Kenneth Tobey
Jesse Kenneth Tobey (March 23, 1917 – December 22, 2002) was an American actor active from the early 1940s into the 1990s, with over 200 credits in film, theatre, and television. He is best known for his role as a captain who takes charge of an Arctic military base when it is attacked by a plant-based alien in The Thing from Another World (1951), and a starring role in the 1957-1960 Desilu Productions TV series Whirlybirds.
Kenneth Tobey
Early years[edit]
Tobey was born in 1917 in Oakland, California. Following his graduation from high school in 1935, he entered the University of California, Berkeley, with intentions to pursue a career in law, until he began to dabble in acting at the school's theater.[3] His stage experience there led to a drama scholarship, a year-and-a-half of study at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse, where his classmates included fellow actors Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, and Tony Randall.[4][5]
During World War II, Tobey joined the United States Army Air Forces, serving in the Pacific as a rear gunner aboard a B-25 bomber.[5]
Personal life[edit]
In 1968, Tobey married June Hutton.[14]
Tobey was an active member of the Republican party in southern California. He campaigned for Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election and again in 1956. He said he voted for Richard Nixon in 1960, Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Richard Nixon again in 1968.[15] Many of his close friends, including John Charles Moffitt, Lela Rogers, Robert Montgomery and Ronald Reagan, were "friendly witnesses" for HUAC during the days of the Hollywood blacklist.[16]
Tobey died at age 85 on December 22, 2002, at the Eisenhower Memorial Hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, after an unspecified but extended illness.[17][18] His remains were cremated by the Neptune Society, and his ashes taken by his daughter Tina.[18]