avid Wayne (30 Jan 1914 - 9 Feb1995)

Wife: Jane Gordon (married 1941 - until her dead in 1993)
Children:  Twin daughters - Susan Kearney and Melinda.

His Broadway, TV and film portrayals ran a gamut of characters ranging from a scientist trying to save the world to an ingenuous Asian bent on bringing happiness to GIs in a far-off land.
As well as an actor, David worked in Hollywood for many years as a special effects co-ordinator - including work with Wes Craven.

David Wayne was born Wayne McKeekan on January 30th , 1914 in Traverse City Michigan.  His home life was rather sad as his mother died when he was four years old.  His father supported the family as an insurance agent. He attended Western Michigan University, then worked as a statistician in Cleveland where he joined a Shakespearean Repertory company. He won the role of Touchstone in "As You Like It", which he performed before an audience for the first time at the 1935 Cleveland Exposition. In 1938, he made his first New York stage appearance in "Escape This Night" where he also landed a minor role in "The American Way". Rejected by the army he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the British in North Africa and after the U.S joined the war he served in the US Army.
In 1947 he landed the role that was to prove the sine qua non of his career. It was as Og the leprechaun in the Irish fantasy "Finian's Rainbow," and its magical musical moments and satire brought him his first Tony, the first actor to do so ever. Next he introduced the world to everyone's favorite military innocent, Frank Thurlowe Pulver, the precocious ensign in "Mr. Roberts" in 1948. It was as Pulver that he first appeared opposite Henry Fonda with a crew haircut, a style that remained his signature for many years. Though Wayne's first Tony took him more than two decades, his second came more quickly. 
While all of his major stage roles went to other actors in the film versions, Wayne enjoyed a substantial movie career of his own. He co-starred with John Forsythe and the play won that year's Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Drama Critics' Circle award. After his success in "Mister Roberts," he was invited to Hollywood for parts in two highly touted films, "Portrait of Jennie" and "Adam's Rib," both in 1949.

His motion picture roles proved as varied a blend as his stage work, from a small-town barber who ages 56 years in the 1952 underrated film "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie," a hillbilly in "With a Song in My Heart" (1952) to theatrical impresario Sol Hurok in "Tonight We Sing" (1953).

He did two co-starring stints with Marilyn Monroe We're Not Married (1952), and as a landlord in  "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953).
He again won a Tony in 1954, this time as best actor in "The Teahouse of the August Moon," where he portrayed Sakini the clever Okinawan bent on melding cultures. He starred as bank vice president Pearson Norby in the TV series "Norby" in 1955, the same year where he played opposite Frank Sinatra in "The Tender Trap". Wayne plays a family man obsessed with striking gold in the low budget western "The Naked Hills" (1956). 

In 1957 Wayne was nominated for an Emmy for an appearance in the "Heartbeat" episode of "Suspicion," a suspense anthology. Wayne portrayed schizophrenic Joanne Woodward's long-suffering husband in Three Faces of Eve (1957). Una Merkel , who co-starred with Wayne his Fox years once said "I loved David Wayne. I think he's one of the finest actors we have. He's so good they don't know what to do with him."
In 1958 he won accolades from the critics for his performance in Say Darling with Vivian Blaine. Among his other better known pictures were "The Last Angry Man," "The Front Page," "The Apple Dumpling Gang" and "The Survivalist." 

One place where they evidently did know what to do with Wayne was television, where he worked steadily from 1948 onward. He was a regular on the weekly series "Norby" (1955). Besides playing such prominent personages as Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain and even "Old Scratch" (with Edward G. Robinson in a 1961 telecast of "The Devil and Daniel Webster"), he appeared in classic individual episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Twilight Zone". In episode "Escape Clause," David played a hypochondriac who, in an effort to escape his dependence on pills and fear of his environment, made a pact with the Devil. In exchange for his soul, he won immortality. Devotees of the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder could occasionally see Wayne as the Mad Hatter, a "Batman" nemesis in 1966-67. His crusty Inspector Queen in the Ellery Queen tv-series (1976-1977) must be the definitive depiction of The Old Man although Wayne lacked the moustache so often mentioned in the books.
Most of the public now will remember him as Willard (Digger) Barnes on "Dallas" (1978). He also had a role in "House Calls" (1980).

He was the duke in a 1974 remake of "Huckleberry Finn", and Dr. Dutton trying to find a cure for the "Andromeda Strain" in 1974.

In 1977 he moved to Los Angeles. In addition, Wayne appeared with New York's Lincoln Center Repertory, and was one of the hosts of the NBC weekend radio potpourri Monitor. Curtailing his activities in the late 1980s, David Wayne retired altogether in 1993, after the death of his wife of 51 years. His last on screen appearance was in the movie " The Fence" in 1994 as a Steel Mill Foreman.
His daughter said he continued to do TV movies and a few smaller films into the early 1990s but "generally just retired." Years ago, Wayne told a studio biographer he was happiest on the stage but like any other actor could not resist a good script "regardless of the commute."

He passed away in Santa Monica, California February 9, 1995 from Lung Cancer. He was 81 years old.