US Navy Steel Band, 1976, Diamondhead, Mississippi
Drumbo (Back Row, 3rd from Left)
Tribute To The Who
Selections from Tommy
~ U.S. Navy Steel Band ~
He is noted for staring roles with famed 1950s B-movie producer Roger Corman such as "The Cry Baby Killer", "A Bucket of Blood", "Teenage Cave Man", and "Attack of the Crab Monsters". In 1958 he participated in Bruno VeSota's science fiction horror film "The Brain Eaters". That same year he was cast as the lead in "Devil's Partner", released in 1962. His television career featured many guest starring roles, such as the talented but arrogant Dr. Wade Parsons in the 1962 episode "Doctor on Horseback" of the NBC western series, "The Tall Man", starring Barry Sullivan as Sheriff Pat Garrett and Clu Gulager as Billy the Kid.
Nelson was cast in episodes of many other westerns in the 1960s including "Maverick", "Wagon Train", "Black Saddle", "Have Gun – Will Travel", "The Rebel" (five times), "Johnny Ringo", "Gunsmoke", "Tombstone Territory", "Laramie", "Bonanza", "Stoney Burke", "The Dakotas", "The Rifleman" and "Redigo". He appeared on drama and adventure series too, such as "The Fugitive", "The Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits", "Harbor Command", "Tightrope", "The Blue Angels" (as the arrogant flight instructor Lieutenant Dayl Martin in "The Jarheads"), "Coronado 9", "The Eleventh Hour", "Thriller", and "Channing", an ABC drama that romanticized college life. He guest starred on "Mission: Impossible" and in the Jackie Cooper CBS military sitcom/drama, "Hennesey".
He made two guest appearances on CBS's "Perry Mason", both times as the defendant; in 1961, he played Ward Nichols in "The Case of the Left-Handed Liar," and in 1964, he played Dirk Blake, father of the title character, in "The Case of the Missing Button".
In 1964, Nelson secured his most famous role portraying Dr. Michael Rossi on the ABC drama "Peyton Place", which ran from 1964 to 1969. Nelson's fellow cast members included Mia Farrow, Warner Anderson and Dorothy Malone. By 1968, all of the original stars had left the series, and Nelson became the lead actor on the show. Nelson reprised his role in two made-for-TV movies, "Murder in Peyton Place" and "Peyton Place: The Next Generation".
After "Peyton Place", Nelson worked in many more productions of all varieties often as a guest star on such series as "Gibbsville" and "Murder, She Wrote". He teamed with former "Peyton Place" co-star Percy Rodriguez in a second television series, "The Silent Force", which ran for 15 episodes in 1970-1971. He served as host on a national morning talk show, "The Ed Nelson Show", that he hosted for three years. In 1977, Nelson portrayed a dangerous impostor in the adventure film "For the Love of Benji". During the 1980s, Nelson took on the role of patriarchal Senator Mark Denning in the daytime serial "Capitol". In late 1986, Nelson was upset to discover that the show's writers had turned his character into a traitor, and he quit the show in disgust, last airing in early January of 1987, two months prior to the show's cancellation.
He spent several years playing U.S. President Harry S. Truman onstage, having replaced James Whitmore for the National Tour of "Give 'Em Hell, Harry".
Until 2005, he had been teaching acting and screenwriting at the University of New Orleans and Tulane University. Hurricane Katrina prompted him to move his family far to the north to Sterlington, Louisiana. At the time of his death in 2014, however, he had relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was in hospice care. He died at age 85. He was a frequent guest with and avid supporter of The US Navy Steel Band during the 1976 Bicentennial tour, always requesting his favorite Tommy Medley. He played a righteous cowbell!. RIP Ed.
Ed Nelson (December 21, 1928 – August 9, 2014)
