William Conrad

William Conrad was born on Sep 27, 1920 in USA. William Conrad's big-screen debut came with The Killers directed by Robert Siodmak in 1946, strarring Max. William Conrad is known for Police Squad! directed by Joe Dante, Leslie Nielsen stars as Det. Frank Drebin and Alan North as Capt. Ed Hocken. William Conrad has got 1 awards and 5 nominations so far. The most recent award William Conrad achieved is Bambi Awards. The upcoming new movie William Conrad plays is Hudson Hawk which will be released on May 24, 1991.

William Conrad became a television star relatively late in his career. In fact, the former Army Air Corps World War II fighter pilot began his screen career playing heavies. He was Max, one of Les tueurs (1946) hired to finish off Burt Lancaster in his dingy lodgings. He was the corrupt state inspector Turck working for the syndicate in Racket (1951). He was a mobster in Raccrochez, c'est une erreur ! (1948), the murderous gunslinger Tallman in Johnny Concho (1956) and sleazy nightclub owner Louie Castro who claimed to be 60% legitimate in L'implacable ennemie (1951).When not essaying outright villainy Bill played characters like the tough fight promoter Quinn in Sang et or (1947) or the doom-laden province commissioner in Quand la marabunta gronde (1954). The portly, balding, crumple-faced, self-confessed gourmand had an ever-present weight problem (at one time 118 kg) which proved to be a natural obstacle to progressing to more substantial leading film roles. That, however, didn't hinder a very successful career in radio. In fact, Bill himself estimated that he had played in excess of 7,000 radio parts. Even if that was an exaggeration, his gravelly, resonant voice was certainly heard on countless broadcasts from "Buck Rogers" to "The Bullwinkle Show", from impersonating Marshall Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke" (before James Arness got the part on screen) to narrating the adventures of Richard Kimball in the television program Le fugitif (1963). In one episode of the anthology series Suspense (1949) in 1956, he voiced each and every part.Since his corpulence effectively precluded playing strapping characters like Matt Dillon, Bill began to concentrate on directing and producing by the early 1960's. This, ironically, included episodes of "Gunsmoke". In 1963 he contributed to saving 77 Sunset Strip (1958) for yet another season. Later in the decade he produced and directed several films for Warner Brothers, including the thriller Brainstorm (1965) with Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis. In 1971 he returned to acting and became the unlikely star of the Quinn Martin production Cannon (1971), for which he is chiefly remembered. Bill imbued the tough-talking, no-nonsense character of Frank Cannon with enough humanity and wit to make the series compelling but, despite the show's popularity, he made his views clear in a 1976 Times interview that he found himself poorly served by the scripts he had been given. A planned sequel, The Return of Frank Cannon (1980) failed to get beyond the movie-length pilot, but the actor's popularity resulted in another starring role in La loi est la loi (1987) as District Attorney McCabe, co-starring with Joe Penny) and a brief run as eccentric detective L'homme à l'orchidée (1981). A self-effacing man with a good sense of humor and never afraid to speak his mind, Bill Conrad died of heart failure in February 1994. He was elected to the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and (posthumously) to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.