My DVR is set to automatically record any appearances of certain female stars from The Golden Age of Hollywood. Not to catch them in any of their old movies, most of which I already have, but to record reruns of television shows where they may have guest starred.  Last night was a rare pop-up of Gloria Swanson appearing on My Three Sons from 1965.  I’ll talk about her later. 

But while watching this old TV episode from the year I was born, I found that my focus was split between Gloria Swanson and William Demarest, who played Uncle Charley on “My Three Sons”. He really held his own on screen with the legendary Swanson and is simply so likeable and endearing.  The memories came flooding back of the fact that I have seen him in SO many movies! 

Thinking back to all of the movies that I've watched solely for divas or female stars and how William Demarest was either in scenes with these ladies or an integral part of their character’s story... Joan Crawford in “Love On The Run”, Betty Hutton in “Miracle of Morgan's Creek”, Ann-Margret in “Viva Las Vegas” and on and on... 

But I literally only knew him from reruns of “My Three Sons” when I sent a fan letter to William Demarest on April 13th, 1981, and received a reply back 11 days later. This is when I was a teenager and was sending pictures that I was cutting out of old movie magazines and film books that I stole from the San Bruno public library (I know. Me = bad kid.  But I made up for it later with a big donation as an adult. Reparation.) 

You can see that I sent him a picture with Eddie Bracken from "Hail the Conquering Hero" (1944) cut from a movie book and a magazine photo touting his skills as a character actor. The classic 5x7 in the role of Uncle Charley from “My Three Sons”, and inscribed as such, was added to my envelope by Mr. Demarest. 

It's nice when I see a familiar face from old TV shows and movies and think to myself "He’s always good, always reliable and always eliciting a positive feeling". That's how I feel when I see William Demarest on the screen. A class act character actor with great range. 

Here’s William Demarest and Gloria Swanson on “My Three Sons”