Walter Baldwin

Short Biography

Walter Baldwin was born on January 2, 1889 in Lima, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Long, Long Trailer (1953) and Rachel and the Stranger (1948). He died on January 27, 1977 in Santa Monica, California, USA.Trivia (2) Was the first actor to play "Floyd the Barber" on The Andy Griffith Show (1960), doing so in only one episode. Thereafter, Floyd was always played by Howard McNear, who fashioned him into one of the show's most memorable characters.Prolific American small part character actor, often seen wearing rimless spectacles and having few teeth. He had extensive experience on Broadway (1917-37) and acted in films from the mid-1930's. Baldwin invariably played lower middle-class, frequently downtrodden, small town inhabitants or bucolic types. He worked almost exclusively in television after 1956.Walter Baldwin Actor - 2 Jan 1889 to 27 Jan 1977 - Biography by Hal Erickson - Bespectacled American actor Walter Baldwin was already a venerable stage performer at the time he appeared in his first picture, 1940's Angels over Broadway. With a pinched Midwestern countenance that enabled him to portray taciturn farmers, obsequious grocery store clerks and the occasional sniveling coward, Baldwin was a familiar (if often unbilled) presence in Hollywood films for three decades. Possibly Baldwin's most recognizable role was as Mr. Parrish in Sam Goldwyn's multi-Oscar winning The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), for which the actor received thirteenth billing. He also had a prime opportunity to quiver and sweat as a delivery man whose truck is commandeered by homicidal prison escapee Robert Middleton in The Desperate Hours (1955). Seemingly ageless, Walter Baldwin made his last film appearance three years before his death in 1969's Hail Hero.