julian_craster

From The Times
November 21, 2007

Don Fellows
American actor who originated the role of Buzz Adams in South Pacific

“I've stuttered on stage on London's West End, on Broadway, on TV, radio and in movies,” Don Fellows would say, “and no one knows.” He was haunted by the fear of his stutter all his life, but nonetheless made his Broadway debut in Mister Roberts in 1948, when the director Joshua Logan wanted “real veterans” for the shipboard drama, and he soon created the role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams in South Pacific in 1949. He was one of the last survivors of the original company that starred Mary Martin.

After opening in South Pacific, he returned to Mister Roberts and moved up from his non-speaking role to the featured role of Ensign Pulver. Fellows toured with Henry Fonda for over a year, earning his highest regard, and it was Fonda who telephoned him with the name of a therapist who taught him to “chew” his words, enabling him to forge an acting career that, to Fellows's own amazement, included countless voiceovers.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1922, Fellows first appeared on the London stage in the musical Promises, Promises in 1969 (based on the Jack Lemmon film The Apartment), and there he met his second wife, Miranda, who was a lead dancer in the production. They married and returned to New York. An offer by Binkie Beaumont of a role in a proposed production of 40 Carats brought them back to London in 1973, and, though that never materialised, he was soon cast in Terence Rattigan's In Praise of Love, with Donald Sinden and Joan Greenwood. From that, he began a thriving career as an American in London.

While he would appear in movies such as Superman IV and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and had a long and active presence on the British stage, from the fringe to West End shows such as Crazy For You and When Harry Met Sally, it was South Pacific that seemed to determine his fate. James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, which led to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, was inspired by his naval service on the island of Espiritu Santo — the same island that became Fellows's first port of call after he enlisted.

Fellows's success on the stage meant that he was picked up by the same agency that had recently signed Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, but his fear of speaking overcame him, and South Pacific became an emergency port of call.
He would, late in his life, write what he would call “name-dropping” memories of his lifelong encounters for The Stage. Not all his stories were told in print, but his tales of the opera singer Ezio Pinza in hot pursuit of South Pacific's star Mary Martin had a gleeful authenticity.

A postwar graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he studied at the Actors Studio, where he was trained by Lee Strasberg and was in the class that was joined by Marilyn Monroe. To their surprise she attended classes assiduously and was soon invited to join them at their regular lunch at Bickford's Cafeteria, until the word got out and Bickford's was invaded by photographers who crashed into the cafeteria, leaping on tables and shouting out to Monroe to pose. Although she continued to attend the classes, she wouldn't go out with them again. “I can't,” Fellows recalled her saying sadly, “I always wreck it for everybody.”
He is survived by his wife, Miranda, and their two daughters, and two daughters from his first marriage.

Don Fellows, actor, was born on December 2, 1922. He died on October 21, 2007, aged 84

julian_craster

Obituary : Don Fellows
Durable US actor who conquered a stutter and moved to Britain


by Eric Shorter
Tuesday January 22, 2008
The Guardian

Don Fellows, who has died aged 84, was one of the most original and emotionally stirring American performers to have appeared on the postwar British stage. He called himself a jobbing actor, but he often gave memorable performances. In Chicago, the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical which originated at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and transferred to the West End in 1979, he played the husband who sadly sang about how he was never noticed. It was his simple style that gave the song, Mr Cellophane, its blend of humour and sincerity.

Fellows was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He played string bass in various dance bands while at high school. "There was a tremendous jazz influence because we were close to Chicago," he said. During the second world war, he served in the US merchant marine and in 1946 moved to New York as an extra in the Broadway hit which starred Henry Fonda as Mister Roberts.
"I asked Billy Hammerstein [son of Oscar] why he had hired me and he said that I was the only actor he's ever had who stuttered." He subsequently "shambled his way through" the final audition of South Pacific in 1949 and created the part of Lt Buzz Adams, helping to introduce the rousing There Is Nothing Like a Dame. After a year he was offered Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts with Fonda. "I really hated it because I had lines like, 'that old son of a b-bitch p-pretending he doesn't know me, and I'll b-bet b-bastards starched his p-pyjamas again'," he complained.
Fellows stopped acting for five years until Fonda recommended a speech therapist from Vienna named Emil Froeschels. "He changed my life with his 'chewing method'. You eat rudely with your mouth open, re-form the words, and learn to speak differently." He appeared with Julie Harris in June Havoc's play Marathon '33, an element of the Actors' Studio theatre's first (and only) full Broadway season. He had belonged to the studio since 1952, and remained grateful to it as an organisation where actors could work unseen. "We never paid, which was unbelievably unique. Young actors in New York then couldn't get a charge account or a telephone. I tried to renew my automobile insurance, and they said, 'Oh, no. We no longer insure bartenders, stevedores or actors.' I'll never forget that."
In the 1960s, Fellows appeared on or off Broadway in a range of musical and dramatic productions, including Neil Simon's Promises, Promises, which brought him to London in 1969. He made his home in England after Terence Rattigan's In Praise of Love (1973), with Donald Sinden and Joan Greenwood. In the 1977 Wendy Toye/Benny Green musical, Oh, Mr Porter!, Fellows delivered a wonderful performance of an obscure gem called I'm in Love Again. His JB Biggley, one of the great eccentrics of American musical theatre in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, was Fellows' 43rd stage presentation in 26 years. "As far as I am concerned, it's an actor's dream. You can't hope to have anything like that in New York. Even Fonda used to say, if you get to do a play there every three years, you're doing damn well."
His other British shows included Crazy for You, David Edgar's Maydays, Seamus Finnegan's Tout, David Rabe's Vietnam war play Sticks and Stones, Paul Osborn's family play Morning's at Seven, Philip Barry's Holiday, William Inge's Bus Stop (with Lee Remick), A Tribute to Lily Lamont (with Gloria Grahame), David Hwang's M Butterfly, David Mamet's Reunion, Arthur Miller's The American Clock, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Lady in the Dark (with Celeste Holm, and music by Kurt Weill).
Fellows also featured regularly in films (The Omen, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II and IV) and his television roles included Jeeves and Wooster, The Beiderbecke Tapes, The Citadel, Lily Langtry, and Inside the Third Reich. He was much in demand for voiceovers, and taught at London's Method Studio, Conway Hall, Holborn, where he was artistic director. He was married to the choreographer and actor Miranda Fellows and they had four daughters.

Don Fellows, actor, born December 22 1922; died October 21 2007