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O. Z. Whitehead

O. Z. Whitehead

Birthday: 1911-03-01 | Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA

American character actor of rather bizarre range, a member of the so-called John Ford Stock Company. Originally a New York stage actor of some repute, Whitehead entered films in the 1930s. He played a wide variety of character parts, often quite different from his own actual age and type. He is probably most familiar as Al Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940). But twenty-two years later, in his fifth film for Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Whitehead at 51 was playing a lollipop-licking schoolboy! He continued to work predominantly on the stage, appearing now and again in films or on television. In his last years, he suffered from cancer and died in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, where he had lived in semi-retirement for many years.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1968
The Lion in Winter

as    Bishop of Durham

1959
The Horse Soldiers

as    Otis 'Hoppy' Hopkins

1958
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!

as    Isaac Goodpasture

1951
The Hoodlum

as    Breckenridge

1948
Road House

as    Arthur

1940
The Grapes of Wrath

as    Al Joad