Actor / Director Profile

Usually sized up as an articulate, erudite gent, advice-spouting father or uptight neighbor, actor Conrad Bain was utilized best on stage and on TV. Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, on February 4, 1923, Conrad Stafford Bain was a twin son (the other was named Bonar) born to Stafford Harrison Bain, a wholesaler, and Jean Agnes (née Young). He enjoyed typically Canadian sports growing up (ice hockey, speed skating), but picked up an interest in acting while in high school, electing to train at Alberta's Banff School of Fine Arts after graduating. He subsequently joined the Canadian Army during World War II, then proceeded to pick up from where he left off following his discharge and study at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Marrying Monica Marjorie Sloane, an artist, in 1945, the actor became a naturalized U.S. citizen the following year. The couple went on to have three children.Making his stage debut in a Connecticut production of "Dear Ruth" in 1947, he also appeared in "Jack and the Beanstalk" and a tour of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" before making his off-Broadway debut in a 1956 Circle-in-the-Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," a production that made a star out of Jason Robards. Following his inauspicious Broadway bow in "Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove", which closed after one day, he joined the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival for their 1958 season, appearing in "A Winter's Tale," "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Henry IV, Part I."Fair in complexion, wry in humor and exceedingly affable in demeanor, the blond actor went on to other Broadway dramatic work including "Candide," "Advise and Consent," "An Enemy of the People," "Twigs" and "Uncle Vanya." He also built up his regional and repertory credits during the early 1960s with parts in "King Lear," "The Firebugs," "Death of a Salesman" and "The Shadow of Heroes" at Seattle Rep. Later in the decade he began to focus more fully on TV, usually playing cerebral, white-collar types (district attorneys, stock brokers, doctors, politicos).He found an "in" with daytime drama as well, which included a recurring role on "Dark Shadows" (1966) (as an innkeeper), and a part on "The Edge of Night" in 1970. He broke completely away from the usual dramatics, however, when he was offered a co-starring role opposite Bea Arthur and Bill Macy in Norman Lear's liberally-sliced comedy series "Maude" (1972), a spin-off of his landmark "All in the Family" (1968). Conrad played Rue McClanahan's stuffy, conservative doctor/husband, Arthur Harmon, who usually was at political odds with the free-wheeling feminist Maude. The role moved him into the top comedic character ranks. Following its lengthy run (1972-1978), Conrad moved directly into his own successful series with "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978) as the wealthy, adoptive father of the inveterate scene-stealer Gary Coleman. The three children stole the show here but the good-humored Conrad stayed on until its end in 1986. Three was not a charm when he went into a third new comedy series, the short-lived "Mr. President" (1987) with Conrad as a loyal aide-de-camp to "President" George C. Scott.During his lengthy 70s and 80s TV success, Conrad returned occasionally to the stage in such productions as "Uncle Vanya," "The Owl and the Pussycat," "On Golden Pond," "The Dining Room" and "On Borrowed Time", the last being a 1992 return to Broadway after nearly two decades. Films, on the other hand, were a non-issue at this point. Earlier minor turns included Clint Eastwood's Coogan's Bluff (1968), Gene Hackman's I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), Sean Connery's The Anderson Tapes (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Up the Sandbox (1972). His last stop in films was an engaging scene as a befuddled grandpa opposite the perennially crusty Mary Wickes in Postcards from the Edge (1990) starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. One of his last on-camera appearances was recreating his Phillip Drummond role from "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978) on a 1996 episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". Other than a stage role in "Ancestral Voices" in 2000, Conrad has since turned to screen-writing and been in comfortable retirement in the Los Angeles area.