Don Porter
ActingAlso Known As
Donald Porter, Donald Cecil Porter
Biography
Donald "Don" Porter (September 24, 1912 –February 11, 1997) was an American actor who appeared in a number of films since 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.
Movies
(49 total)
The Candidate
as Senator Crocker Jarmon
Desk Set
as Don the Elevator Operator (uncredited)
She-Wolf of London
as Barry Lanfield
White Line Fever
as Cutler
Who Done It?
as 'Murder at Midnight' program manager
The Racket
as R. G. Connolly
711 Ocean Drive
as Larry Mason
Night Monster
as Dick Baldwin
The Turning Point
as Joe Silbray
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
as George Robinson
Mame
as Mr. Upson
Buck Privates Come Home
as Capt. Christie
Live a Little, Love a Little
as Mike Lansdown
The Norliss Tapes
as Sanford T. Evans
Bachelor in Paradise
as Thomas W. Jynson
The Savage
as Running Dog
40 Carats
as Mr. Latham
My Friend Irma Goes West
as Mr. Brent
A Woman for All Men
as Barney
Cripple Creek
as Denver Jones
TV Shows
(27 total)
The Six Million Dollar Man
as Dr. Stanley Bacon
Dallas
as Matt Devlin
The Love Boat
as Slade Summerhill
Hawaii Five-O
as Jonathan Cavel
Hawaii Five-O
as Alex Kelsey
Matlock
as Erskine Tate
Here's Lucy
as Ken Richards
Barnaby Jones
as Jeremy Markham
The F.B.I.
as Mason Hammond
Gidget
as Professor Russell Lawrence
Switch
as Paul Lorimer