Wesley Addy

Robert Wesley Addy (August 4, 1913 – December 31, 1996) was an American actor of stage, television, and film. Early years Addy was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the second child and only son of John Roy Addy, a minister, and his Danish-born wife, Maren S. Nelson, a nurse. The family had come from Ohio, where Addy's father and older sister were born. The parents were recruited as missionaries bound for China, but his father suffered a nervous breakdown on the way, and the family wound up in Inglewood, California. Addy attended Inglewood Union High School, where he played the oboe. He graduated high school in January 1930. Addy entered UCLA as an economics major during the spring quarter of 1930, but switched to dramatics after his freshman year. He was active in the university's Dramatic Society from his sophomore year. During his junior year he played Orestes in Choephoroe, drawing praise from the Los Angeles Times drama critic. While a senior, he played Sebastian in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and the Earl of Essex in Elizabeth the Queen with a cast that included classmates Lloyd Bridges and Russell Zink. Addy also reprised his performance of Orestes, this time in Eumenides. Pre-war stage career After graduating from UCLA, Addy moved to the East Coast at the invitation of a family friend, Phidelah Rice, who owned a theater on Martha's Vineyard. He joined the Vineyard Player's summer stock company, which performed at the Rice Playhouse. Though obscure, it was a professional company which likely secured for Addy his first Equity card.