Lonny Chapman

Lonny Chapman was an American actor who built a long career largely out of guest appearances on television drama series. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and raised in Joplin, Missouri, he studied at the University of Oklahoma and then moved to New York, where he won the role of Turk in Come Back, Little Sheba. His first film part came in Young at Heart (1954), followed by roles in Baby Doll (1956) and The Birds (1963). He played detectives in the series The Investigator and For the People and guest starred on shows including Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Bonanza and Murder, She Wrote. Later film work included The Cowboys (1972) and Where the Red Fern Grows (1974). On stage he made his Broadway debut in The Closing Door and later served as artistic director of a North Hollywood company that was renamed the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre.