William Challee
William John Challee was an American actor.
Biography
Challee was born in Chicago and was a student at Lake View High School.
Challee appeared on Broadway by 1926 and by 1931 in early Group Theatre productions. He married actress Ruth Nelson on August 2, 1931; they divorced on August 13, 1937. The two appeared in the 1947 film The [Sea of Grass (film)|The Sea of Grass], in supporting roles, after they were divorced.
In 1937, Challee staged a suite of one-act plays at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, under the heading Plays of the Sea. The suite consisted of the Eugene O'Neill plays Bound East for Cardiff, In the Zone, The Long Voyage Home, and Moon of the Caribbees. They were produced by the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration, running for 68 performances from October 29, 1937.
Challee was living in Chicago by 1940. By the middle 1940s, Challee was working in films in California, mainly in supporting and uncredited roles. Challee married dancer Ella Franklin Crawford on April 19, 1944, in Santa Monica.
Challee appeared in episodes of numerous television series, including a 1953 episode of The [Lone Ranger (TV series)|The Lone Ranger] and a 1957 episode of Perry Mason. In 1960, Challee appeared as Saunders on Laramie in the episode titled "Duel at Parkinson Town". In 1961, he appeared as Eli in the series finale of The Investigators, "The Dead End Man", as well as the 1961 episode "Meeting at the Mimbres" in the Western series Bat Masterson.
In 1962, Challee appeared as a prisoner on the TV Western The Virginian in the episode titled "The Brazen Bell".
That same year, he appeared on Gunsmoke as Feist, a crazed pioneer who lost his faculties and tries to kill Marshal Dillon in the episode “The Gallows”. Challee played the incapacitated family patriarch in the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces, whose illness brings his son home to the family estate.
In 1984, he married his long-time partner Joan Wheeler Ankrum. Together, in 1960, they opened the Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Challee was buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.
Grand Street Follies Red Rust as LenovHouse of Connelly as Jody and as a SerenaderNight Over Taos as second TrapperSuccess Story as Jeffery HaliburtonMen in White as Dr. MichaelsonGold Eagle Guy as Pearly and as Ah KeeTill [the Day I Die] as Edsel PeltzWaiting For Lefty as ActorKey Largo as Osceola HornParadise Lost as Homeless manCase of Clyde Griffiths as Working manJohnny Johnson as Private Fairfax and as DoctorRocket to the Moon as a SalesmanAwake and Sing! as Schlosser
Selected filmography
...One Third of a Nation... as Reporter Destination Tokyo as Rocky the quartermaster The Story of Dr. Wassell as Radio Man Days of Glory as Ducrenko The Seventh Cross as Fischer None but the [Lonely Heart (film)|None but the Lonely Heart] as Knocker Jones A Song to Remember as Titus God Is My Co-Pilot as Joe Counter-Attack as Paratrooper Miss Susie Slagle's as Interne Tokyo Rose as Mike KovacDeadline at Dawn as Ray, Newsstand Proprietor From This Day Forward as Pawnbroker Without Reservations as Corporal Swamp Fire as Barfly Nocturne as Police Photographer Olsen Boomerang as Whitney, Harvey's Assistant The Sea of Grass as Deputy Sheriff The Guilt of Janet Ames as Ambulance Surgeon Desperate as ReynoldsAnother Part of the Forest as Passenger on the Train Tap Roots as Sergeant Beyond Glory as Sergeant at Depot Force of Evil as Gunman #1 Reign of Terror as Bourdon Port of New York as Leo StasserOutrage as Lee WilkinsThe Lone Ranger as Flint FosterGambling as Parking Attendant The Whip Hand as Guard On Dangerous Ground as Thug The Big Trees as Brother Williams This Woman Is Dangerous as Ned Shaw The [Glenn Miller Story] as Dispatch Desk Sergeant Man Without a Star as Brick Gooder The Lone Ranger as Bad-EyeThe Lone Ranger as HawkChicago Syndicate as DolanThe Desperados Are in Town as Tom KeshCalypso Heat Wave as Second ThugRaintree County as Spectator Official Detective as HatchAdventures of Superman as Clippy JonesWagon Train as Fake Soldier Saddle the Wind as Barfly Twilight for the Gods as SweeneyAlfred Hitchcock Presents as Barney WelchThe [Sound and the Fury (1959 film)|The Sound and the Fury] as Roustabout The Story on Page One as Lemke Toby Tyler as Jailbird Noose for a Gunman as GorseOne Foot in Hell as Pete's Friend The Plunderers as First CitizenCimarron as Barber Alfred Hitchcock Presents as PetrieAll Fall Down as third Bum War Hunt as Lieutenant ColonelGunsmoke as FeistThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Jess Bartholomew The Hook as Schmidt Seven Days in May as General Riley The Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Wint DavisNightmare in the Sun as Old Coot in a barJoy in the Morning as an Old Derelict The Cincinnati Kid as an Old Man Billy the Kid Versus Dracula as Tom, Station AgentFive Easy Pieces as Nicholas DupeaZachariah as "The Old Man" The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid as Old-timer The Irish Whiskey Rebellion as TimothyMoonchild as Alchemist From Noon till Three as Piano Player