Walter Mathews

Walter Mathews was an American character actor who worked in theater, film, and television. He was born in New York City in 1926 and grew up in the Bronx, and he earned a master's in drama at Ohio University. His first Broadway role came in 1956, when he appeared in a production of King Lear that Orson Welles directed and starred in. He later played Gaius Trebonius off-Broadway in Julius Caesar, and in 1974 he acted on Broadway in Peter Shaffer's Equus as a member of its original cast. On television he had recurring parts in the soap operas Another World and General Hospital and guest roles on many series, among them Perry Mason, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, and Murder, She Wrote. He became well known as the original Fram mechanic in commercials for Fram oil filters. His films included The Naked Kiss (1964) and Nighthawks (1981). He last appeared on screen in 1986.