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|---|---|---|---|---|
 Don Porter, who co-starred with Sally Field in the ABC-TV sitcom Gidget, made a guest appearance as Uncle Fremont, in the Three's Company episode titled "Jack's Uncle". | ||||
| Personal Information | ||||
| Born: | 24 September 1912 | |||
| Birthplace: | Miami, Oklahoma | |||
| Died | 11 February 1997 (aged 84) | |||
| Deathplace: | Beverly Hills, California | |||
| Career/Family Information | ||||
| Occupation/ Career: |
Actor | |||
| Years active: | 1935 to 1994 | |||
| Character information | ||||
| Appeared on: | Three's Company guest appearance | |||
| Character played: | Uncle Fremont Tripper in the episode "Jack's Uncle" in Season 2 | |||
Don Porter (24 September 1912 – 11 February 1997) appears as Uncle Fremont Tripper, a flamboyant playboy type who has a penchant for writing bad checks arrives for a visit a a time when Jack struggles to come up with his share of the rent in the episode titled "Jack's Uncle". A veteran actor who appeared in a number of films dating back the 1940s, which included Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron, Don is perhaps best known for his role as Russell Lawrence, the widowed father of fifteen-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC situation comedy, Gidget.
Career[]
Born in and raised in Miami, Oklahoma,[1] Porter began his acting career in the late 1930s. He appeared in various film in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern) on the 1950s situation comedy Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, titled The Ann Sothern Show. It featured many of the same actors, including Porter, 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 playboy uncle Fremont, and Switch. Porter also had a lucrative stage career that included the long-running hit Any Wednesday (1964) opposite Sandy Dennis and Gene Hackman.
Don also appeared in numerous films including The Turning Point (1952), Our Miss Brooks (1956), Gidget Goes to Rome (playing Russell Lawrence two years prior to repeating the role in the series), and as Mr. Upson in the 1974 film adaptation of Mame where he played opposite fellow TV series stalwarts Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur. Porter made his last onscreen appearance in a 1988 episode of CBS Summer Playhouse.
Personal Life and Death[]
Porter was married to actress Peggy Converse with whom he had two children. He died 11 February 1997 at the age of eighty-four at his home in Beverly Hills, California.[2]
References[]
- ↑ Vosburgh, Dick (independent.co.uk). Obituary: Don Porter. 1997-3-5. Retrieved on 2009-09-11.
- ↑ "Don Porter, 84, Actor In Sitcoms and Films", The New York Times, 1997-02-24. Retrieved on 2009-09-11.
