Besides, John Fiedler, as Henry Adams, others in supportive roles include Jim Scopelitis, as Dixon, William Penick, as Copeland, Mark Aldrich, as Mason, Valerie Stevens, as Mary, Burt Edwards, as Mr. Palmer, Don Perkins, as Owen Wister, John Kirkman, as Northrup, Marc Bryman, as Hamilton, Bill Raymond, as Mr. Justice Brandeis, James Michael Caffery, as Mapes, Jim Grollman as Rogers and Terence Aselford, as Jackson.
Q: I understand you attended the Neighborhood Playhouse.
JF: Yes I did.
Q: Do you feel that the training that you got there has been helpful to your career?
JF: Oh, yeah. Not only did I learn a lot, but I made some good friends there. Also they
had showcases. Agents would come to see us. I got a really good start there.
Q: Where did you go from there?
JF: I started working on stage and on the early days of television in New York. It was
done live and I did an awful lot of television. I also did some films. My first film was 12
Angry Men.
Q: I heard that some of your live television was actually done at a department store?
JF: It was done at Wannamakers, which is no longer there. They had some rooms that were
used for some of the very first television shows.
Q: What about 12 Angry Men? That's quite something, to be in a classic in
your very first film
JF: Oh, yes, that's right.
Q: What was it like to work with that stellar cast? Were they all as famous then, as they
are now?
JF: No, maybe Henry Fonda and Ed Begley. The others weren't as well known. It was my first
film and many of the others had done television before that.
Q: Did you know when you were making 12 Angry Men that this film would be
a classic?
JF: No, I had no idea. It was very innovative for it's time. As a matter of fact, it did
not do well when it first came out. It got great reviews, but it didn't do well. Later, it
was picked up in revivals and continues to be popular.
Q: You've also been in True Grit, The Fortune, and other
films. Do you have any favorites?
JF: Not really. They all begin to blend together.
Q: In television you're probably best known as Mr. Peterson on the Bob Newhart Show.
JF: Also, I was on Star Trek. As a matter of fact I get more recognition
from my appearance on Star Trek. Of course, now Nick at Nite is rerunning
the Bob Newhart Show so I am getting more recognition from that now.
Q: You were also in Buffalo Bill.
JF: Yes, that was my favorite job. I thought that was a great show. They just didn't give
it a chance.
Q: Currently, you're doing a play in Washington, D.C. called The Magnificent
Yankee. How did you wind up getting involved with that project?
JF: Well, we did it last summer in Williamstown and it was such a success that we brought
it [The Magnificent Yankee] here to Washington.
Q: I noticed that the audience recognized you when you came out on the stage.
JF: Sometimes I even get a hand.
Q: Does anyone ever say to you, I know you from somewhere?
JF; I get it even more when they see me and hear my voice. They know my voice. Sometimes
they think they went to school with me.
Q: You're also the voice of Piglet in Winnie The Pooh. Do you ever
have children recognizing your voice?
JF: The parents often do because they've seen it [Winnie The Pooh]with their
children. The children don't realize that somebody did that voice.
Q: You've been doing, that since the 60's haven't you?
JF: Yes. They've never done a full-length feature before. About six months ago I recorded
sections for the full-length feature.
Q: Since you've done films, television, and stage, could you please tell what is required
of the actor in the different mediums?
JF: They really are different mediums. In theatre you're on a stage and you really need to
project. In television, for instance on a soap opera, there's no need to project as much.
Now, on films, it's hard to explain. The director has the power to turn your performance
into anything he wants. When you're on the stage it's out of the director's hands. The
director can help guide you but once you're out there, you're responsible for what
happens.
Q: Do you find that there's a difference in the level of training between stage actors and
television actors?
JF: I think you're better off if you start out on the stage because you learn the role
from start to finish. Now stage actors often have trouble going to television because you
have to not do it so broad. You have to play it more like real life. You play it larger on
stage because you're projecting out into the audience.
Q: Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to become actors?
JF: I think they should get training. Whether that should be a class or whatever they can
do.
Q: Well, thank you for your time.
JF: Thank you
John Fiedler is best known to us as Mr. Hengist, the city administrator, from the classic Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold". In addition to threatening the crew of the Enterprise with destruction, dropping dead and coming back to life he has had a long and prolific career. He has played roles in television, films and the theatre.
His film debut was in 12 Angry Men. He has appeared in 37 other movies, including Sharkey's Machine, True Grit, The World of Henry Orient, Kiss Me Stupid, A Fine Madness, Fitzwilly, The Shaggy D.A., Harper Valley, P.T.A., Cannonball Run, Skyjacked, Rascal, The Fortune, That Touch of Mink, Savannah Smiles, I Am The Cheese, That Kind of Woman and Stagestruck. His T.V. movies include, Seize the Day, Double Indemnity, Bad Ronald, The Black Dahlia and Woman of the Year. His T.V movie roles also included the Wide World of Disney movies The Mystery of Dracula's Castle and Alvin the Magnificent. He has done voiceovers for many T.V. and radio commercials. His most famous voiceover work has to be the voice of Piglet in the Walt Disney cartoons of Winnie the Pooh. Voices in other Disney productions include The Rescuers, Robin Hood and The Fox and the Hound.
He has not been a slouch when it comes to television, either. He made regular appearances as Mr. Peterson on The Bob Newhart Show, Woody on Buffalo Bill and Virgil/Gilbert on the A.B.C. soap One Life to Live. His other television appearances include roles on The Golden Girls, Cheers, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, L.A. Law, Bewitched, Get Smart, Gunsmoke, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Doris Day Show, Cannon, Night Stalker, Alice, Phyllis, Quincy, The Rockford Files, Fantasy Island, Vegas, B.J. and the Bear and Tales of the Darkside.
John's theatre experience includes a role in the Broadway and film productions of A Raisin in the Sun plus a revival in New York at the Roundabout Theatre which was taped for American Playhouse on P.B.S. He was also in the original Broadway and film productions of The Odd Couple plus two appearances on the T.V. show. His other theatre roles include Al Lewis in The Sunshine Boys with Pat Paulsen, Medvendko in The Sea Gull starring Montgomery Clift, Prof. Willard in Our Town starring Henry Fonda and Erwin in Three Men on a Horse at the Denver Theatre Center. He has appeared in the Broadway productions of Howie, One Eye Closed, Harold, The Happy Time and At War With The Army.
He has appeared at the National Actors Theatre in The Crucible with Martin Sheen and Michael York, and Little Hotel on the Side with Tony Randall and Lynn Redgrave. He is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse and a member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he appeared in Shel Silverstein's The Crate, David Mamet's A Frog Pnace and Richard Greenberg's Neptune's Hips.
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