
O.Z. Whitehead
Biography
American character actor of rather bizarre range, a member of the so-called John Ford Stock Company. Originally a New York stage actor of some repute, Whitehead entered films in the 1930s. He played a wide variety of character parts, often quite different from his own actual age and type. He is probably most familiar as Al Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940). But twenty-two years later, in his fifth film for Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Whitehead at 51 was playing a lollipop-licking schoolboy! He continued to work predominantly on the stage, appearing now and again in films or on television. In his last years, he suffered from cancer and died in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, where he had lived in semi-retirement for many years.
Filmography
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Hello, Stranger
1992

Philadelphia, Here I Come
1975
as Ben Burton

The Lion in Winter
1968
as Bishop of Durham

Ulysses
1967
as Alexander J. Dowie

Summer Magic
1963
as Mr. Perkins

Panic in Year Zero!
1962
as Hogan

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962
as Herbert Carruthers

Two Rode Together
1961
as Lt. Whitehead

The Horse Soldiers
1959
as Otis 'Hoppy' Hopkins

The Last Hurrah
1958
as Norman Cass Jr.

Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!
1958
as Isaac Goodpasture
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The Body Beautiful
1953
as Oscar Blunt

Beware, My Lovely
1952
as Mr. Franks

The San Francisco Story
1952
as Alfey

The San Francisco Story
1952

For Men Only
1952
as Prof. Bixby

FBI Girl
1951
as Chauncey

Journey Into Light
1951
as Lippy

Comin' Round the Mountain
1951
as Zeke

The Hoodlum
1951
as Breckenridge

The Scarf
1951
as Whoopie

Ma and Pa Kettle
1949
as Mr. Billings

A Song Is Born
1948
as Professor Oddly

Road House
1948
as Arthur