Background
Osmond was born in the Margaret Hague Medical Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, and reared in Union City, New Jersey.
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Cliff Osmond
Edit ProfileEducation
He received his Master"s degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles and advanced to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Theater History at University of California, Los Los Angeles
Career
A parallel career as an acting teacher coincided with his other activities. He was a graduate of Thomas A. Edison grammar school, Emerson High School, and Dartmouth College (Bachelor of Arts in English). He appeared in four of Billy Wilder"s comedies, beginning with Irma la Douce (1963) as the police sergeant.
Osmond also appeared in two later Wilder films a co-starring role as Purkey opposite Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie (1966), and The Front Page (1974).
Osmond was also seen in menacing roles as Pap in the 1981 television adaptation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Osmond made more than 100 appearances in television shows or movies between 1962 and 1996.
During that period he guest-starred at least half a dozen times on Gunsmoke and in the 1965 episode "Yahoo" of National Broadcasting Company"s Laredo. He was cast in "The Gift", 1962) of the original The Twilight Zone.
He played a hippie in Ironside (1968) and appeared as well on Here"s Lucy (1974), The New Land (1974), as a plumber"s apprentice on work release from prison in All in the Family (1975), The Bob Newhart Show (1975), and Kojak (1976).
Also a screenwriter, Osmond was nominated for a Writer"s Guild Award for writing an episode of Streets of San Francisco (1973). He also wrote and directed the features film The Penitent (1988), starring Raul Julia and Armand Assante. In addition to his acting and writing careers, Osmond was an acting teacher and coach in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the fall of 2004, he was visiting professor in acting and Guest Resident Artist at Georgetown University, teaching two acting courses and directing Henrik Ibsen"s A Doll"s House.
In 2010, he wrote a book about his career and acting: Acting is Living: Exploring the Ten Essential Elements in any Successful Performance. Cliff Osmond died on December 22, 2012, of pancreatic cancer, aged 75.
