Byron Foulger (1899-1970)

Character actor Byron Foulger was born August 27, 1899, in Ogden, Utah. He began performing with community theater, and stock and repertory companies after graduating from the University of Utah. He met his future wife, character actress Dorothy Adams, in one of these companies. The marriage lasted nearly five decades and ended with his death.

Making his Broadway debut in a 1920 production of Medea that featured Moroni Olsen as Jason of the Argonauts, he went on to appear in several other Olsen Broadway productions including The Trial of Joan of Arc, Mr. Faust, and Candida. While touring the country with Olsen's stock company, he ended up at the Pasadena Playhouse where he both acted and directed. Thereafter he and wife Dorothy decided to settle in Los Angeles. Together the acting couple tried to stake a claim for themselves in 30s and 40s Hollywood films. Both succeeded, appearing in hundreds of film parts, both together and apart, albeit in small and often unbilled bits. A man of meek, nervous countenance, Foulger's short stature and squinty stare could be used for playing both humble and shady fellows. Although predominantly employed as an owlish storekeeper, mortician, professor, or bank teller, his better parts had darker intentions. He was exceptional as a mealy-mouthed, whining henchman who inevitably showed his yellow streak by the film's end. He appeared in over 300 movies between 1934 and 1970, including Union Pacific, Ellery Queen Master Detective, The Lost Weekend, The Three Musketeers, The Long Hot Summer, Pocketful of Miracles, Who’s Minding the Store, and There Was a Crooked Man.

In the 1940s, Byron Foulger became a part of Preston Sturges’ company of players, appearing in five of his classic films - - The Great McGinty (1940), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) and The Great Moment (1944).

Foulger eased into TV roles in the 1950s and '60s, displaying a comedy side in many folksy, rural sitcoms. He appeared in over 80 television series between 1949 and 1968, including The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, Bonanza, Rawhide, The Mod Squad, The Guns of Will Sonnett, The Lucy Show, The Monkees, and Gunsmoke. His final regular TV role was as train conductor Wendell Gibbs on the series Petticoat Junction.

Foulger died of a heart ailment in Hollywood on April 4, 1970, at the age of 70 and is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.