Burt Mustin: Professional Old Man

I was watching Dragnet this morning and eating my oatmeal when suddenly Burt Mustin turned up in a small role. It got me thinking about what a pervasive presence this character actor was throughout my childhood.

Burt Mustin (Burton Hill Mustin, 1884-1977). He had been an amateur actor for years, while he was a salesman and then an agent for the Better Business Bureau but began his career as a professional actor after he retired, in the 1951 movie Detective Story at the age of 67. He subsequently appeared in over 150 movies and television productions.

He of course played an elderly senior citizen, often known as "Old ---" or "Old Man Blank ---" or "Old Mr. ---". There was something about his bald head, his hooded eyes, his hanging lower lip that suggested a new-born baby bird, of someone who was chipper or spry despite his age. We saw him on The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Dragnet, Gunsmoke, The Monkees, Batman, My Three Sons, The Lucy Show, All in the Family, Phyllis, and Sanford and Son; and later in reruns of Leave It to Beaver, The Twilight Zone,  and Adam-12. He was also in plenty of Disney movies, comedy Westerns, and Don Knotts movies, many of which featured in our childhood roster. 

So entrenched was he in my mental playlist that when I read The Dark is Rising when I was 11 I cast the musty old Burt Mustin in the role of Old George, an ancient farmer who played a secondary, supporting part in the tale. A nice fit, I thought.