Cause of death Heart attack Children Carly Witney Role Film actor | Name Michael Witney Years active 1963-1981 | |
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Died November 30, 1983, New York City, New York, United States Movies and TV shows Similar People Twiggy, Leigh Lawson, Frank Perry, Hayley Mills, Richard Quine | ||
MICHAEL WITNEY TRIBUTE
Michael Witney (born Whitney Michael Armstrong November 21, 1931 – November 30, 1983) was an American film and television actor.
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Career
In 1963–1964 Witney had a recurring part as the first wagon master, Buck Coulter, in the first 14 episodes of the ABC Western television series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role and based on a 1958 novel by Robert Lewis Taylor. Dan O'Herlihy played Jaimie's father, "Doc" Sardius McPheeters, and Charles Bronson at mid-season replaced Witney as the wagon master, cast in the role of Linc Murdock. The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters was Witney's first screen acting role.
He guest starred in other Western series, including four appearances on NBC's Bonanza and once on Daniel Boone, starring Fess Parker. He guest-starred as a cavalry captain in the 1965 episode "South Wind" of CBS's Gunsmoke. He appeared in 1966 as Sergeant MacDonald in "Muted Fifes, Muffled Drums" of ABC's A Man Called Shenandoah, starring Robert Horton, and as Jared Hobson in the 1967 episode, "The Execution", of Dale Robertson's ABC western series, The Iron Horse. He was cast as Wild Bill Hickok in the 1965 episode, "No Gun Behind His Badge", of the syndicated Death Valley Days, with host Ronald Reagan playing Thomas J. "Bear River" Smith.
In 1975 Witney was cast as Frank Ward in 10 of the 11 episodes of the BBC television series, Oil Strike North, a drama about the Triumph Oil Company and its attempt to extract petroleum from the North Sea.
Witney made a brief appearance in December 30, 1965 as a sailor named Johnny who helped Zsa Zsa Gabor, who guest-starred in the #15 episode of the second season of Gilligan's Island entitled, "Erica Tiffany Smith to the Rescue."
Witney also appeared in NBC's Star Trek episode "A Private Little War".
His last screen appearances were from 1978 to 1981 in different roles in three episodes of ABC's Charlie's Angels.
Personal life
Witney married Donna (JoJo) Collette Bailey in 1956 in Helena, Montana. They divorced in 1976.
He married the British model Lesley Hornby ("Twiggy") in 1977, and they had a daughter Carly. Witney died of a heart attack in New York City on November 30, 1983, nine days after his 52nd birthday.
Before his move to Los Angeles to pursue acting, Witney was a minor league pitcher for the Hornell Dodgers and the Great Falls Electrics.