🎬 Movies Mates PEOPLE
Don Porter
Acting
Biography
Donald "Don" Porter (September 24, 1912 –February 11, 1997) was an American actor who appeared in a number of films since the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron. On television, he portrayed the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom Gidget. Besides his work in film and television, Porter was active on stage, as he acted in more than 200 plays, including The Front Page, Plaza Suite, and Any Wednesday. He appeared in various films in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern), on the 1950s sitcom Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, ti…
Read full biography
Donald "Don" Porter (September 24, 1912 –February 11, 1997) was an American actor who appeared in a number of films since the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron. On television, he portrayed the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom Gidget. Besides his work in film and television, Porter was active on stage, as he acted in more than 200 plays, including The Front Page, Plaza Suite, and Any Wednesday. He appeared in various films in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern), on the 1950s sitcom Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, titled The Ann Sothern Show. It featured many of the same actors, including Porter as hotel manager James Devery in the venue of a fashionable New York City hotel. He later guest starred on episodes of Green Acres, Love, American Style, The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, Three's Company (on which he played Jack Tripper's uncle), and Switch.
Biography expanded
BODY OF WORK
Don Porter's Filmography
Select any movie to open its full Movies Mates details page.
The Ghosts of Buxley Hall
as Judge Oliver Haynes
The Last Song
as Philip Brockhurst
The Murder That Wouldn't Die
as Gen. Rocky Jensen
No Poster
Interview with Pontius Pilate
as Theodore Michael
Tropic of Desire
as Commodore Phillips
The President's Mistress
as Craig
Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A.
as Caufield
A Woman for All Men
as Barney
White Line Fever
as Cutler
Last Hours Before Morning
as Mr. Pace
The Legend of Lizzie Borden
as George Robinson
Happy Anniversary and Goodbye
as Ed Murphy
Murder or Mercy
as Henry Balin
Mame
as Mr. Upson
The Morning After
as Rudy King
40 Carats
as Mr. Latham
The Norliss Tapes
as Sanford T. Evans
The Candidate
as Senator Crocker Jarmon
Live a Little, Love a Little
as Mike Lansdown
Youngblood Hawke
as Ferdie Lax
Gidget Goes to Rome
as Russell Lawrence
Bachelor in Paradise
as Thomas W. Jynson
Desk Set
as Don the Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Our Miss Brooks
as Lawrence Nolan
Because You're Mine
as Captain Burton Nordell Loring
The Savage
as Running Dog
The Turning Point
as Joe Silbray
Cripple Creek
as Denver Jones
The Fallbrook Story
as Narrator
The Racket
as R. G. Connolly
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
as Myron Brynk
711 Ocean Drive
as Larry Mason
My Friend Irma Goes West
as Mr. Brent
Buck Privates Come Home
as Capt. Christie
Wild Beauty
as Dr. Dave Morrow
Danger Woman
as Professor Claude Ruppert
Cuban Pete
as Roberts
She-Wolf of London
as Barry Lanfield
Resisting Enemy Interrogation
as Lt. Frank L. Williams, Jr. - American Co-pilot
How to Fly the B-26 Airplane
as Captain Dick
Keep 'Em Slugging
as Jerry
Reconnaissance Pilot
as Camera Instructor
Madame Spy
as David Bannister
Who Done It?
as 'Murder at Midnight' program manager
Night Monster
as Dick Baldwin
Eyes of the Underworld
as Edward Jason
Eagle Squadron
as Ramsey
Top Sergeant
as Al Bennett
Mystery of the White Room
as Dr. Donald Fox