Harold Stone, the strong-jawed, steely-eyed character actor who often played villains, or strong authority types in both film and television since the mid-'50s died on Novemebr 18 of natural causes in Woodland Hills, California. He was 92.

He was born Harold Hochstein on March 3, 1913, in New York City. His father, Jacob Hochstein, was an actor in Yiddish theater, and young Harold would perform with him on stage ocassionally as a child. Yet after high school, he enrolled at New York University, and studied medicine instead of drama, and earned a degree in 1935. However, his medical plans were cut short during the Depression and he was forced to support his mother and returned to acting.

Stone made his Broadway debut in The World We Make (1940), and scored his biggest stage success with A Bell for Adano (1944). A bankable actor from the beginning of his career, he worked steadily in radio and stage for the next few years, before he broke through on television playing the role of Jake on one of the earliest of television programs The Goldbergs (1949-56).

With his profile growing, he landed his first proper film role in what would be Humphrey Bogart's last movie, the boxing drama The Harder They Fall (1956). It was soon followed with some choice roles in top-notch films: Nick Barbells, Rocky Barbella's alcoholic father in Somebody Up There Like Me (also 1956); the dogged detective on Henry Fonda's trail in Alfred Hitchcock's superb The Wrong Man; the sympathetic general in the sci-fi cult classic The Invisible Boy (both 1957); and as David in Spartacus (1960). Oddly, despite being solid in all these parts, Stone's career never quite took in cinema, and with the exception of his intense delivery as Frank Nitti in Roger Corman's The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967); he was stuck in Elvis Presley vehicles (Girl Crazy (1965); or the more self-indulgent Jerry Lewis comedies (The Big Mouth, Which Way to the Front (1970).

Now if films never gave Stone enough work, he certainly had television to fall bank on for a steady paycheck. Indeed, to say Stone had a steady career in the medium is an understatement along the lines of say...the Beatles were just another British invasion from the sixties. When TV producers needed an actor with a stocky, overpowering presence, and booming voice, Harold Stone was their man. His list of nearly 200 performances is astounding to say the least, and a mere sample of his credits through four decades in television (the 50's: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Naked City); ('60s: The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Get Smart); (‘70s: Mission: Impossible, The Rockford Files, Kojak, Charlie's Angels); ('80s: Three's Company, Barney Miller, Simon & Simon, Highway to Heaven) like a programming schedule for Nick at Nite.

Yet despite his leaning toward tough roles, Stone's best work happened to be in sitcoms where he showed a wonderful flair as a lovable curmudgeon: as Hamilton Greely, William WIndom's publisher on My World and Welcome to It, (1969-70), a series loosely based on the works of James Thurber; and as Sam Steinberg, David Birney's father on Bridget Loves Bernie (1972-73), a fondly remembered comedy about a mixed marriage. Until his passing, Stone had been living in retirement for the last 18 years in Los Angeles. He is survived by his sons, Michael, and Robert; a daughter, Jennifer Bosserman; and four grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole