Frank Ferguson

American character actor Frank Ferguson appeared in scores of films and television shows, often as self-important types. Prior to his film debut, he was a prominent performer and director with the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he coached numerous up-and-coming young actors such as Dana Andrews, George Reeves, Robert Preston and Victor Mature. He broke into films, himself, in the early 1940s, usually playing minor supporting roles, though he was seen to advantage in larger roles, notably in two of the best-known (and oddest) westerns of the '50s, Rancho Notorious (1952) and Johnny Guitar (1954). He played hundreds of ranchers, bankers and police detectives in films and television throughout the '50s and '60s. He became most familiar as "Gus" on the children's program My Friend Flicka (1955) and later as "Eli Carson" on the two TV series based on the novel Peyton Place (1964). He semi-retired in 1972 and died of cancer six years later.