Biographie
Owen Bush, a laconic character actor, was born on November 10, 1921, in Savannah, Missouri. His interest in acting began in high school when auditioning for a school play provided an escape from a dull study hall. In the late 1940s, Bush started working as a radio announcer, and by the early 1950s, he became a sportscaster on WDAF-TV in Kansas City. Like many TV announcers in Kansas City at the time, he frequently appeared in industrial films produced by the Calvin Company. There, he met the young director Robert Altman, who admired Bush's comedic style and cast him in numerous short industrial "docu-dramas" as well as a small role in Altman's first feature film, "The Delinquents," filmed in Kansas City in 1956.
By 1959, Altman, then a busy TV director in Hollywood, persuaded Bush to take a leave from WDAF-TV and move to California to star in a regular role on a short-lived syndicated series Altman was producing called "The Troubleshooters." Although the show failed to launch, with support from longtime friend William Frawley (of "I Love Lucy"), whom Bush had met during an industrial film shoot in Kansas City, Bush became a popular radio personality in Los Angeles and one of the most prolific character actors in movies and television. He appeared in many early 1960s Altman-directed episodes of series such as "The Whirlybirds," "Maverick," "Peter Gunn," "Bus Stop," and "Bonanza," as well as independently in numerous episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Gunsmoke," and in the film "Valley of the Dolls."
Bush continued working steadily through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, most recently appearing in the film "Best Laid Plans" and holding a recurring role on the TV soap opera "Passions." A classic and highly recognizable character actor, Owen Bush passed away on June 12, 2001, in Los Angeles at the age of 79.
