is reluctant, but cynical reporter Jerry McKibbon thinks he knows: he's seen Matt with mob lieutenant Harrigan. Jerry's friendship with John is tested by the question of what to do about Matt, and by his attraction to John's girl Amanda. Meanwhile, the threatened racketeers adopt increasingly violent means of defense....
She-Wolf of London
Character: Barry Lanfield
A young heiress finds evidence suggesting that at night she acts under the influence of a family curse and has begun committing ghastly murders in a nearby park....
Who Done It?
Character: 'Murder at Midnight' program manager
Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station, they end up in the middle of a real murder when the station owner is killed during a broadcast....
The Norliss Tapes
Character: Sanford T. Evans
A newspaper publisher listens to the personal tapes of investigative reporter David Norliss, who has disappeared during an investigation. The tapes tell the story of that investigation, involving a recent widow whose late husband has been seen working in his private studio. As Norliss and the widow investigate, they unravel a plot involving Voodoo and the walking dead....
Live a Little, Love a Little
Character: Mike Lansdown
Photographer Greg Nolan moonlights in two full-time jobs to pay the rent, but has trouble finding time to do them both without his bosses finding out....
Bachelor in Paradise
Character: Thomas W. Jynson
A bachelor author of sleazy books moves to a family-oriented subdivision where he becomes an unofficial relationship advisor to unhappy local housewives, to the dismay of their respective husbands who suspect him of sexual misconduct....
Danger Woman
Character: Professor Claude Ruppert
A woman plots to steal secrets from her Atomic-expert husband....
Our Miss Brooks
Character: Lawrence Nolan
The big-screen translation of the successful television show of the 1950's. Arden stars as Connie Brooks, wisecracking English teacher at Madison High School, still hoping to tie the knot with shy biology teacher Philip Boynton (Robert Rockwell)....
Eyes of the Underworld
Character: Edward Jason
Blackmail and murder in a tale of an auto-theft ring....
Night Monster
Character: Dick Baldwin
Kurt Ingston, a rich recluse, invites the doctors who left him a hopeless cripple to his desolate mansion in the swamps as one by one they meet horrible deaths....
Youngblood Hawke
Character: Ferdie Lax
An unknown Kentucky writer comes to New York and pursues fame and women....
Resisting Enemy Interrogation
Character: Lt. Frank L. Williams, Jr. - American Co-pilot
A downed American bomber crew quickly falls prey to the clever interrogation techniques of the Germans in this dramatic training film....
Desk Set
Character: Don the Elevator Operator (uncredited)
A computer expert tries to prove his electronic brain can replace a television network's research staff....
Cripple Creek
Character: Denver Jones
It's 1893 and gold is being smuggled out of the country. Instead of stealing gold bars, the outlaws are stealing high grade ore, having it smelted, and then having it plated to look like lead. The Government sends agents Bret and Larry who arrive in Cripple Creek posing as Texas gunfighters. Bret finds the smelting operation and Larry learns of the payoff. But the crooked town Marshal is suspicious of the two men and the reply of his inquiry to Texas exposes them putting their lives in danger....
The Morning After
Character: Rudy King
A successful public relations man's refusal to admit his alcoholism jeopardizes his career, his family and his life. ABC Movie of the Week....
Cuban Pete
Character: Roberts
Unable to complete the deal by telephone, advertising executive Roberts sends his assistant Ann to Cuba to lure a Cuban band, led by Desi Arnaz, on to an American radio program. Attracted to Ann, Arnaz and his band come to New York but complications arise when the squeaky-voiced, addle-brained sponsor of the program decides she wants to be the vocalist on the program....
The Savage
Character: Running Dog
The only white survivor of a Crow Indian raid on a wagon train is a young boy. He is rescued by the Sioux, and the Sioux chief raises him as an Indian in very way. Years later, the white men and the Sioux threaten to go to war and the Indian-raised white man is torn between his racial loyalties and his adopted tribe....
Last Hours Before Morning
Character: Mr. Pace
An ex-cop, now a private detective, investigating a gambler's murder finds that there may be a connection between that crime and the jewel robbery at a beautiful movie star's home....
The Murder That Wouldn't Die
Character: Gen. Rocky Jensen
William Conrad stars as a retired L.A.P.D. detective who has moved to Hawaii and taken a job as a college security chief and assistant football coach in this pilot to a post-"Cannon" series to have been called "Battles." With the aid of his niece, the school's star football player, a local tough-turned-college student, and the college dean, he investigates two related murders that occurred nearly 40 years apart....
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
Character: George Robinson
A dramatization of the famous 1893 Massachusetts trial of the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax....
Murder or Mercy
Character: Henry Balin
An attorney comes out of retirement to defend a prominent doctor, who has been accused of the mercy killing of his wife....
Mame
Character: Mr. Upson
The madcap life of eccentric Mame Dennis and her bohemian, intellectual arty clique is disrupted when her deceased brother's 10-year-old son Patrick is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo, "Life is a banquet, and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death."...
The Ghosts of Buxley Hall
Character: Judge Oliver Haynes
Ghosts and a young cadet try to save a military academy from being closed....
Wild Beauty
Character: Dr. Dave Morrow
In this western, a Native American boy and his horse Wild Beauty make friends with a gentle doctor who helps the boy save his beloved steed from the cruel industrialist who has been slaughtering horses and using their hides for making shoes. Read more at http://www.allmovie.com/movie/wild-beauty-v117011#MPOP1dAiWrjP7tqA.99...
Eagle Squadron
Character: Ramsey
An American joins the British Royal Air Force just before Pearl Harbor is attacked, and falls in love with a beautiful English girl....
Top Sergeant
Character: Al Bennett
An army sergeant recognises a young recruit as the man responsible for his brother's death, while attempting a robbery....
Tropic of Desire
Character: Commodore Phillips
A male hustler drifts into Key West, where he becomes involved in a series of steamy interludes with disreputable locals intertwined in various political intrigues....
Madame Spy
Character: David Bannister
Joan Bannister is the wife of globe-trotting war correspondent David Bannister. Returning to the US, Bannister becomes suspicious when Joan begins keeping company with known Nazi functionaries, notably the sinister Mr. Peter. Suspecting that his own wife may be the elusive “Madame Spy” wanted by American authorities, Bannister is in for quite a few surprises....
The President's Mistress
Character: Craig
A government courier is caught in a deadly cover-up after discovering that his murdered sister was not only the mistress of a U.S. president, but also a Soviet spy....
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
Character: Myron Brynk
Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York....
Keep 'Em Slugging
Character: Jerry
A gang of tough street kids decide to go straight and get jobs in order to free draft-age men for the war effort. However, because of their past tangles with the law, they can't find anybody who'll hire them. Finally one of them gets a job at the department store where his sister works, but runs afoul of a store executive who is in league with a ring of hijackers....
My Friend Irma Goes West
Character: Mr. Brent
Singer Steve, friend Seymour and fiance Jane, along with her dizzy blonde room mate Irma, have a series of misadventures on a California-bound train and end up involved with a gang of murderous gangsters in Las Vegas....
A Woman for All Men
Character: Barney
Irascible and domineering millionaire Walter McCoy marries the beautiful, but shady and duplicitous Karen Petrie. Walter's son Steve automatically becomes smitten with Karen while both Walter's daughter Cynthia and loyal housekeeper Sarah suspect that something is up. This provokes a tangled web of deception, infidelity, and even murder....
40 Carats
Character: Mr. Latham
After an overnight fling with a man nearly 20 years her junior while vacationing in Greece, Ann Stanley returns to New York assuming she'll never see Peter Latham again. Until, that is, he shows up on her doorstep to take her daughter to a party. Despite her yearning for Peter and the encouragement of her friends and family, Ann initially rebuffs him when he pursues her, but slowly she yields to his charm and her own stifled emotions....
Mystery of the White Room
Character: Dr. Donald Fox
A doctor and nurse solve an operating-room murder....
Gidget Goes to Rome
Character: Russell Lawrence
Francis, now 17, is still in love with Moondoggy. She can persuade her parents to allow them a journey to Rome, together with two of her and two of his friends. However they have to take an adult with them, so they choose Peter's eccentric aunt. In Rome they get the beautiful guide Daniela, who's fascinating the guys and making especially Gidget jealous. She starts looking elsewhere herself....
Reconnaissance Pilot
Character: Camera Instructor
Documentary/training film depicting the duties of a pilot in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War as he flies reconnaissance missions over enemy-held islands....
How to Fly the B-26 Airplane
Character: Captain Dick
Documentary feature film depicting the training of young Lieutenant Jim Anthony as a pilot of the B-26 Marauder bomber. Dick, the captain charged with pilot instruction, leads Jim through every aspect of preparation to fly the bomber, going through a detailed checklist of pre-flight procedures, long before he allows Jim to turn an engine over. Once preparations are completed, Dick shows Jim the process of starting the engines, followed by take-off. In the air, further instruction helps Jim under...
The Last Song
Character: Philip Brockhurst
An aspiring singer unwittingly comes into possession of several tapes for which her engineer husband and his partner, in their electronic eavesdropping business, were murdered, and discovers that she and her daughter are now being stalked by the killers....
Because You're Mine
Character: Captain Burton Nordell Loring
A famous opera singer falls for his sergeant's sister at boot camp....
The Fallbrook Story
Character: Narrator
“The Fallbrook Story,” is a 20-minute film of Cold War-era uneasiness in which director Frank Capra rails against what he calls the evils of Big Bureaucracy. In 1951, Capra lived in Fallbrook, California on his 1,000-acre Red Mountain Ranch farm filled with olive groves. The federal government, which had purchased the old Rancho Santa Margarita land in 1941 to build Camp Pendleton, was concerned that ranchers upstream would take or pollute the Santa Margarita River, which ran through Camp Pendl...
Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A.
Character: Caufield
Based on the true story of coal miners who became trapped underground in a cave-in on Christmas Eve, 1951....
Happy Anniversary and Goodbye
Character: Ed 'Mad Dog' Murphy
As her 25th anniversary approaches, Norma Michaels realizes that her marriage to her dentist husband Malcolm has become boring. Seeking independence, Norma turns to her friend Fay while Malcolm receives advice from his swinging associate Greg....