Norman Burton
| Norman Burton | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 5, 1923 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died |
November 29, 2003 (aged 79) Imperial, California, United States |
| Occupation | Film, television actor |
Norman Burton (December 5, 1923 - November 29, 2003), occasionally credited as Normann Burton, was an American film and television actor.
Early life
Born in New York City, Burton was a student of The Actor's Studio. After early work on stage, he broke into films with a minor role in Fright (1956).
Career
His career in film and television was long and relatively successful, but he never achieved major recognition. He played the Hunt Leader, a gorilla, in the science fiction film Planet of the Apes, notable as being the first ape to be seen by both Taylor and the audience, and also appeared as a (human) army officer in the second sequel Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). In film, he is perhaps best known for his unconventional (and frequently disparaged) performance as Felix Leiter in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971). He played Will Giddings, an ill fated engineer, in the action film The Towering Inferno (1974), and his later films included The Gumball Rally (1976), Crimes of Passion (1984) and Deep Space (1988). He played Dennis Christopher's mean and ill fated boss in the slasher Fade To Black (1980).
On television, he is best known for his performance as Inter-Agency Defense Command's supervisor Joe Atkinson during the second season of the DC Comics-based fantasy adventure drama series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter. He also played Burt Dennis in the situation comedy The Ted Knight Show in the spring of 1978, and appeared as General George Marshall in the 1988 television miniseries War and Remembrance. Throughout his life, Burton was a devotee of the method school of acting, and taught method acting in Lakeside, California.
Death
Burton was just a few days short of his 80th birthday when he died as a result of an auto accident while returning from Ajijic, Mexico near the California-Arizona state line.[1]
Selected filmography
- Pretty Boy Floyd (1960)
- Valley of the Dolls (1967)
- Planet of the Apes (1968) - Hunt Leader
- R.P.M. (1970)
- Simon, King of the Witches (1971)
- Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Felix Leiter
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
- Fuzz (1972)
- Save the Tiger (1973)
- Hit! (1973) - The Director
- The Terminal Man (1974)
- The Towering Inferno (1974)
- The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)
- The Gumball Rally (1976)
- Scorchy (1976)
- Murder in Peyton Place (1977)
- Fade to Black (1980)
- Mausoleum (1983)
- Crimes of Passion (1984)
- Pray for Death (1985)
- Bloodsport (1988)
- Deep Space (1988)
- American Ninja V (1993)
References
External links
- Norman Burton at the Internet Movie Database
- Norman Burton at AllMovie
- Norman Burton at FelixLeiter.com
| Preceded by Rik Van Nutter |
Felix Leiter actor 1971 |
Succeeded by David Hedison |
|