Will Wright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Will Wright (born William Henry Wright on March 26, 1891 in San Francisco, California - June 19, 1962 in Hollywood, California) was an American character actor. He was frequently cast in curmudgeonly roles. He was sometimes credited as Will J. Wright. Wright guest starred on the 1954-1955 CBS legal drama, The Public Defender, starring Reed Hadley. He appeared twice in the 1956-1957 CBS situation comedy Hey, Jeannie!, with Jeannie Carson. In 1958, Wright guest starred in the episode "The Woman from Sacramento" on John Payne's NBC western series, The Restless Gun, in the role of Jim Blackwell, a wealthy but dying rancher who doubts the identity of his estranged daughter, played by Kathleen Crowley, who has arrived for a final visit with her father, of whom she has virtually no memory. Wright portrayed department store owner and grasping landlord Ben Weaver in several episodes of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show and was the voice of Friend Owl in Walt Disney's animated film Bambi. He also appeared in Johnny Tremain. From 1960-1962, he appeared four times as Doc Bigelow on the NBC western series Laramie, with John Smith and Robert Fuller. He also guest starred with child actor Stephen Talbot in the 1960 episode "Don't Scream at a Jet" in the syndicated series The Blue Angels, fictional stories about elite fliers of the United States Navy. Wright died of cancer. His interment was in Fairfield's Suisun-Fairfield Cemetery. Description above from the Wikipedia article Will Wright, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.