Edward C. Platt (February 14, 1916 – March 19, 1974) was an American character actor best known for his portrayal of "The Chief" in the 1965-69 NBC television series Get Smart. February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor or actress is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... Get Smart was an American comedy television series that satirized the secret agent genre, which was quite popular in the mid-1960s. ...

Early history

Platt was born in Staten Island, New York. He studied at Princeton University, majoring in romantic languages, but switched to study music at Juilliard with intention to have a career as an opera singer. Before the US joined World War II, he sang in a band with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra performing musicals such as The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. During his time in the US Army, he served as a radio operator. After the war, he continued to appear on radio. Staten Island, in yellow, lies to the southwest of the rest of New York City. ... NY redirects here. ... Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... The Juilliard School is a performing arts conservatory in New York City, informally but definitively identified as simply Juilliard, and most famous for its musically-trained alumni. ... United States may refer to: Places: United States of America SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever built. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... 1928 Columbia Records label with caricature of Paul Whiteman Paul Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was a popular american orchestral leader. ... Poster announcing the copyright performance at the Bijou Theatre, Paignton The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ... The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ...

Stage, film and television career

Platt debuted on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro. He landed his first film due to José Ferrer who performed with him in the Broadway play The Shrike. José and he played the same parts in the film version in 1955. Also in 1955 he appeared in the Academy Award nominated Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Platt returned to Broadway in 1958 with the musical Oh, Captain! playing a romantic role. Later, in the 1960s, he worked on the spy comedy television show Get Smart. He played various cameos after the series ended. Broadway theatre[1] is the most prestigious form of professional theatre in the U.S., as well as the most well known to the general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows. ... Rodgers (left) and Hammerstein (right), with Irving Berlin (middle) and Helen Tamiris, watching auditions at the St. ... Allegro may mean: a musical tempo Allegro library, a computer game programming library Allegro (airline), a charter airline based in Mexico City Allegro (auction), a Polish online auction website, also known as Aukro (Czech Republic), TeszVesz (Hungary) and Av-Av (Russia and Ukraine) Allegro (musical), a 1947 musical by Rodgers... José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintron, known as José Ferrer (January 8, 1912-January 26, 1992), was an actor and director, born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. ... The Shrike is a character from Dan Simmons Hyperion universe, set far in humanitys future. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Natalie Wood and James Dean in a screenshot from Rebel Without a Cause. ... James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film actor. ... Natalie Wood (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was a three time Academy Award nominated American film actress. ... Salvatore Mineo, Jr. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Oh, Captain! was a Broadway musical comedy based on the film The Captains Paradise. ... Get Smart was an American comedy television series that satirized the secret agent genre, which was quite popular in the mid-1960s. ...

Platt, with his deep voice and mature countenance, played an eclectic mix of characters over the span of his career.

Death

Platt died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1974; he was 58. He left behind four children from two marriages. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Notable Edward Platt films

• The Shrike (1955)
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
• Designing Woman (1957)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• Texas John Slaughter: The Man from Bitter Creek (1959)
• Pollyanna (1960)
• Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961)
• The Man from Button Willow (1974)

Natalie Wood and James Dean in a screenshot from Rebel Without a Cause. ... North by Northwest is a 1959 MGM comic thriller by Alfred Hitchcock and is generally considered one of his best works. ... Pollyanna is a 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that has become a classic of childrens literature. ... Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961), produced and directed by George Pal, was a science fiction film about the destruction of Atlantis during the time of Ancient Greece. ...

External links

• Edward Platt at the Internet Movie Database
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