Paul Birch (actor)

Early years

Birch was born Paul Lowery Smith in Atmore, Alabama. He attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute.

Television

In the late 1950s, Birch starred, along with William Campbell, in the syndicated Canadian series Cannonball (1958), a half-hour drama/adventure show about truckers. He also was a regular in The Court of Last Resort on NBC in 1957-1958.

In the mid 1950s he appeared in magazine and TV ads as the first widely publicized "Cowboy" Marlboro Man.

In 1959, Birch was cast as Sergeant Major Carmody, with Doug McClure as Corporal Jenkins, in the episode "The Face of Courage" of the NBC western series, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds. In the story line, amid the threat of Sioux attack, Carmody commanders the vessel, the Enterprise, while it is delivering military cargo to an Army outpost on the Missouri River. Joanna Moore appears in the episode as Kitty McGuire.

He appeared as President Grant in the 1960 episode "Mr. Simpson" of ABC's Black Saddle western series starring Peter Breck as Clay Culhane, a gunfighter-turned-lawyer. He also portrayed President Grant in two episodes of The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.

He also had a recurring role as Captain Carpenter, the boss of Lt. Phillip Gerard (Barry Morse) in the first two seasons of ABC's adventure/drama series The Fugitive, starring David Janssen.

Stage

Birch appeared on Broadway in a production of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1954-1955). He portrayed both Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee in several historical plays.

He was among the original members of the Pasadena Playhouse, the first actor to be one of that group's repertory players.

Film

Birch appeared as the police captain with the megaphone in Rebel Without A Cause (1955), and was one of the first to be "disintegrated" in the original movie War of the Worlds (1953).

He starred in some low-budget science-fiction films in the 1950s, including The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955), Day the World Ended (1955), Not of This Earth (1957), and the cult classic Queen of Outer Space (1958). Birch also had small roles in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1967).

Teaching

While he acted at the Pasadena Playhouse, he also was "employed full-time as an instructor and director working with students in the Playhouse College of Theatre Arts."

Personal life

Birch was married twice and was survived by his second wife, the former Betsy Ross Smith (another source gives her name as Barbara) and their three children, Don, Jennifer, and Michael. From his first marriage to Margaret Farish, he had a daughter named Cindy, whose son is actor Ned Luke (born 1958).

Death

Birch died of cancer May 24, 1969, at St. George's in Grenada. Survived by his widow and three children, he is buried in a cemetery outside St. George's.