Charles Tannen

A general purpose actor who worked primarily at 20th Century Fox, Tannen had mostly bit and/or supporting parts in movies, appearing in more than two hundred films, including Jesse James (1939), The Return of Frank James (1940), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) with Marilyn Monroe, There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), The Fly (1958), and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

The director Preston Sturges once praised Tannen for his acting ability, being quoted as saying,

If you have a middle-aged character part, either Gentile or Jewish, either comic or dramatic, I urge you to give it to Tannen, and I guarantee that you will be enchanted by his authority, his unction, his voice, his theatrical resource, and his profound ability.^[1]

Tannen also made many appearances on such television series as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Lassie, The Twilight Zone, Rawhide, The Rifleman,^[2] and Jefferson Drum. In 1957 Tannen appeared as Lonnie the Conductor in the TV western Cheyenne in the episode "The Iron Trail."

As a television screenwriter, Tannen wrote episodes for Petticoat Junction, I Dream Of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, All In The Family, and Maude.

Tannen's father, Julius Tannen, and his brother, William Tannen, were also actors.^[3]

Tannen died in 1980 in San Bernardino, California at the age of 65 of a heart attack.^[4][5]