Dayton Lummis

American actor Dayton Lummis was born in New York, but studied theatre in Los Angeles at the Martha Oatman School. His first professional engagement, at age 24, was with the Russell Stock Company, of Redlands, California; Lummis remained a regional actor until his Broadway bow in 1943. One of those actors whose face everyone remembers but whose name everyone forgets (one of his few billed roles was in Hitchcock's The Wrong Man [1956]), Lummis worked steadily if not prominently in films, most often in authoritative roles as aristocrats or politicians. The actor was better served by television, where he appeared in over 400 programs. Dayton Lummis was fairly anonymous when in modern dress, but came to life whenever decked out in a powdered wig or 19th century waistcoat; his adeptness at period roles made him indispensible during TV's western boom of the late '50s, and in fact Lummis had a regular costarring role as Marshal Andy Morrison on the 1959 oater Law of the Plainsman.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide