And now, That Guy...in color!
You always have to watch out in this face-spotting game; try to make sure it's who you think it is. Especially if your comments are going out to some historic forum which may be archived and studied hundreds of years from now.
(For example, the IMDB's mis-identification of Guy Raymond as an extra on Wild in the Streets (1968)-- that was mine. I know, now, it was Norm Leavitt. Sorry about that. I can't log on and change it. I hope to make it up with a subsequent series on Telling One Guy From Another Guy.) (Especially if he's actually named "Guy".)
So I won't say for sure that Man Waving up there (from the Doris Day film, The Thrill of It All) is Tony Regan. I think he well might be, though. (Editor's note: the IMDB says it is.)
Anyone acquainted with the Desilu-Universal Studios galaxy of Old TV Guys, which spans this world like the Milky Way, has probably seen Mr Regan a couple dozen times. I first noticed him as Surprised Diner in Columbo: Now You See Him,
still surprised after watching Jack Cassidy pull the whole thing out of a pocket in his cape. Like Mike Lally and all the other people sitting back there. "Did you just see him pull that ashtray out of his cape? Wow!"
Here he is, tending to Rockford's dad-
(dig that room number)
And a few years earlier, as a THRUSH agent in Man From Uncle.
I first tagged him "the Robin McNeil-looking guy", due to his resemblance to the great Canadian newsman.
Precisely because he was so anonymous. Although the
IMDB counts 249 appearances over a 29-year career in movies and TV, 8 or 9 a year, I'm not sure he ever spoke a word. Actors like this are
extremely hard to identify. There has to be some kind of cult appeal (a flame I'm hopefully fanning, here). I gave up expecting to ever know his name. But thanks to fans.
According to the IMDB, he was also a casting director. Nice job for this sort of gig. Probably a factor in the sheer volume of his work. But for someone like Mr Regan, who appeared as an assortment of party guests, spectators, butlers, police officers, patrons, pall-bearers and passengers-- he could be basically any kind of non-speaking, clip-art-type of bystander, appearing quickly in the glimmer and then gone. And you would never say "Who was that guy?", until you'd seen him do it a few dozen times. Then, you have to ask.
