Hal K. Dawson, Stage, Film and TV Character Actor, Dead at 90
Hal K. Dawson, a longtime character actor who spent his early career on the Broadway stage and later moved on to motion pictures and television, is dead.
He was 90 when he died Tuesday at Loma Linda Medical Center.
Born in Connecticut, Dawson overcame the objections of his religious parents to enter the theater, starting in summer stock and repertory theater before landing a part in the 1928 Broadway production of “Machinal,” a play that would have been long forgotten, except that one of its featured players was Clark Gable.
By 1933, Dawson had earned several additional New York credits and appeared that year in “Another Language” with Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filmed the melodrama, Dawson and the rest of the cast came to Hollywood.
Dawson appeared in dozens of films, among them “Wells Fargo,” “Rose of Washington Square,” “Country Girl” and “Airport.” On television he was seen in “Quincy,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Lassie” and “Archie Bunker’s Place.”
Survivors include his wife, Virginia, a daughter, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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