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Actors With Character: Whitner Nutting ‘Whit’ Bissell

May 13th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Whit Bissell in an episode of NBC-TV’s “Panic” (1957)

Nutting? Didn’t Whit’s parents see Mandingo?

I love this guy. Whether playing a prematurely gray doctor or prematurely gray scientist, Whit Bissell’s name in the credits holds almost as much promise (and screen time) as a Hitchcock cameo.

Who will ever forget Whit’s death scene in Riot in Cell Block 11 or his weasely bank teller in Anthony Mann’s Side Street? When someone asked, “Is there a doctor in the house?,” Whit invariably answered the call. Need a convincing scientific expert who just happens to look smashing in a lab coat? Whit fit. This guy played so many doctors he could cure the dead and enough scientists (mad or otherwise) to turn us into a race of teenage werewolves!

Was he a good actor? Who can say? He was seldom on screen long enough for audiences to find out.

The son of prominent surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell, one can hear his father screaming, “I raised you to become a great doctor, not play one in the movies!” Let’s see J. Dougal bark the following directive to mute Teenage Frankenstein: Michael Landon with the same authority as his son: “I know you can speak! I sewed your lips on myself!”

I first took notice of Whit as a kid hooked on Irwin Allen’s The Time Tunnel. (It was a typical I. A. production: 95% of the budget went towards sets, special effects and talent while the rest paid for the screenplay.) At first glance, Whit didn’t appear to be acting. He so looked the part that I automatically presumed Whit to be a world renown scientist playing himself. (The fact that my young brain failed to automatically block thoughts of documentary realism when exposed to an Irwin Allen production proves that I am slightly retarded.)

Whit had been working hard in Hollywood since the 40s and by the time Irwin Allen introduced us, he had appeared in almost 300 movies and TV shows, invariably as a general practitioner.

Of his 283 movie and television appearances listed on imdb, I’d venture that I’ve seen half. Whit usually appeared in small doses, so it was very rare that he was allowed to stretch. Such was the case in The Comedian, a 1957 episode of Playhouse 90.

Written by Rod Serling, The Comedian stars Mickey Rooney as a ruthless TV comic said to have been patterned after Sid Caesar. The Mick hands in an astounding performance, one of the best of his career. Whit pops up as Otis Elwell, a J. J. Hunseckerish gossip columnist who threatens to topple Mickey’s fiefdom. Gone is the customary doctor’s frock and in its place, a sleek overcoat. Instead of seeing the world through dime store spectacles, Elwell sports a pair of fashionable designer shades. Sucking smoke through a cigarette holder, the rapier Whit commands a scene like never before.

His most embarrassing moment came in 1975’s The Psychic Killer directed by Ray Danton. If the name rings a bell, he played Legs Diamond in Budd Boetticher’s glorious biopic. I once asked Budd about Danton and he said, “the biggest, most egocentric prick I ever met in my life.” (I sure miss Budd!) TPK is terribly made. I lifted my beloved “so bad it’s educational” line from Dave Kehr’s review. Guess what role Whit plays? The actor was 65 when they made it and at last, after all those years of playing the good doctor, got to partake in a nude love-making scene. Whit stays covered, of course. Covered in Max Factor Pancake Makeup Tan #2. He’s wearing more makeup than the chick! His death by audio-phonic torture is a moment to be devoutly cherished. I actually paid to see this at Chicago’s Riviera Theater, long before it was converted it into a nightclub. It was the first DVD I ever purchased; it appeared to me in a used bin in Burbank for $3.00 and I grabbed it up even before I had a DVD player. Surely something as priceless as this would quickly go out of print.

Thanks for all the good medicine, Whitner Nutting Bissell!

Whit bissell & Michael Landon in \

The good doctor about to offer teenage werewolf Michael Landon a Chesterfield

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