Peter Whitney

Peter Whitney's over-powering frame, swarthy looks, bushy brows and maniacal look in his eye made him one of the most fearsome character actors to lump around in 1940s-60s film and TV. Born on May 24, 1916 in New Jersey of German ancestry, Peter King Engle was educated at Exeter Academy. He eventually moved to the Los Angeles area and trained with the Pasadena Community Playhouse, gaining valuable experience in summer stock as well. He made a play for films in the early 1940s, deciding also to use his wife Adrienne's middle name for his own stage moniker. He felt his real name sounded too German and might be detrimental to his WWII-era career. He and Adrienne went on to have three children. His mammoth features and pudding-like puss reminded one easily of a Charles Laughton without table manners. Whitney started his supporting career off promisingly at Warner Bros. at the outbreak of America's involvement in WWII showing potential in such films as Underground (1941), his debut, Nine Lives Are Not Enough (1941) and Blues in the Night (1941) as assorted henchmen, cronies and just downright mean guys. Taking part in "A" quality casts such as in Action in the North Atlantic (1943) and Mr. Skeffington (1944), Whitney played two of his most notorious roles at war's end, that of murderous hillbilly twins Mert and Bert Fleagle in the riotous Fred MacMurray comedy Murder, He Says (1945) and as Peter Lorre's seedy partner in the film noir Three Strangers (1946). Whitney broke with Warner Bros. in the post-war years but still yielded some fine entertainment with roles in such "B" fare as The Notorious Lone Wolf (1946), Blonde Alibi (1946), and an odd, romantic turn as Lt. Gates in the creepy Rondo Hatton crimer The Brute Man (1946). In the mid-1950s, television took over a larger portion of his career. His imposing mug was featured in about every popular western and crime drama there was including "Gunsmoke", "Wagon Train", "The Rifleman", "Bonanza", "Perry Mason", and "Peter Gunn". He finally cut loose a bit and spoofed his own grubby rube image with guest turns on such bucolic series as "Petticoat Junction", and "The Beverly Hillbillies", the latter playing a greedy ne'er-do-well fellow rustic. His obesity contributed to an early fatal heart attack at age 55 in 1972, which robbed Hollywood of a wonderfully unappetizing and scurrilous character actor. In addition to his wife and three children, Whitney was survived by four grandchildren.