50 Years Ago Today: The Suicide of Edward Platt

March 19, 1974 marked the endpoint of the lifespan of character actor Edward Platt (b. 1916).

Readers of a certain age know Platt primarily from one particular role, so much so that they are unable to see him in other parts, including his earlier ones, without going “The Chief!” But we’ll withhold discussion of that for the moment, so as not to overshadow Platt’s earlier accomplishments in the telling.

Staten Island native Platt had studied at Princeton and at the Julliard School, and was operatically trained at the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. His earliest credits were as a singer. He performed with the Paul White Orchestra for two years, and his earliest Broadway credits were in revivals of Gilbert and Sullivan productions. He was also in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’sAllegro (1947), and in a play called The Shrike (1952) with Jose Ferrer. The 1955 screen version of that play helped Platt’s transition to films.

Platt’s best known movie role was created his very first year in Hollywood. He played an understanding, liberal social worker in Nicholas Ray’sRebel Without a Cause (1955) opposite James Dean. The role led to some similar “authority figure” parts in youth films like Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) with Sal Mineo, The Steel Jungle (1956), Summer Love (1958), The Rebel Set (1959), and The Explosive Generation (1961). He’s a judge in the original Cape Fear (1962), and a D.A. in Shock Treatment (1964). He plays doctors in Written on the Wind and The Great Man, both in 1956. You can see him in The Helen Morgan Story (1957), Alfred Hitchcock’sNorth by Northwest (1959) and Walt Disney’sPolyanna (1960). And lots and lots of westerns, including The Proud Ones (1956), Oregon Passage (1957), The Last of the Fast Guns (1958), Gunman’s Walk (1958), They Came to Cordura (1959) and Bullet for a Bad Man (1964), as well as most of the major TV westerns. Platt is a good name for a western star…they have a river by that name (spelled with a silent e) in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming.

Then the part that sealed Platt’s fate, that of “The Chief” of CONTROL on the Mel Brooks–Buck Henry spy spoof Get Smart (1965-70). Much like co-stars Don Adams and Barbara Feldon (and many a sitcom star of his day) Platt was unable to escape the shadow of this popular character. He managed to get guest starring appearances on shows like The Odd Couple,Love American Style, Bewitched, and a few others, but no more movie roles of the type that had been his bread and butter in the days prior to Get Smart.

In 1973, Platt co-produced a western called Santee, starring Glenn Ford and Jay Silverheels (in his last performance). You may not have heard of this film but it is deserving of a place in the cinematic history books nonetheless: it is one of the very first theatrical releases to be shot entirely on video tape. This interesting detail was not enough to secure box office success however. Platt lost his shirt. This, in addition to his inability to land roles, seems to have exacerbated Platt’s underlying and untreated depression. On this day in 1974, his third suicide attempt was successful. His death was initially announced as a heart attack, but the truth later reached the press through the confirmation of his son.

There is only way to end this article, and I’m afraid that with Gilbert Gottfried gone, it’s even more incumbent upon me to do what must be done, and so I shall:

SORRY ABOUT THAT, CHIEF.