Wright King

Wright King (born January 11, 1923) is a retired American actor of film and television, a native of Okmulgee in east central Oklahoma. His career extended from 1949 until his retirement in 1987.

Background

King was cast in numerous westerns and is particularly known for his role in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Vivien Leigh (whom his character kisses), and for two guest-starring appearances on Rod Serling's original CBS series, The Twilight Zone, as Paul Carson in "Shadow Play" (1961) and Hecate in "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" (1963). In 1974, he played U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr., of Georgia in the ABC television film, The Missiles of October, a dramatization of John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

King made his small screen debut in 1949 as Midshipman Bascomb in the television series, Captain Video and His Video Rangers. In 1950, he appeared on The Ken Murray Show and the religious program, Lamp Unto My Feet. From 1950 to 1951, he was cast in six episodes of The Gabby Hayes Show, one focusing on the outlaw Sam Bass and another on the youthful author Mark Twain. During that same time, he guest starred twice on the former radio series moved to television, Big Town, based on the operation of a metropolitan newspaper. In 1951, he appeared in the episode "The Lucky Touch" of Schlitz Playhouse, a CBS anthology series.