Cliff Osmond (born Clifford Osman Ebrahim) (February 26, 1937 - December 22, 2012) was an American character actor and television screenwriter best known for appearing in films directed by Billy Wilder. A parallel career as an acting teacher coincided with his other activities.
Early life
Osmond was born in the Margaret Hague Medical Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, and reared in Union City, New Jersey. He was a graduate of Thomas A. Edison grammar school, Emerson High School, and Dartmouth College (Bachelor of Arts in English). He received his Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles and advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. in the field of Theater History at UCLA.
Career
He appeared in four of Billy Wilder's comedies, beginning with Irma la Douce (1963) as the police sergeant. He played the songwriter Barney Millsap in Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), which used new comedic song lyrics by Ira Gershwin set to unused tunes composed by his brother George. Osmond also appeared in two later Wilder films a co-starring role as Purkey opposite Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie (1966), and The Front Page (1974). Osmond was also seen in menacing roles as Pap in the 1981 TV adaptation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[3]
Osmond made more than 100 appearances in TV shows or movies between 1962 and 1996. During that period he guest-starred at least half a dozen times on Gunsmoke and in the 1965 episode "Yahoo" of NBC's Laredo. He was cast in "The Gift," 1962) of the original The Twilight Zone. He played a hippie in Ironside (1968) and appeared as well on Here's Lucy (1974), The New Land (1974), as a plumber's apprentice on work release from prison in All in the Family (1975), The Bob Newhart Show (1975), and Kojak (1976).
Also a screenwriter, Osmond was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for writing an episode of Streets of San Francisco (1973). He also wrote and directed the features film The Penitent (1988), starring Raul Julia and Armand Assante.
As an actor received a Best Actor award for his UCLA performance of Berthold Brecht's Baal, and the Joseph Jefferson acting award for a Chicago stage appearance in Shaw's You Never Can Tell.
Later career
In addition to his acting and writing careers, Osmond was an acting teacher and coach in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the fall of 2004, he was visiting professor in acting and Guest Resident Artist at Georgetown University, teaching two acting courses and directing Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.
In 2010, he wrote a book about his career and acting: Acting is Living: Exploring the Ten Essential Elements in any Successful Performance.
Death
Cliff Osmond died on December 22, 2012, of pancreatic cancer, aged 75.[4] He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica.
Partial filmography
Irma La Douce (1963)
Wild and Wonderful (1964)
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
The Fortune Cookie (1966)
Three Guns for Texas (1968)
Sweet Sugar (1972)
Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)
The Front Page (1974)
Sharks' Treasure (1975)
The Great Brain (1978)
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979)
The North Avenue Irregulars (1979)
For Which He Stands (1996)
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/arts/television/cliff-osmond-prolific-character-actor-dies-at-75.html?_r=0
2. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/31/local/la-me-passings-20121231
3. "Cliff Osmond". allmovie.com.
4. "Cliff Osmond, Prolific Character Actor, Dies at 75". New York Times.
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