Andy Devine

A much-loved character actor from the silent era through the early 1970s, Andy Devine provided garrulous comic support to stars ranging from John Wayne to Roy Rogers in hundreds of films and television series, including "Stagecoach" (1939), "Island in the Sky" (1953), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) and countless others. But it was his work on serial later TV Westerns that brought him his enduring fame, especially to younger viewers, who delighted in hearing Devine's creaky, broken-calliope voice warn Guy Madison's Wild Bill Hickok about impending danger. His currency among children was later doubled when he served as host of "Andy's Gang" (ABC, 1955-1960), a gentle if offbeat mix of storytelling, puppets and Devine's folksy axioms. As a result, he remained as popular in his sixties as he had as a young man playing comic hayseeds in the 1930s and 1940s, enjoying plum roles in "Valance" and "How the West Was Won" (1963), as well as on countless episodic television shows. Though he slowed his screen efforts in the 1960s, Devine was active on screen until the mid-1970s, lending his distinctive voice to animated features, including Disney's "Robin Hood" (1973) until his death in 1977. His status as a beloved comic player and rough-hewn but gentle father figure virtually canonized Devine for generations of movie and TV audiences.