Don Keefer

Don Keefer was an actor who got his start on the New York stage and went on to become a prolific film and television performer for more than 50 years.

Born in Highspire, Pennsylvania, Keefer was a founding member of the iconic Actors Studio in New York City. In 1949 he co-starred as Bernard, next-door neighbor of Willy Loman and his family, in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Two years later he made his movie debut when he reprised his role in the big-screen adaptation of the hit play.

Over the next five decades he worked steadily, including several more Broadway shows and other theater productions in the U.S. and abroad.

He also appeared in such films as The Caine Mutiny, Hellcats of the Navy, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,  Rabbit, Run, Sleeper, The Way We Were, Billy Jack Goes to Washington, Creepshow and Liar, Liar.

Keefer's television resume was extensive and included some of the most popular series of their eras. He is often remembered for a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone titled “It’s a Good Life," in which a young boy, played by Billy Mumy, turns him into a jack-in-the-box.

Pictured here during an appearance on classic CBS series My Favorite Martian, his other TV credits include Angel, The Jack Benny Show, Have Gun, Will — Travel, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Real McCoys, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, The Munsters, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, The Virginian, The F.B.I., Marcus Welby, M.D., Columbo, The Streets of San Francisco, Starsky and Hutch, Roots: The Next Generations, Barnaby Jones, Quincy, M.E., Highway to Heaven, ER, Picket Fences, Profiler and many more productions.  

Keefer died September 7, 2014, in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 98.