Stafford Repp

Stafford Alois Repp (April 26, 1918 – November 5, 1974) was an American actor best known for his role as Police Chief Clancy O'Hara, opposite Adam West's character on ABC's Batman television series.

Spouse(s)

• Patricia Breslin Repp,
• Berta J. Slack,
• Theresa Valenti Moriarty,
• Sharon D. Currier

Biography

Early life

Born and raised in California, he was educated at Lowell High School, in San Francisco, California. Soon after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Repp served a stint in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. After military service, he began his acting career in mid-life. He was first hired to create sound effects during the "Golden Age of Television".

Acting career

At the beginning of his acting career, Repp appeared in numerous film and TV productions including the films I Want to Live! with Susan Hayward, and The Brothers Karamazov, both made in 1958. Also at this same time he began to appear in a string of early television programs from the middle 1950s to the early 1960s, including NBC's western anthology series Frontier and the Barry Sullivan/Clu Gulager western, The Tall Man.

Repp appeared on Rod Cameron's State Trooper, Barbara Eden's How to Marry a Millionaire, Peter Lawford's The Thin Man (1957), Tom Tryon's Texas John Slaughter (1958), Rex Allen's Frontier Doctor (1959), Rawhide (1959), Howard Duff's Dante (1961), Walter Brennan's The Real McCoys (1957 and 1959), The Donna Reed Show (1960), Guestward, Ho! (1960), Angel (1961), and Dennis the Menace (1962 and 1963).

Repp made four appearances on Perry Mason between 1959-1962 in minor roles, including Private Investigator Phillip Morgan in "The Case of the Petulant Partner."

From 1963 to 1964, he portrayed Brink, the factory supervisor on Phil Silvers' The New Phil Silvers Show. His series co-stars were Buddy Lester, Herbie Faye, Elena Verdugo, Ronnie Dapo, and Sandy Descher.

Repp made appearances in the The Twilight Zone episodes "Nick of Time" which starred William Shatner, as well as appearing in "The Grave" and "Caesar and Me" .

In early 1966, he appeared as a railroad detective in an episode in the last season of "My Favorite Martian".

Batman

However, it was his role as Chief O'Hara that he will be mainly recognised for with the thick Irish brogue that he had developed for the part. According to Adam West, Neil Hamilton, who played Commissioner Gordon on the show, did not like Repp's fake Irish accent, and their on-screen partnership was decidedly friendlier than in real life. While on Batman, he appeared as a guest in numerous other television programmes, including I Dream of Jeannie and The Mothers-in-Law, in the latter once again playing a policeman.

Later career

After Batman was cancelled in 1968, he wisely invested his money with a partnership in a chain of car washes, which brought him considerable financial success.

His last released film was Cycle Psycho in 1973. He had a posthumous appearance in Mannix that was first broadcast two months after his death. His last television appearance was on the TV show M*A*S*H (as a Military Police Officer) that was first broadcast four months after his death. Shortly before his death in 1974 he filmed several scenes in Orson Welles' unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind.

Death and legacy

Repp suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 56 on November 5, 1974, while at the Hollywood Park Racetrack. He is interred at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, California. After his death, his sister, a television writer, established the Stafford Repp Memorial Scholarship for alumni of his alma mater, Lowell High School.

Selected filmography

• The Price of Fear (1956)
• I Want to Live! (1958)
• The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
• The Californians as Amos Dayton in "Stampede at Misery Flats" (NBC-TV, 1959)
• Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Charley London in "The Popskull" (1960)* Hennesey (3 episodes CBS-TV, 1959-1961)
• The Twilight Zone (CBS-TV, 1960)
• The DuPont Show with June Allyson - (CBS-TV, 1960) - Jesse in "The Way Home"
• The New Phil Silvers Show (1963) - Brink
• Our Man Higgins as Buckmaster in the episode, "The Rules of the Road" (1962)
• Batman (1966–1968) - Chief O'Hara
• Batman (1966) - Chief O'Hara
• Cycle Psycho (1973)