Gerald Mohr

Gerald Mohr (June 11, 1914 – November 9, 1968) was an American radio, film and television actor who, throughout his artistic career, worked on some 500 radio programs, 73 films and more than 100 television shows.

Born in New York City, his parents were Henrietta Neustadt, a singer, and Sigmond Mohr. Mohr studied at the Dwight Preparatory School in New York, where he learned French and German, as well as studying piano and training as a horseman.

While a student at Columbia University, Mohr suffered from appendicitis, and while recovering in a hospital, another patient, a radio announcer, thought Mohr's pleasant baritone voice was ideal for radio. Mohr was hired by the radio station and became a reporter. In the mid-1930s, Orson Welles invited him to join his Mercury Theatre company. During his time with Welles, Mohr gained theatrical experience on Broadway with the plays "The Petrified Forest" and "Jean-Christophe".

Mohr made over 500 radio appearances throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s. He portrayed Raymond Chandler's detective Philip Marlowe in 119 half-hour radio programs. He also worked on The Adventures of Bill Lance, was one of the actors who played Archie Goodwin on Nero Wolfe, frequently starred on The Whistler, and had various roles in multiple episodes of Damon Runyon Theater and Frontier Town. Other radio programs he worked on included Our Miss Brooks, The Shadow of Fu Manchu, Box 13, Escape, and Lux ​​Radio Theatre.

Mohr began acting in films in the late 1930s, playing his first villainous role in the 15-part serial Jungle Girl (1941). After three years serving in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, he returned to Hollywood and played Michael Lanyard in three films of The Lone Wolf detective series in 1946-47. He also made cameo appearances in Gilda (1946) and Detective Story (1951), and co-starred in The Magnificent Rogue (1946) and The Sniper (1952). In 1949, he narrated, along with Fred Foy, twelve episodes of the first series of The Lone Ranger.

From the 1950s onward, he guest-starred in over one hundred television series, including the westerns The Californians, Maverick, Johnny Ringo, The Alaskans, Lawman, Cheyenne, Bronco, Overland Trail, Sugarfoot, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Randall the Avenger, and Rawhide.

Outside of the Western genre, Mohr acted in Crossroads, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Harrigan and Son, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Intrigue, Lost in Space, and many other series of the era, especially those produced by Warner Brothers and Dick Powell's Four Star Productions.

Mohr also worked in comedy, appearing in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1951), How to Marry a Millionaire (1958), The Jack Benny Program (1961 and 1962), The Smothers Brothers Show (1965), and The Lucy Show (1968). He also had the recurring role of Brad Jackson on My Friend Irma (1952), and played psychiatrist Henry Molin in the February 1953 episode of I Love Lucy, "The Inferiority Complex."

Between 1954 and 1955, he played Christopher Storm in 41 episodes of Foreign Intrigue, produced in Stockholm for distribution in the United States. In several episodes, especially "The Confidence Game" and "The Playful Prince," he could be heard playing his composition "The Frontier Theme" on the piano. Foreign Intrigue was nominated for an Emmy Award in both 1954 and 1955.

Another series in which he appeared several times—seven times, in total—was Maverick, twice portraying the gunslinger Doc Holliday, a role he reprised in a 1958 episode of Tombstone Territory. Mohr also made four appearances on Perry Mason (1961–1966), in the episodes "The Case of the Unwelcome Bride," "The Case of the Elusive Element," "The Case of a Place Called Midnight," and "The Case of the Final Fadeout."

In 1964, together with his second wife, Mai, he planned the formation of a Stockholm-based film production company with Swedish and American screenwriters. The company intended to produce comedies, adventure films, crime films, and dramas for international distribution. In 1964, he made a Western comedy, filmed in Stockholm with some location shooting in Yugoslavia, titled Wild West Story.

He continued to use his powerful voice, voicing Reed Richards in the animated series Fantastic Four in 1967 and Green Lantern in 1968 in another animated series, The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. In 1968, he made his final film appearance as Tom Branca in William Wyler's Funny Girl, and his last television appearance was in the Western series The Big Valley.

Gerald Mohr traveled to Stockholm in September 1968 to star in the pilot episode of a potential future series, Private Entrance, which featured Swedish actress Christina Schollin. Shortly after completing filming, Mohr died of a heart attack in Södermalm, Stockholm, at the age of 54. His remains are interred in the columbarium of Lidingö Cemetery, Sweden.