Word: backus
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...acting throughout Rebel is of the highest caliber, and Dean receives a great deal of support from Jim Backus as the pathetic father trying to fulfill his son's image of him. The family scene following the chickie run is a great example of high-pitched acting at its best...
...Backus Is Willing...
...BACKUS...
...years the work was profitable but depressingly anonymous. What finally got Backus better known was turning the lampshade boor into a radio character. Name: Hubert Updyke III, a hilarious snob who insisted that his ancestors landed at Cadillac Rock. Hubert bought cars by the gross, drove around with Guy Lombardo's Royal "Canoodians" instead of a radio, had a little man on the hood to work as a windshield wiper...
Stand the Pain. After three years with Updyke on radio. Backus fell into a fat part as the judge on TV's now-defunct I Married Joan comedy series, whose reruns are still "in orbit." Discovered at last, Backus made 47 feature movies (best role: James Dean's father in Rebel Without a Cause). But Backus ("always too early or too late'') began his movie career at the start of Hollywood's slump. He often suspects that papa was right. Once that businesslike gentleman from Cleveland sniffed scornfully around the movie lots, pronounced one studio...