Dutch postcard. Robert Young, Lauren Chapin, Billy Gray, Elinor Donahue and Jane Wyatt in Father Knows Best (1954-1960). The Dutch title was Vader weet het beter.
Quiet, soft-spoken American actor Robert Young (1907-1998) had some stage experience with the Pasadena Playhouse before entering films in 1931. He played characters who were charming, good-looking - and bland. He was notable as the spy in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), but he had his best roles during the 1940s. These included Western Union (1941), Claudia (1943) and Crossfire (1947). In 1949, Robert started the radio show 'Father Knows Best' as an average father in average situations. In 1954, the series went to television. From 1969 to 1976, he starred in the TV series Marcus Welby.
William Thomas 'Billy' Gray (1938) is an American former child actor, competitive motorcycle racer and inventor. He is known as Bud on the TV series Father Knows Best (1954-1960). He acted in more than 200 films, including the Science-Fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). He was arrested for marijuana possession in 1962 and served 45 days in jail, which effectively ended his acting career. From 1970 to 1995 he was a Class A motorcycle speedway racer and race promoter. He then turned to inventing and entrepreneurship, having invented the F-1 guitar pick.
Lauren Chapin (1945) is an American former child actress who played the role of the youngest child 'Kathy Anderson' (nicknamed "Kitten") in the television show Father Knows Best between 1954 and 1960. She appeared in 196 episodes of the 203 in the series. Chapin was awarded five Junior Emmys for Best Child Actress.
Tap dancing at the age of 16 months, pert and pretty Elinor Donahue (1937) has been entertaining audiences for six decades. She appeared as a radio singer and vaudeville dancer while a mere toddler. At 5, she was picked up by Universal Studios at the age of 5. When she blossomed into a pretty, wholesome, romantic ingénue she became a TV star in the classic family show Father Knows Best (1954-1960).
American actress Jane Wyatt (1910-2006) starred in several Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937), but is likely best known for her role as homemaker and mother Margaret Anderson in the television comedy series Father Knows Best (1954-1960), and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the Science-Fiction television series Star Trek (1966-1969). Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award–winner.
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