Bud Collyer (June 18, 1908 – September 8, 1969) was an American radio actor/announcer who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars.
Collyer was born Clayton Johnson Heermance, Jr. in New York City to Clayton Johnson Heermance and Caroline Collyer. He originally sought a career in the law, attending Williams College and Fordham University law school. Though he became a law clerk after his graduation, making as much in a mo...
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Bud Collyer (June 18, 1908 – September 8, 1969) was an American radio actor/announcer who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars.
Collyer was born Clayton Johnson Heermance, Jr. in New York City to Clayton Johnson Heermance and Caroline Collyer. He originally sought a career in the law, attending Williams College and Fordham University law school. Though he became a law clerk after his graduation, making as much in a month of radio as he did in a year of clerking convinced him to make broadcasting his career, changing his surname and becoming a familiar voice on all three major radio networks by 1940. Among others, his radio roles as Terry and the Pirates (Pat Ryan), Renfrew of the Mounted (the title role), and Abie's Irish Rose (the title role, again), not to mention announcing for a number of radio soap operas--including The Guiding Light and The Goldbergs, which was actually a serial comedy with dramatic overtones.
Collyer's best-remembered radio role...
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