Walter Sande

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Walter Sande
Walter Sande in Johnny Tremain (1957)
Born	(1906-07-09)July 9, 1906 Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Died	February 22, 1972(1972-02-22) (aged 65) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1938–1971

Walter Sande (July 9, 1906 – February 22, 1972) was an American character actor, known for numerous supporting film and television roles.

Films

Born in Denver, Colorado, he was one of those stern, heavyset character actors in Hollywood no person could recognize by name. Sande showed an early interest in music as a youth and by his college years managed to start his own band. This led to a job as musical director for 20th Century-Fox's theater chain, which, in turn, led him to acting in films beginning in 1937. Usually providing atmospheric bits with no billing, he made an initial impression in serial cliffhangers as a third-string heavy with the popular The Green Hornet Strikes Again! and Sky Raiders.

His first top featured role, however, would come with The Iron Claw as Jack "Flash" Strong, a photographer who, uncharacteristically for Walter, served as a comic sidekick to our serial hero. He also had a role in another serial as Red Pennington, the amusing sidekick to Don Winslow of the Navy. He repeated his role again in Don Winslow of the Coast Guard, the successful sequel.

The Pennington role would spark his later career, appearing in, To Have and Have Not, Along Came Jones, The Blue Dahlia, Dark City and Bad Day at Black Rock, amongothers. A regular presence in sci-fi films such as Red Planet Mars, The War of the Worlds and Invaders from Mars, he also had a recurring featured part in the 1940s Boston Blackie film series playing Detective Matthews alongside Chester Morris, former thief-turned-crime hero.

Television

A primary support player during the "Golden Age" of television, Sande worked on nearly every popular western and crime show available in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including Johnny Ringo. In 1949, he played Sheriff Taylor in the three-part The Lone Ranger television premiere, as he helped the masked man and Tonto capture the Butch Cavendish gang. He made 15 appearances on Dragnet, starring Jack Webb, usually portraying Chief of Detectives Thad Brown or some other high-ranking LAPD officer. In 1960, he made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as circus co-owner and murder victim Judson Curtis in "The Case of the Clumsy Clown." In 1965, he appeared in the Lost in Space episode "Return from Outer Space" as Sheriff Baxendale.

He had a regular series role on the syndicated The Adventures of Tugboat Annie as Captain Horatio Bullwinkle, Annie's rival, and a recurring one as Lars "Papa" Holstrum, on The Farmer's Daughter. He guest starred on the syndicated adventure series Rescue 8, starring Jim Davis and Lang Jeffries; in David Janssen's CBS crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective; on the ABC western series The Rebel, starring Nick Adams; on the CBS military sitcom/drama Hennesey with Jackie Cooper; on the ABC/Warner Brothers western series The Alaskans, starring Roger Moore, and in an episode of the NBC 1960s western series Redigo, starring Richard Egan, and in a 1966 episode of Lassie as store owner Tom of Pine Lake. In 1963 he appeared as Ralph Hayden on the TV western The Rifleman in the episode titled "The Guest." In 1970 he appeared as Graham on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled "The Mysterious Mr. Tate."

Personal life and death

Sande and his wife, Fran, had two daughters. He died of a heart attack at O'Hare Airport^{[citation needed]} in Chicago, Illinois, on February 22, 1972, at the age of 65.

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Walter Sande at IMDb 
• Walter Sande at Turner Classic Movies