
Don Porter
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Donald "Don" Porter (September 24, 1912 –February 11, 1997) was an American actor who appeared in a number of films since the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron. On television, he portrayed the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom Gidget. Besides his work in film and television, Porter was active on stage, as he acted in more than 200 plays, including The Front Page, Plaza Suite, and Any Wednesday. He appeared in various films in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern), on the 1950s sitcom Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, titled The Ann Sothern Show. It featured many of the same actors, including Porter as hotel manager James Devery in the venue of a fashionable New York City hotel. He later guest starred on episodes of Green Acres, Love, American Style, The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, Three's Company (on which he played Jack Tripper's uncle), and Switch.
Known for
Credits

Mame (1974)
as Mr. Upson

My Friend Irma Goes West (1950)
as Mr. Brent

Buck Privates Come Home (1947)
as Capt. Christie

Desk Set (1957)
as Don the Elevator Operator (uncredited)

The Candidate (1972)
as Senator Crocker Jarmon

Mystery of the White Room (1939)
as Dr. Donald Fox

Reconnaissance Pilot (1943)
as Camera Instructor

Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)
as Mike Lansdown

White Line Fever (1975)
as Cutler

The Racket (1951)
as R. G. Connolly

She-Wolf of London (1946)
as Barry Lanfield

The Norliss Tapes (1973)
as Sanford T. Evans

Danger Woman (1946)
as Professor Claude Ruppert

Murder or Mercy (1974)
as Henry Balin

The Turning Point (1952)
as Joe Silbray

The Ghosts of Buxley Hall (1980)
as Judge Oliver Haynes

Because You're Mine (1952)
as Captain Burton Nordell Loring

Who Done It? (1942)
as 'Murder at Midnight' program manager

The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975)
as George Robinson

The Savage (1952)
as Running Dog

Tropic of Desire (1979)
as Commodore Phillips

Our Miss Brooks (1956)
as Lawrence Nolan

Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)
as Russell Lawrence

Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
as Thomas W. Jynson

40 Carats (1973)
as Mr. Latham

Cripple Creek (1952)
as Denver Jones

Happy Anniversary and Goodbye (1974)
as Ed Murphy

A Woman for All Men (1975)
as Barney

The Murder That Wouldn't Die (1980)
as Gen. Rocky Jensen

Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A. (1977)
as Caufield

The President's Mistress (1978)
as Craig

Eyes of the Underworld (1942)
as Edward Jason

711 Ocean Drive (1950)
as Larry Mason

Last Hours Before Morning (1975)
as Mr. Pace

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (1950)
as Myron Brynk

Eagle Squadron (1942)
as Ramsey

The Morning After (1974)
as Rudy King

Night Monster (1942)
as Dick Baldwin

Youngblood Hawke (1964)
as Ferdie Lax

Madame Spy (1942)
as David Bannister

Keep 'Em Slugging (1943)
as Jerry

Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944)
as Lt. Frank L. Williams, Jr. - American Co-pilot

The Last Song (1980)
as Philip Brockhurst

How to Fly the B-26 Airplane (1944)
as Captain Dick
Interview with Pontius Pilate (1980)
as Theodore Michael

Cuban Pete (1946)
as Roberts

Top Sergeant (1942)
as Al Bennett

Wild Beauty (1946)
as Dr. Dave Morrow

The Fallbrook Story (1952)
as Narrator





