Michael Fox (American actor)

Not to be confused with Michael J. Fox.
Michael Fox
Born (1921-02-27)February 27, 1921
Yonkers, New York, U.S.
Died June 1, 1996(1996-06-01) (aged 75)
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Years active 1952–1995
Spouse(s) Hannah Fox (1947–1996) (his death); 2 children

Michael Fox (February 27, 1921 June 1, 1996) was an American character actor who was in numerous movies and television roles. Some of his most famous recurring roles were as various autopsy physicians in Perry Mason, as Coroner George McLeod in Burke's Law, as Amos Fedders in Falcon Crest, and as Saul Feinberg in The Bold and the Beautiful. He is also notable for being the reason Michael J. Fox registered his name with a middle initial when he first joined the Screen Actors Guild (to differentiate his name from "Michael Fox").

Career

Michael Fox began acting in stage plays in southern California circa 1945. Through his stage endeavors, Fox met Harry Sauber who introduced him to Sam Katzman.[1]

Two of his regular TV roles were as the coroner in the courtroom drama Perry Mason, and as Saul Feinberg on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful from 1989–1996.

Among his earlier television work was the next-to-last episode of Adventures of Superman, as the ringleader of a criminal gang that tried to conduct a Perils of Pauline–style series of murder attempts on the show's various protagonists. He also appeared in several episodes on the 1955–1957 television series Science Fiction Theatre.

The Dr. Fox Effect

Fox also made an important contribution to the scholarly field of education, as the actor who portrayed "Dr. Myron L. Fox" in a study that would give rise to the Dr. Fox effect,[2] and also participated in the generation of additional materials in at least one follow-up study.[3] In the initial demonstration of this effect, Fox delivered an engaging and expressive lecture that contained no meaningful content, and yet, the audience rated Fox just as highly as a genuine professor's lecture. The Dr. Fox effect has been often cited as a critique of the validity of student evaluations of teaching.

Personal life and death

He was married to Hannah, an actress he met while acting in the stage play The Dybbuk, in a Los Angeles area theatre run by Lou Smuckler, father-in-law of Lee J. Cobb. Borrowing a car from Dorothy Gish, Fox drove Hannah to a judge and married her in between the matinee and evening performances of The Story of Mary Surratt.[1]

Fox died of pneumonia June 1, 1996, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.[1][4]

Acting roles

Non-recurring multiple roles in television series

Beyond (1955) Radar Man
The Brain of John Emerson (1955) Dr. Franklin
The Frozen Sound (1955) Dr. Gordine
The Flicker (1956) Dr. James Kincaid
The Missing Waveband (1956) Dr. Maxwell
Jupitron (1956) Dr. Norstad
Signals from the Moon (1956) Dr. Edwards
The Payoff (1956) Lieutenant Bernard Shuman
Catch at Straws (1956) Jed Hartan
Front Page Father (1956) Malcolm Slade
Miller's Millions (1957) Judge Patterson
Reunion for a Revenge (1959) The Quaker
The Hostage (1959) Bartender Tom
30 Pieces of Silver (1959) Mr. Hammeker
The Observer (1960) Father Holze
Letter of the Law (1959) Abel
The Trade (1959) Trager
Miss Millie (1960) Jim Oxford
The Hangman (1960) Joe Hannah
Marineland Mystery (1959) Paul Schofield
Coat of Arms (1960)
The Popskull (1960)
Nightmare as a Child (1960) Doctor
Mr. Dingle, the Strong (1961) Martian
Sounds and Silences (1964) Psychiatrist
The Queen of Craven Point (1961) Lab Man
The Reason (1961) Andy
The Stryker Brothers (1962) Lieutenant Miller
Death for Sale (1961) Bradley

Somebody's Waiting (1961)
The Big Day (1962) Phil
The Hook (1962)
The Legend (1962) Attorney
The Old Man and the City (1963)
The Brazen Bell (1962) Prisoner Guard
No Drums, No Trumpets (1966) General Howard
The Price of Love (1969) Coroner
Carter Caper (1963) Waiter
Wishbone (1966) Buffalo Hunter
The Raid: Part 1 (1966) Mr. Simms - Hotel Clerk
Hard Luck Henry (1967) Jed Walsh
Forty Rifles (1965) De Koven
The Iron Box (1966) MacGowan
Point and Counterpoint (1969) Jonathan Williams
A Matter of Wife and Death (1965) Lieutenant Kovacs
Come to Me, My Litigation Baby (1966) Mr. Strate
Holy Rat Race (1966) Leo Gore
Smack in the Middle (1966) Inspector Basch
Hi Diddle Riddle (1966) Inspector Basch
Cave of the Wizards (1967) Alien on Computer Screen
The Ghost Planet (1966) Cybernetic Leader/Supreme Brain
A Very Cool Hot Car (1967) Technician
Beyond a Shadow (1969) Dr. Leonard Marcus
Death by the Numbers (1972) Dr. Albert Gold
The Well (1969) Captain Ritter
It's Dynamite (1970) Berger
Get Fit or Go Fight (1970) Major Kimmel
Jury Duty (1981) Dr. Feld
Cover-Up (1980) Fire Captain

Singular appearances in television series

Feature-length films

References

  1. 1 2 3 Weaver, Tom (2004). It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the Science Fiction and Horror Tradition. McFarland & Company. pp. 102–121. ISBN 978-0-7864-2069-8.
  2. Donald H. Naftulin, John E. Ware, Jr., and Frank A. Donnelly, "The Doctor Fox Lecture: A Paradigm of Educational Seduction", Journal of Medical Education 48 (1973): 630-635
  3. R. Williams and J. Ware, "Validity of student ratings of instruction under different incentive conditions: A further study of the Dr. Fox effect", Journal of Educational Psychology 68 (1976): 48–56.
  4. Michael Fox at Find a Grave

External links

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