Howland Chamberlain

Howland Chamberlain was an American actor who left New York for Los Angeles in the 1930s to try acting. Born in The Bronx, he found supporting parts at the Pasadena Community Playhouse from 1933 and later worked in the Federal Theatre Project's Los Angeles regional center. His film debut came in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and he went on to steady character work over the following years, often cast in film noirs as anxious men, among them Freddie Bauer, the nervous bookkeeper in Force of Evil (1948). After High Noon (1952) he was off screens for more than two decades, filling the time with touring and Off-Broadway plays and the occasional television part. He had the role of Patch Riley in A Touch of the Poet (1974), appeared as a judge in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and his final two screen roles came in Barbarosa (1982) and Electric Dreams (1984).