Paul Fix

American film and television character actor (1901–83)
the American film and television actor

Peter Paul Fix (March 13, 1901 – October 14, 1983) was an American film and television character actor who was best known for his work in Westerns. Fix appeared in more than 100 movies and dozens of television shows over a 56 year career between 1925 and 1981. Fix portrayed Marshal Micah Torrance, opposite Chuck Connors's character in The Rifleman from 1958 to 1963. He later appeared with Connors in the 1966 Western film Ride Beyond Vengeance.

Fix was the son of Wilhelm Fix and Louise Walz, and was born born March 13, 1901, in Dobbs Ferry, NY. His father was a brewer from Germany. Following the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917, Fix joined the National Guard, initially serving at Peekskill, New York. After three months of duty there, he went AWOL and enlisted in the U. S. Army. After serving at Fort Slocum for three months, he again went AWOL and then enlisted in the U. S. Navy, and was stationed in Providence, Rhode Island. While serving in the Navy, Fix was recruited to perform on stage in a Navy Relief Organization production of the comic opera H. M. S. Pinafore. Later, he served as a hospital corpsman aboard ships transporting American troops to and from Europe, and continued that assignment until he was officially discharged from military service on September 5, 1919.

Following the war, Fix became a busy character actor, who got his start in local productions in New York. By the 1920s, he had moved to Hollywood, and performed in the first of almost 350 movie and television appearances. In the 1930s, he became friends with John Wayne. He was Wayne's acting coach and eventually appeared as a featured player in about 27 of Wayne's films. Fix worked in early films such as Lucky Star (1929) with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell and Ladies Love Brutes (1930), and became a regular performer for the film's director, Frank Borzage, on a further eight occasions. Fix later appeared as Richard Bravo in the 1950s cult classic, The Bad Seed (1956) with Nancy Kelly, The Sea Chase (1955) with John Wayne and Lana Turner, playing Heinz the cook, and in George Stevens' Giant (1956) with James Dean, portraying Elizabeth Taylor's father. Fix appeared as the presiding judge in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) with Gregory Peck. He played the sheriff in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) with John Wayne and Dean Martin. In 1966, he appeared in the film El Dorado with Wayne and Robert Mitchum. In 1972, he was cast in the film Night of the Lepus, and the following year, he portrayed the New Mexico rancher Pete Maxwell in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid with James Coburn. In 1979, he appeared in Wanda Nevada. Fix co wrote the screenplay for the John Wayne film Tall in the Saddle.

Fix had a recurring role as Marshal Micah Torrance on ABC's Western series The Rifleman, which was broadcast from 1958 to 1963. On Christmas Day 1958, Fix appeared in the episode "Medal for Valor" on CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. Fix plays a businessman who hires a desperate man to substitute for his son in the draft, later to interfere with the man's homesteading rights when it threatens his son's political aspirations. Fix guest starred on the short lived detective series, Meet McGraw; on Rory Calhoun's Western series The Texan on CBS; and on John Payne's Western series The Restless Gun on NBC. Fix played the historical role of U. S. President Zachary Taylor in the 1960 episode "That Taylor Affair" of the NBC Western series, Riverboat, with Darren McGavin. Arlene Dahl was cast in this episode as Lucy Belle. In 1961, Fix appeared as Ramsey Collins in the series finale, "Around the Dark Corner", of the NBC crime drama Dante. That same year, he played Dr. Abel in the episode "The Haven" on The DuPont Show with June Allyson. His other television credits include Adventures of Superman (1953–1954, with Anthony Caruso and Elisha Cook Jr.) and the adventure series, Northwest Passage. Fix played Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot episode of Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". When the first season was filmed, his character was replaced by Leonard McCoy, played by DeForest Kelley. Fix made five appearances as District Attorney Hale on Perry Mason (1957–1963), showing great skill as an examiner who did not ask objectionable questions unlike Hamilton Burger, who often experienced a judge's ire for asking leading questions. He guest starred on such television series as Rawhide (1959), Wagon Train (1962), The Twilight Zone (1964), The F. B. I. (1965–1973), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1966), The Time Tunnel (1966), The Wild Wild West (1966–1967), Gunsmoke (1967), Daniel Boone (1969), Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law (1971), The Rockford Files episode "The House on Willis Avenue" (as Joe Tooley), and two episodes of The Streets of San Francisco, one in 1973 and again in 1975, each a different character/storyline. He appeared on the NBC series Kentucky Jones (1964) as Judge Perkins in the episode "Spare the Rod". He played an aging suicidal novelist named Maxwell Hart on the Emergency! fourth season episode "Kidding", where paramedic John Gage, played by Randolph Mantooth, was in charge of a small group of intellectual 10 and 11 year old school children on a tour of Rampart General Hospital. In 1974, he made an appearance as an old friend of Steve Austin's in the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man in the episode "Population Zero". He also appeared as Kronus, a retired fleet commander on the original Battlestar Galactica. Fix played the hardy pioneer James Briton "Brit" Bailey in the 1969 episode "Here Stands Bailey" of Death Valley Days.

In 1922 Fix married Frances Harvey, and the couple had one daughter. They divorced in 1945. He married his second wife, Beverly Pratt, on August 20, 1949. She died November 13, 1979. Fix died of kidney failure in Los Angeles at the age of 82. He is buried beside his second wife at Woodlawn Cemetery, Santa Monica.