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Dabbs Greer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Williams "Dabbs" Greer (born April 2, 1917, in Fairview, Missouri) is an American character actor who has performed many diverse supporting roles in film and television for about 50 years.
Greer attended Drury University, where he was a member of Theta Kappa Nu. His Southern voice fits well in shows featuring rustic characters, such as Westerns.
He is recognizable to fans of The Adventures of Superman, as he appeared in three separate episodes on that show, including the series' inaugural entry, Superman on Earth (1952). He was the major guest star, as a man framed for capital murder in Five Minutes to Doom (1954 - see photo at left), and as an eccentric millionaire in The Superman Silver Mine (1958).
He had a prominent continuing role in the NBC TV series Little House on the Prairie as Reverend Alden from 1974 to 1983.
In the 1958 film I Want to Live! he played the San Quentin captain who finished strapping down Barbara Graham in the gas chamber prior to her execution and was the last person to speak to her. He had a similar role in the 1999 film The Green Mile, in which he played the elderly version of Tom Hanks' Death Row officer Paul Edgecomb (see photo at right).
In the May 9, 1991, episode of L.A. Law called "On the Toad Again", he played a character who was addicted to a "high" produced by licking the skin secretions of psychoactive toads.