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Donald Woods (born Ralph Lewis Zink, December 2, 1906 – March 5, 1998) was a Canadian-American film and television actor whose career in Hollywood spanned six decades.
Born in Brandon, Manitoba, Woods moved with his family to California and was raised in Burbank. A son of William and Margaret Zink, Presbyterians of German descent. His younger brother, Clarence Russell Zink, also became an actor (Russ Conway).
Woods graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and made his film debut in 1928. His screen career was spent mostly in B movies, for example as lawyer Perry Mason in the 1937 film The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. He also occasionally played major roles in bigger feature films like A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Watch on the Rhine (1943), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944), and Roughly Speaking (1945).
Of considerable importance to his acting career were several seasons as leading man with the Elitch Gardens Theatre Company in Denver, Colorado, where he performed in 1932, 1933, 1939, 1941, 1947, and 1948.
In the early days of television, Woods starred as the title character in the 1951 syndicated TV series Craig Kennedy, Criminologist, and he was the host of Damon Runyon Theater on CBS-TV. He played himself on the dramatic series Hotel Cosmopolitan, also on CBS, and he was one of three hosts of The Orchid Award on ABC-TV. He portrayed Walter Manning on Portia Faces Life on CBS.
He also appeared in such anthology series as The Philco Television Playhouse, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, The United States Steel Hour, Crossroads, and General Electric Theater. On April 11, 1961, Woods appeared as "Profesor Landfield" in the episode "Two for the Gallows" on NBC's Laramie western series. Series character Slim Sherman (John Smith) is hired under false pretenses to take Landfield into the Badlands to seek gold. Landfield, however, is really Morgan Bennett, a member of the former Henry Plummer gang who has escaped from prison. Slim has no idea that Lanfield is seeking the loot that his gang had hidden away. Series character Jess Harper (Robert Fuller), Pete Dixon, played by Warren Oates, and Pete's younger brother soon come to Slim's aid. The title stems from the talk that the undisciplined Dixon brothers might eventually wind up on a hangman's noose.
Woods later was a regular in the role of John Brent on the short-lived series Tammy and made guest appearances on Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, Ben Casey, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Stoney Burke, Bourbon Street Beat, Bonanza, Coronet Blue, Ironside, Alias Smith and Jones, The Wild Wild West and Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, among many others before retiring from acting in 1976.
Besides his film career, he also worked as a successful real estate broker in Palm Springs where he lived with his wife, childhood sweetheart Josephine Van der Horck. They were married from 1933 until his death and had two children, Linda and Conrad. He was interred at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California.
Philip Ayers
Dr. John Carmody
Roger Purcell
Sam Moss
Cobb Marley
Kirby Sinclair
Norman Frost Bennett
"Barlow"
Cyrus Zorba
Kenneth Wilson
Father Matthew
Craig Kennedy
Capt. Jackson
Vincent Nolte
Ward Blackburn
Paul Gordon
Commissioner Ralph C. Connors
Pastor William Goodwin
Self
Dr. Jean Martel
Monte Rossen
Charles Darnay
David Farrelly
Bob Herkimer
General Alvin Donford
Tony Sterling
Charles Ford
John Abbott
Himself (uncredited)
Vet
Maj. Tom Blake
Matt Daggett
Juan Cesare
Edward Smith
Steve Walker
Roger Abernathy
Shepherd
James 'Jim' Larrabie
Dr. Michael
Dennis Lindsay
Eric Blake
Stan
Steve Webb
Rex DeVallon
Michael 'Gringo' O'Brien
Mark Tracey
Penn Sutherland Gaylord
Mr. Singer
Fred Johnson
Charles Cooper
Kane
Perry Mason
Steven Brace
Tippy Carpenter
John Wesley
Carl
Rodney Crane
Dennis Lindsay
Steve Curtis aka Uncle John
Hitchhiker
Martin Drew
Dennis 'Denny' Lindsay
Himself
Self
Self
Joel Grant / Joseph Elmer
Dr. Hans Traeger, MD
John Brent
Brother Juniper
Jeffrey Martin
Denny
John Mohler Studebaker
Speed Patten, Reporter New York Bulletin
Steve Stewart
Francis Scott Key (archive footage) (uncredited)
Bob Crawford
Yacht Club Patron (uncredited)
Yacht Club Patron
Frank
Ken Bullock
Brian McGrath
Barry Drake
Nick Halstead
John Woodward
Dan Donahue
Sid Barnett
Robert
Vernon Carter
Tommy Traill
Captain Bob Dayton
Ted Farnsworth
Benjamin Butts
Bob Jackson
Craig Kennedy
Francis Scott Key
Henry