Don Porter
Actor
Born September 24, 1912 in Miami, Oklahoma, USA
Donald "Don" Porter (September 24, 1912 –February 11, 1997) was an American actor who appeared in a number of films since the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron. On television, he portrayed the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom Gidget. Besides his work in film and television, Porter was active on stage, as he acted in more than 200 plays, including The Front Page, Plaza Suite, and Any Wednesday. He appeared in various films in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern), on the 1950s sitcom Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, titled The Ann Sothern Show. It featured many of the same actors, including Porter as hotel manager James Devery in the venue of a fashionable New York City hotel. He later guest starred on episodes of Green Acres, Love, American Style, The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, Three's Company (on which he played Jack Tripper's uncle), and Switch.
Filmography
Matlock
Erskine Tate
Hotel
Jonathan Corry
The Ghosts of Buxley Hall
Judge Oliver Haynes
The Last Song
Philip Brockhurst
The Murder That Wouldn't Die
Gen. Rocky Jensen
Tropic of Desire
Commodore Phillips
Vega$
The Paper Chase
Dallas
Matt Devlin
The President's Mistress
Craig
Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A.
Caufield
The Love Boat
Slade Summerhill
Three's Company
City of Angels
The Bionic Woman
Ellery Queen
Switch
Paul Lorimer
A Woman for All Men
Barney
White Line Fever
Cutler
Last Hours Before Morning
Mr. Pace
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
George Robinson
Archer
Happy Anniversary and Goodbye
Ed Murphy
Murder or Mercy
Henry Balin
Mame
Mr. Upson
The Morning After
Rudy King
The Six Million Dollar Man
Dr. Stanley Bacon
40 Carats
Mr. Latham
The Norliss Tapes
Sanford T. Evans
Barnaby Jones
Jeremy Markham
The Rookies
The Candidate
Senator Crocker Jarmon
Love, American Style
Live a Little, Love a Little
Mike Lansdown
The Mod Squad
Here's Lucy
Ken Richards
Hawaii Five-O
Jonathan Cavel
Judd, for the Defense
The F.B.I.
Mason Hammond
Green Acres
Gidget
Professor Russell Lawrence
Youngblood Hawke
Ferdie Lax
Gidget Goes to Rome
Russell Lawrence
Bachelor in Paradise
Thomas W. Jynson
Desk Set
Don the Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Our Miss Brooks
Lawrence Nolan
Private Secretary
Because You're Mine
Captain Burton Nordell Loring
The Savage
Running Dog
The Turning Point
Joe Silbray
Cripple Creek
Denver Jones
The Fallbrook Story
Narrator
The Racket
R. G. Connolly
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
Myron Brynk
711 Ocean Drive
Larry Mason
My Friend Irma Goes West
Mr. Brent
Buck Privates Come Home
Capt. Christie
Wild Beauty
Dr. Dave Morrow
Danger Woman
Professor Claude Ruppert
Cuban Pete
Roberts
She-Wolf of London
Barry Lanfield
Resisting Enemy Interrogation
Lt. Frank L. Williams, Jr. - American Co-pilot
How to Fly the B-26 Airplane
Captain Dick
Keep 'Em Slugging
Jerry
Reconnaissance Pilot
Camera Instructor
Madame Spy
David Bannister
Who Done It?
'Murder at Midnight' program manager
Night Monster
Dick Baldwin
Eyes of the Underworld
Edward Jason
Eagle Squadron
Ramsey
Top Sergeant
Al Bennett
Mystery of the White Room
Dr. Donald Fox