The veteran actor Russell Conway died January 12 at the age of 95. He had been retired many years and living in Laguna Woods, California. Born in Manitoba, Canada as Russell Clarence Zink April 25, 1913, Mr. Conway's older brother also became an actor and changed his name to Donald Woods (1906-98). Russell began his career on Broadway in the play Land is Bright in 1938; served in WWII; and took up his acting
career in Hollywood in 1947, where he was a member of the Screen Actors Guild for over 60 years. He appeared in hundreds of films and television shows, including such titles as Twelve O'Clock High, War of the Worlds, Love Me Tender, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and Our Man Flint. His television work includes Wagon Train, The Fugitive, Sea Hunt, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, and the role of father Fenton Hardy in the Hardy Boys serials on the 1950s Mickey Mouse Club. Conway could do westerns to detective shows, drama or comedy. Thanks Russ, for many years of enjoyment!
Out on Tuesday was the latest wave of Disney Treasures. Disney was a fan of character actors, and one of the live-action treasures out this week is from Disney's Mickey Mouse Club. "The Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" star Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk as Frank and Joe Hardy. But character actors abound, including Russ Conway as their father and Sarah Selby as their Aunt Gertrude in each of the more than two dozen episodes. You'll also find Robert Foulk, Arthur Shields, Jess Kirkpatrick, Mort Mills, Charles Cane, and as Silas Applegate, the wonderful Florenz Ames (above/right).
Ames was in vaudeville and later appeared on Broadway from the 1920s to the 1950s. He was Ellery Queen's father in the early 1950s tv series; he played Dagwood's boss Mr. Dithers, on the first Blondie tv series in the late 1950s; but I can find no credits for him after 1959. He was born in Rochester, New York in January 1883 and appeared in vaudeville with his wife Adelaide Winthrop. I also can't find any record of his death, so we have a bit of a mystery...whatever happened to Florenz Ames???
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The veteran actor Russell Conway died January 12 at the age of 95. He had been retired many years and living in Laguna Woods, California. Born in Manitoba, Canada as Russell Clarence Zink April 25, 1913, Mr. Conway's older brother also became an actor and changed his name to Donald Woods (1906-98). Russell began his career on Broadway in the play Land is Bright in 1938; served in WWII; and took up his acting
