O.Z. Whitehead

About

American character actor of rather bizarre range, a member of the so-called John Ford Stock Company. Originally a New York stage actor of some repute, Whitehead entered films in the 1930s. He played a wide variety of character parts, often quite different from his own actual age and type. He is probably most familiar as Al Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940). But twenty-two years later, in his fifth film for Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Whitehead at 51 was playing a lollipop-licking schoolboy! He continued to work predominantly on the stage, appearing now and again in films or on television. In his last years, he suffered from cancer and died in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, where he had lived in semi-retirement for many years.

Known for

Perry MasonSeries • 1957Studio OneSeries • 1948Alfred Hitchcock PresentsSeries • 1955SuspenseSeries • 1949GunsmokeSeries • 1955HazelSeries • 1961Cavalcade of AmericaSeries • 1952The Man Who Shot Liberty ValanceMovie • 1962The Grapes of WrathMovie • 1940The Lion in WinterMovie • 1968The Horse SoldiersMovie • 1959Summer MagicMovie • 1963A Song Is BornMovie • 1948The Last HurrahMovie • 1958Two Rode TogetherMovie • 1961Panic in Year Zero!Movie • 1962Road HouseMovie • 1948Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!Movie • 1958Ma and Pa KettleMovie • 1949Comin' Round the MountainMovie • 1951UlyssesMovie • 1967The HoodlumMovie • 1951Beware, My LovelyMovie • 1952