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 (I)...
December 30, 1947, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Place Of Birth
New York City, New York, USA
Profession
Actor
Children
Thomas North Whitehead
Parents
Alfred Whitehead, Maria Sarah Whitehead
Star Sign
Pisces
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Quote
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War has the effect of accelerating change in all the worst possible ways. People become harder, more ruthless.
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Fact
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A devout anti-war pacifist, he nevertheless served during WWII and was discharged as a sergeant, but a curvature of the spine kept him from seeing any combat during his active duty.
Attending Harvard University and switched majors from English to dramatics against the wishes of his parents. He also developed a lifelong friendship with Katharine Hepburn's brother Dick while there.
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Father was a banker and the family lived in the privileged upper East Side of Manhattan.
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After moving to Ireland in 1963, Whitehead became, first and foremost, a distinguished pioneer who devoted the final three and a half decades of his life to the nurturing and consolidation of the distinctive Bahá'í community in Ireland as a historian and chronicler.
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Played the relatively quiet role of the night porter in the 1966 Irish premiere of Eugene O'Neill's "Hughie" and was awarded "best supporting actor" at the Dublin Theatre Festival. He played the role again in a 1989 production.
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Appeared as O.Z. Whitehead (as he is usually listed) in a Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Cowardly Lion", which had a pussycat lion and a baby gorilla named Toto.