O.Z. Whitehead
Acting • Born 1911-03-01 – Died 1998-07-29
Biography
American character actor of rather bizarre range, a member of the so-called John Ford Stock Company. Originally a New York stage actor of some repute, Whitehead entered films in the 1930s. He played a wide variety of character parts, often quite different from his own actual age and type. He is probably most familiar as Al Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940). But twenty-two years later, in his fifth film for Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Whitehead at 51 was playing a lollipop-licking schoolboy! He continued to work predominantly on the stage, appearing now and again in films or on television. In his last years, he suffered from cancer and died in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, where he had lived in semi-retirement for many years.
Filmography
35 credits
The Grapes of Wrath
Movie • 1940
Al Joad
Road House
Movie • 1948
Arthur
Panic in Year Zero!
Movie • 1962
Hogan
The Scarf
Movie • 1951
Whoopie
Beware, My Lovely
Movie • 1952
Mr. Franks
The Hoodlum
Movie • 1951
Breckenridge
The Horse Soldiers
Movie • 1959
Otis 'Hoppy' Hopkins
The Lion in Winter
Movie • 1968
Bishop of Durham
The Last Hurrah
Movie • 1958
Norman Cass Jr.
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!
Movie • 1958
Isaac Goodpasture
Comin' Round the Mountain
Movie • 1951
Zeke
Summer Magic
Movie • 1963
Mr. Perkins
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Movie • 1962
Herbert Carruthers
The San Francisco Story
Movie • 1952
The San Francisco Story
Movie • 1952
Alfey
The Scoundrel
Movie • 1935
Calhoun
For Men Only
Movie • 1952
Prof. Bixby
Two Rode Together
Movie • 1961
Lt. Whitehead
A Song Is Born
Movie • 1948
Professor Oddly
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
Movie • 1947
Ninny Nat
FBI Girl
Movie • 1951
Chauncey
Ma and Pa Kettle
Movie • 1949
Mr. Billings
My Brother Talks to Horses
Movie • 1947
Mr. Puddy
The Body Beautiful
Movie • 1953
Oscar Blunt
Journey Into Light
Movie • 1951
Lippy
Philadelphia, Here I Come
Movie • 1975
Ben Burton
Ulysses
Movie • 1967
Alexander J. Dowie
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Hank Blenis
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Harry Beacom
Studio One
TV • 1948
Peter Kovalesky
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Mr. Newton
Hazel
TV • 1961
Suspense
TV • 1949
George Vance
Cavalcade of America
TV • 1952
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Simms