Edward Platt gave authority a deep, reassuring voice, then found comedy in its failure to keep order. We value his patience and precision, though too many of his parts ask him merely to represent a profession.
Fi1m perspective
Give Edward Platt a title and his deep voice supplies much of the authority before the character has had to prove anything. Judges, officers and attorneys were regular work for him, and we can hear why. He sounds capable of listening without surrendering control of the conversation. The danger in such casting is that the job title becomes the whole character. Platt's more rewarding parts give that composure something to do.
In Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955), his juvenile officer Ray Fremick supplies an adult sympathy the film badly needs. We felt relieved by his understanding, because the parents elsewhere are drawn so simply that a reasonable adult comes as a surprise. James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo give the film its force; Platt has the smaller task of making an adult's concern credible. The part offers a welcome exception to the stern professionals he was so often asked to play.
Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) uses him more conventionally, as Victor Larrabee, Cary Grant's attorney. Grant makes panic funny without removing the danger, and Platt's professional bearing belongs comfortably beside that performance. We would not pretend this small role explains the film's success: Hitchcock's control of the chase does that. It does show how readily Platt fitted into the serious professional parts that occupied much of his film work. The judge in Cape Fear (1962) belongs to the same pattern, and the limitation is that a succession of such roles gives an actor few chances to surprise us.
Platt put that authority to comic use in Get Smart (1965–1970). As the Chief, opposite Don Adams, he supplies patient supervision and exasperation while Maxwell Smart does the bumbling. His timing makes the patience funny without making the superior seem incapable of doing his job. For Platt with more to do, choose Get Smart and keep an eye on the man trying to remain patient.
Biography
Edward Cuthbert Platt (14 February 1916 – 19 March 1974) was an American character actor. He appeared in numerous films and television series, often in authoritative or professional roles, and is best known for playing the Chief (Thaddeus) in the spy comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970).
Platt trained as an operatic bass-baritone and began his career as a band vocalist with Paul Whiteman and the Mozart Opera Company. He made his Broadway debut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Allegro (1947) and later appeared in The Shrike (1952). His first film role came in the 1955 adaptation of The Shrike, secured with assistance from José Ferrer. He went on to appear in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as Ray Fremick, North by Northwest (1959) as Victor Larrabee, Pollyanna (1960) as Ben Tarbell and Cape Fear (1962) as a judge, alongside many guest roles in series such as Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
