Orson Bean

Orson Bean (born July 22, 1928) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He appeared frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, but is perhaps best known as a long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. Bean was born Dallas Frederick Burrows in Burlington, Vermont, to George Frederick Burrows and his wife Marian A. Pollard. Burrows was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, a fund... more

Orson Bean (born July 22, 1928) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He appeared frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, but is perhaps best known as a long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. Bean was born Dallas Frederick Burrows in Burlington, Vermont, to George Frederick Burrows and his wife Marian A. Pollard. Burrows was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, a fund-raiser for the Scottsboro Boys' defense, and a 20-year member of the campus police of Harvard College. Bean is a first cousin twiced removed to Calvin Coolidge, who was President of the United States at the time of Bean's birth. In the early 1950s Orson Bean was a rising young actor with a pleasant personality and a quirky sense of humor. These talents won him a guest appearance on NBC Radio's weekly jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street in 1952. Bean's mock-serious approach to the tongue-in-cheek scripts was noted by... less