This one will probably make it into the book I am working on about my parents. I hope you enjoy this! Feel free to follow me on Facebook too - Peter K. Ackerman, or Twitter @peterack
A REAL ACTOR DIES
So, today - May 9, 2016, I just read that Bill Schallert died. You might say "who?" and that is okay. He probably would not care. Looking at his picture you probably can say "I know that guy from....." and may or may not be able to fill in the blanks. Or maybe you can; Star Trek, Get Smart, The Patty Duke Show, and so much more. He did so many characters I had the privilege of working with him, and around him on what was to be my dad's final series - The New Gidget.
On The New Gidget Bill (don't call me William) Schallert was very approachable and oh so knowledgeable about his craft of acting on film. I had been trained as a stage actor and could not make the transition into film, though I tried. My dad, an Executive Producer of many classic television series, threw me a few bones and I was able to act on a few episodes of the series (and the TV movie - Gidget's Summer Reunion from which it was taken - you can watch that on YouTube watch it here!). One time I was in a scene where a candy eating chubby kid's line, about why he gave away some secret was: "but dad, they conned me with carbo's!"
The young man read the line as you see it written. Yet Schallert knew it was written to get a laugh, and he knew how the actor had to do a little work at crafting it. The director let the take stay, but when the boy was out of earshot, Bill showed me how the line could have been delivered to actually earn the laugh track guffaws that it would get.
"But dad...they CONNED me...with CARBOS!"
Bill was right. Actors that can make it look so easy do because they know how to take something like a throwaway line and touch it up just right to make it into a laugh line. Bill could also make the crew laugh. Though I could give examples of some of the jokes, this conversation with some people off set should say it all...
I was waiting tables in the middle 1980's at Hamburger Hamlet, Sherman Oaks and was chatting up some of my guests and they learned who I was, what my dad did, and then revealed to me that they were William Schallert's agents. One of them tested the waters..."how do you like Bill?" All I had to say was, "that guy can tell the dirtiest jokes!" and they knowingly laughed heartily.
Yet, I have to say it again...this guy could act. So could my mother, Elinor Donahue (Father Knows Best, Pretty Woman, and much more). The danger in television, especially in those days, is that the well known faces could become so easily typecast into characters - Schallert as "dad," and my mother, Elinor Donahue, as :"Betty Anderson." Each of them is a good actor in his and her own right, and I am so delighted that they got to work together.
Where? On "The New Gidget" of course! Nepotism was alive in the Ackerman family back when my dad was around. Heck, my mom played Sally Fields' sister in The Flying Nun also Executive Produced by my father, why not cast her to play Bill Schallert's love interest on an episode of The New Gidget? And you know what happened when they had a scene together? Good acting!
I have never witnessed this on a set before or since. Bill and my mother had a scene in a classroom as I recall. It was just the two of them doing two or three script pages of conversational dialogue. Each time they did their part it was fresh, new, and in the now. The director might throw a comment in between takes, or not, but every time they filmed the scene with them together it was different AND spot on! The reason?
Good actors do not just read lines! They LISTEN to each other, and react (acting) to that! That is what Elinor Donahue and William Schallert did that day filming The New Gidget. As the professionals of their craft that they are and were; they acted together as actors should and real actors do. It was marvelous to witness. Never do I remember a crew so transfixed by two television veterans, as the crew members anticipated what they would do with the material next.
So I am sad that William Schallert has gone to the next phase of eternal life, but I am also so happy that I got to know the "real" Bill, and saw a marvelously talented actor in action on many occasions! What a blessing, and a reminder of what we continue to see less of in today's "personalities" who are referred to as "actors."
Rest in Peace, Bill!
