Willard Waterman

Willard Lewis Waterman was born on August 29, 1914 and worked on TV and radio, remembered for replacing Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve at the height of that show's popularity.

He attended the University of Wisconsin, where he joined Theta Chi, acted in student plays, and was a friend of Uta Hagen. His growing interest in theater put an end to his original plan to be an engineer, and he gained experience in radio at the university's station, WHA.

Waterman began his radio career at WIBA in Madison, singing in a quartet that performed "musical interludes between programs,"and came to NBC in Chicago in early 1936.

In 1950, Waterman took over the role of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve on The Great Gildersleeve after Harold Peary was unable to secure an ownership stake in the show from Kraft Cheese. Peary left NBC for CBS due to better financial options amidst high taxes but ultimately Kraft moved the show to CBS and hired Waterman as his successor.

Peary and Waterman, who had a pre-existing friendship from their radio jobs, worked together on The Great Gildersleeve from 1950 to 1957, with Waterman mimicking Peary's voice without adopting his trademark laugh. During this time, Waterman also played Mr. Merriweather in The Halls of Ivy and had previously starred in a short-lived comedy, Those Websters, in 1945.

He had radio roles between the mid-1930s and 1950 on such shows as Chicago Theater of the Air (variety) and Harold Teen (comedy), plus four soap operas: Girl Alone, The Guiding Light, Lonely Women, The Road of Life and Kay Fairchild, Stepmother.

In his later career, Waterman took on various supporting roles in films and TV shows, including a brief stint in the adaptation of The Great Gildersleeve, as well as appearances in Vacation Playhouse, Lawman, My Favorite Martian, Bat Masterson, and The Eve Arden Show, among others. Notably, he played Mr. Quigley in Dennis the Menace and appeared five times as Mac Maginnis in The Real McCoys from 1957 to 1959. 

After 1973, he nearly retired from acting but made a comeback in 1980 with a radio commercial for Sony, which earned him a Clio Award.

In 1937, Waterman wed Mary Anna Theleen, a secretary at Nash Motors. He lived in Chicago and New York City before relocating to the San Fernando Valley in California in 1945. After 1980, he settled in Burlingame, California, near one of his daughters. 

Waterman passed away from bone marrow disease on February 2, 1995, at his home in Burlingame.