Highway Patrol (TV Series) - Actors

Actors

The only constant regular on Highway Patrol is star Broderick Crawford as Dan Mathews. Crawford won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1949 for All the King's Men. Bill Boyett became a regular in the 4th season as Sgt. Ken Williams. Boyett went on to play Sgt. MacDonald in Adam-12

Another constant is the voice of Art Gilmore as the never-seen narrator. Gilmore narrated many movie trailers, the Red Skelton Show, and played Lieutenant and Captain in "Dragnet" both the original and the one made in the late 60's, and in Adam-12.

The show does not feature other actors, but some appear several times, sometimes in different roles. A few actors appear somewhat regularly as officers, but often their character names are not stated, or they have different names in different episodes.

The names of actors with speaking roles are listed equally on a single screen at the end of the episode, many of whom later became famous.

Actors appearing in the show include:

  • Kirk Alyn (played Superman in movie serials).
  • William Boyett makes numerous appearances. In 21 early episodes he is Officer Johnson. Later he appears frequently as Sgt. Ken Williams. Boyett went on to play Sgt. MacDonald in Adam-12.
  • Diane Brewster, also known as second-grade teacher "Miss Canfield" in Leave It to Beaver, and doomed wife Helen Kimble in The Fugitive, played the role of the dispatcher in Prison Break (1955).
  • Dyan Cannon (in credits written as Diane Cannon) plays a girlfriend.
  • Robert Conrad, later of Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron, plays a murderer in 1959; later that year he became a star of Hawaiian Eye.
  • Pat Conway, later Sheriff Clay Hollister on western series Tombstone Territory, appears as Mel in "Radioactive" (1955).
  • Clint Eastwood appears in a 1955 first season episode called "Motorcycle A"; he was paid $80.00.
  • Barbara Eden of "I Dream of Jeannie" fame is in the episode "Hostage Copter" (1957).
  • Ron Foster appears twenty-four times, mostly as young Officer Garvey.
  • Joe Flynn later of McHale's Navy, appears in "Taxi" (1956).
  • Robert Fuller appears as Judd Patterson in "Fire" (1959).
  • Brett King appears as Stanley Wright in "Safecracker" (1957).
  • Ted Knight later played TV news anchor Ted Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
  • Tyler McVey portrays an engineer in "Blast Area Copter" (1956).
  • Joyce Meadows is Ella McKay in "Suspected Cop" (1957).
  • Ed Nelson is a bad guy in Highway Patrol. Star of Peyton Place and a TV regular, he was more often a good guy.
  • Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock of Star Trek, plays Harry Wells in "Hot Dust" (1957) and Ray in "Blood Money" (1958).
  • Gregg Palmer appears in a 1955 episode.
  • Gilman Rankin of Tombstone Territory appeared as Vince in "Prison Break" (1955).
  • Quintin Sondergaard of Tombstone Territory appeared in Highway Patrol.
  • John Vivyan was later television's Mr. Lucky.
  • Diane Webber is "Woman" in Episode 18, "Coptor Cave-In" (February 1959).
  • Stuart Whitman appears in 13 episodes as Sergeant Walters, and went on to star in television and movies.
  • Guy Williams was Zorro in Disney's 1957 TV series, and starred in 1960s TV series Lost in Space.
  • Ruta Lee is "Lea Franklin" in a 1957 episode of "Armored Car" and starred in many movies and TV shows

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