William Bendix Biography

Fast Facts

• The residents of Aurora East, Ohio named their town park the William Bendix Paark, and the actor made a personal appearance to dedicate it
• Was descended from composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
• Was a batboy for the New York Giants in 1922 when he was 15 years old
• Held a job as a grocer until the Great Depression
• Had a rare starring role in "The Hairy Ape" in 1944
• Appeared in a number of film noir movies, including "The Glass Key․"
• Best known for playing the beleaguered Chester A․ Riley on "The Life of Riley․"
• Often played warm-hearted marines, gangsters or detectives in his films
• Babe Ruth often asked him to shine his shoes and run his errands when he was a batboy for a team that shared the Polo Grounds with the Yankees, and he later grew up to portray the baseball legend in 1948's "The Babe Ruth Story․"
• Built a mansion on Encino Avenue in Encino, Calif․, in the early 1940s that was framed by two half-century-old oak trees, and Marie McDonald and Jack Webb went on to live at the address