Don Oreck

Don Oreck (August 31, 1930 — March 5, 2006) was an American actor who, between 1955 and 1961, played supporting roles in numerous television seriesand made uncredited appearances in a few feature films.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Donald Allen Oreck became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department following a stint in the United States Army. While continuing his service with law enforcement, he began taking small acting assignments, which gradually increased in importance until, in the late 1950s, he could be spotted in various installments of television programs.

In 1959, Oreck portrayed the lead in the episode "Gringo Pete" of Rex Allen's syndicated western series, Frontier Doctor. In the story line, Gringo Pete is an outlaw who pledges to surrender his gang in exchange for parole. Instead, he resumes his life of lawlessness and dares the authorities. Ted de Corsia was cast in this episode in the role of Charlie Breen.

In 1955, he married 20-year-old Joanna Moore who, after their divorce in 1957, became a well-known movie and TV actress and, following her later marriage to Ryan O'Neal, the mother of Griffin O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal. His second marriage, to Tulsa-born Mary Ann Powell (born August 19, 1930), lasted from 1958 to 1971 and produced two children, Kevin Robert and Elizabeth Diane.

Don Oreck died in Los Angeles at the age of seventy-five of a degenerative brain disease.

Selected filmography

• 1955 Target Zero, directed by Harmon Jones; with Richard Conte and Peggie Castle
• 1956 episode of Studio 57, directed by Paul Landres
• 1956 episode of The West Point Story, written by Gene Roddenberry; with Donald May
• 1958 episode of State Trooper, directed by William Witney; with Rod Cameron
• 1959 episode of M Squad, directed by Earl Bellamy and Dann Cahn; with Lee Marvin and Paul Newlan
• 1958 episode of Sea Hunt, directed by Franklin Adreon and Monroe P. Askins; with Lloyd Bridges
• 1959 episode of Men into Space, directed by Franklin Adreon and Richard Carlson; with William Lundigan
• 1960 episode of Checkmate, created by Eric Ambler; with Anthony George and Doug McClure
• 1961 episode of Bonanza, directed by David Orrick McDearmon; with Lorne Greene and Michael Landon