Simon Oakland was an American actor of stage, screen, and television
Background
Oakland was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. While some sources give his year of birth as 1922, social security and death indexes indicate he was born Simon Weiss in 1915. His stage name was likely derived from his mother"s maiden name, Oaklander.
Career
He began his performing arts career as a musician (he was a violinist, an avocation he would pursue during his entire career as an actor). Oakland began his acting career in the late 1940s. He enjoyed a series of Broadway hits, including Light Up the Sky, The Shrike and Inherit the Wind, and theater was one of his lasting passions.
He was a concert violinist until the 1940s.
Oakland made his film debut as the "tough, but compassionate" journalist who speaks up for Susan Hayward"s Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! in 1958. Oakland would play this type often over the course of his career.
He went on to play a long series of tough-guy types, usually in positions of authority, most notably in Psycho, in which he plays the psychiatrist who explains Norman Bates"s multiple personality disorder. He also appeared in West Side Story, Bullitt, and the television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
He made two guest appearances on Columbia Broadcasting System"s Perry Mason, both times as the murder victim.
He also appeared in the syndicated crime drama, Decoy, starring Beverly Garland. Oakland appeared once each on the Columbia Broadcasting System western, Dundee and the Culhane and in another syndicated crime drama series, Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield. Oakland played General Thomas Moore on National Broadcasting Company"s Baa Baa Black Sheep, starring Robert Conrad.
Simon Oakland died of cancer, one day after his 68th birthday (29 August 1983), in Cathedral City, California.