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 Fords 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.

Movies unavailable from O.Z. Whitehead

The Grapes of Wrath

Al Joad

Movie 1940

The Scarf

Whoopie

Movie 1951

Beware, My Lovely

Mr. Franks

Movie 1952

The Hoodlum

Breckenridge

Movie 1951

The Last Hurrah

Norman Cass Jr.

Movie 1958

Comin' Round the Mountain

Zeke

Movie 1951

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Herbert Carruthers

Movie 1962

The San Francisco Story

Movie 1952

The San Francisco Story

Alfey

Movie 1952

For Men Only

Prof. Bixby

Movie 1952

The Romance of Rosy Ridge

Ninny Nat

Movie 1947

FBI Girl

Chauncey

Movie 1951

Ma and Pa Kettle

Mr. Billings

Movie 1949

My Brother Talks to Horses

Mr. Puddy

Movie 1947

The Body Beautiful

Oscar Blunt

Movie 1953

Journey Into Light

Lippy

Movie 1951

Tv series unavailable from O.Z. Whitehead

Gunsmoke

Hank Blenis

Tv 1955

Perry Mason

Harry Beacom

Tv 1957

Studio One

Peter Kovalesky

Tv 1948

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Mr. Newton

Tv 1955

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse

Tv 1958

Hazel

Tv 1961

Suspense

George Vance

Tv 1949

Cavalcade of America

Tv 1952

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Simms

Tv 1955