James Gilmore "Jim" Backus (February 25, 1913 – July 3, 1989) was a radio, television, film actor, character actor, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of "Mr. Magoo," the rich "Hubert Updike, III," of the Alan Young radio show, Joan Davis' husband (a domestic court judge) on TV's I Married Joan, James Dean's father in Rebel Without a Cause and "Thurston Howell, III" on the 1960s hit sitcom Gilligan's Island. He also starre...
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James Gilmore "Jim" Backus (February 25, 1913 – July 3, 1989) was a radio, television, film actor, character actor, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of "Mr. Magoo," the rich "Hubert Updike, III," of the Alan Young radio show, Joan Davis' husband (a domestic court judge) on TV's I Married Joan, James Dean's father in Rebel Without a Cause and "Thurston Howell, III" on the 1960s hit sitcom Gilligan's Island. He also starred in his own show of one season, The Jim Backus Show, also known as Hot off the Wire.
James Gilmore Backus was born February 25, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Bratenahl, Ohio, a wealthy village surrounded by Cleveland, the son of Russell Gould Backus, a mechanical engineer, and Daisy Gilmore (née Taylor) Backus.
Backus had an extensive career and worked steadily in Hollywood over five decades, often portraying characters with an "upper-crust," New England-esque air, such as Mr. Howell in Gilligan's Island. He appeared in Father was a...
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