Simon Oakland

About Simon Oakland

Who is it?: Actor
Birth Day: August 28, 1915
Birth Place:  New York City, New York, United States
Died On: August 29, 1983(1983-08-29) (aged 68)\nCathedral City, California, U.S.
Birth Sign: Virgo
Cause of death: Colon cancer
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1951–1983
Spouse(s): Lois Porta (c. 1944–1983, his death; one child)

Simon Oakland Net Worth

Simon Oakland was born on August 28, 1915 in  New York City, New York, United States, is Actor. One of the movies' most memorable tough guys, Simon Oakland actually began his career as a concert violinist, turning to acting in the late 1940s. After a long string of roles in Broadway hits, including "Light Up the Sky," "The Shrike" and "Inherit the Wind," Oakland made his film debut as the tough but compassionate journalist who speaks up for Susan Hayward's "Barbara Graham" in I Want to Live! (1958). He would go on to play a long series of tough guy types, albeit usually on the right side of the law, in such films as The Sand Pebbles (1966), Tony Rome (1967), Psycho (1960), and, most notably, nasty Lieutenant Schrank in West Side Story (1961). He was also a frequently seen face on TV, at one point serving as a regular or semi-regular on four different series at once. Much respected by his co-workers as a total professional, he died, after a long battle with cancer, one day after his 68th birthday.
Simon Oakland is a member of Actor

💰Simon Oakland Net worth: $900,000

Some Simon Oakland images

Biography/Timeline

1918

Oakland was married to Lois Lorraine Porta (1918–2003). The couple had one daughter, Barbara.

1922

Oakland was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the son of a plasterer and builder Jacob Weiss and his wife Ethel Oaklander. While he later claimed in media interviews to have been born in 1922 (a date repeated in his New York Times obituary), Social Security and death indexes indicate he was born Simon Weiss in 1915; his stage name was likely derived from his mother's maiden name, Oaklander.

1940

He began his performing arts career as a musician (he was a Violinist, an avocation he would pursue during his entire career as an actor). Oakland began his acting career in the late 1940s. He enjoyed a series of Broadway hits, including Light Up the Sky, The Shrike and Inherit the Wind, and theater was one of his lasting passions. He was a concert Violinist until the 1940s.

1955

In 1955 Oakland made his film debut, though uncredited, as an Indiana state trooper in The Desperate Hours. He next appeared in two films released in 1958: as the character Mavrayek in The Brothers Karamazov and then in the role of Edward Montgomery in I Want to Live! The character Montgomery was a real-life Journalist, who had reported on the California murder trial and 1955 execution of Barbara Graham, played by Susan Hayward in the film. Oakland's portrayal of the Journalist as a "tough, but compassionate" personality resulted in the actor's often being typecast in his subsequent roles in both films and on television.

1983

Simon Oakland continued working up to the year of his death. His last credited acting appearance was ironically in the episode "Living and Presumed Dead" on the CBS television series Tucker's Witch. That episode aired just three months before Oakland died of colon cancer in Cathedral City, California, on August 29, 1983, a day after the actor's 68th birthday.