Don Porter

Acting

Don Porter

Born 1912-09-24 · Miami, Oklahoma, USA

Donald "Don" Porter (September 24, 1912 –February 11, 1997) was an American actor who appeared in a number of films since the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron. On television, he portrayed the widowed father of 15-year-old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence (Sally Field) in the 1965 ABC sitcom Gidget. Besides his work in film and television, Porter was active on stage, as he acted in more than 200 plays, including The Front Page, Plaza Suite, and Any Wednesday. He appeared in various films in the 1940s before landing the role of Peter Sands, the boss of Susan Camille MacNamara (Ann Sothern), on the 1950s sitcom Private Secretary. A retooled version of the series appeared later, titled The Ann Sothern Show. It featured many of the same actors, including Porter as hotel manager James Devery in the venue of a fashionable New York City hotel. He later guest starred on episodes of Green Acres, Love, American Style, The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, Three's Company (on which he played Jack Tripper's uncle), and Switch.

Acting credits

Tropic of Desire poster
6.4

A male hustler drifts into Key West, where he becomes involved in a series of steamy interludes with disreputable locals intertwined in various political intrigues.

Tropic of Desire

1979

Reconnaissance Pilot poster
7.0

Documentary/training film depicting the duties of a pilot in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War as he flies reconnaissance missions over enemy-held islands.

Reconnaissance Pilot

1943

She-Wolf of London poster
5.6

A young heiress finds evidence suggesting that at night she acts under the influence of a family curse and has begun committing ghastly murders in a nearby park.

She-Wolf of London

1946

Live a Little, Love a Little poster
5.5

Photographer Greg Nolan moonlights in two full-time jobs to pay the rent, but has trouble finding time to do them both without his bosses finding out.

Live a Little, Love a Little

1968

Who Done It? poster
7.0

Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station, they end up in the middle of a real murder when the station owner is killed during a broadcast.

Who Done It?

1942

The Candidate poster
6.5

Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment.

The Candidate

1972

Buck Privates Come Home poster
6.4

Two ex-soldiers return from overseas--one of them having smuggled into the country a French orphan girl he has become attached to. They wind up running into their old sergeant--who hates them--and getting involved with a race-car builder who's trying to find backers for a new midget racer he's building.

Buck Privates Come Home

1947

Mame poster
5.8

The madcap life of eccentric Mame Dennis and her bohemian, intellectual arty clique is disrupted when her deceased brother's 10-year-old son Patrick is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo, "Life is a banquet, and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death."

Mame

1974

The Racket poster
6.3

The big national crime syndicate has moved into town, partnering up with local crime boss Nick Scanlon. McQuigg, the only honest police captain on the force, and his loyal patrolman, Johnson, take on the violent Nick.

The Racket

1951

Because You're Mine poster
6.8

A famous opera singer falls for his sergeant's sister at boot camp.

Because You're Mine

1952

The Savage poster
6.3

The only white survivor of a Crow Indian raid on a wagon train is a young boy. He is rescued by the Sioux, and the Sioux chief raises him as an Indian in very way. Years later, the white men and the Sioux threaten to go to war and the Indian-raised white man is torn between his racial loyalties and his adopted tribe.

The Savage

1952

Desk Set poster
7.0

A computer expert tries to prove his electronic brain can replace a television network's research staff.

Desk Set

1957

40 Carats poster
5.7

After an overnight fling with a man nearly 20 years her junior while vacationing in Greece, Ann Stanley returns to New York assuming she'll never see Peter Latham again. Until, that is, he shows up on her doorstep to take her daughter to a party. Despite her yearning for Peter and the encouragement of her friends and family, Ann initially rebuffs him when he pursues her, but slowly she yields to his charm and her own stifled emotions.

40 Carats

1973

Bachelor in Paradise poster
6.3

A bachelor author of sleazy books moves to a family-oriented subdivision where he becomes an unofficial relationship advisor to unhappy local housewives, to the dismay of their respective husbands who suspect him of sexual misconduct.

Bachelor in Paradise

1961

The Legend of Lizzie Borden poster
6.9

A dramatization of the famous 1893 Massachusetts trial of the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax.

The Legend of Lizzie Borden

1975

Our Miss Brooks poster
6.6

The big-screen translation of the successful television show of the 1950's. Arden stars as Connie Brooks, wisecracking English teacher at Madison High School, still hoping to tie the knot with shy biology teacher Philip Boynton (Robert Rockwell).

Our Miss Brooks

1956

Night Monster poster
6.2

Kurt Ingston, a rich recluse, invites the doctors who left him a hopeless cripple to his desolate mansion in the swamps as one by one they meet horrible deaths.

Night Monster

1942

The Turning Point poster
6.3

Special prosecutor John Conroy hopes to combat organized crime in his city and appoints his cop father Matt as chief investigator. John doesn't understand why Matt is reluctant, but cynical reporter Jerry McKibbon thinks he knows: he's seen Matt with mob lieutenant Harrigan. Jerry's friendship with John is tested by the question of what to do about Matt, and by his attraction to John's girl Amanda. Meanwhile, the threatened racketeers adopt increasingly violent means of defense.

The Turning Point

1952

711 Ocean Drive poster
6.4

A telephone repairman in Los Angeles uses his knowledge of electronics to help a bookie set up a betting operation. After the bookie is murdered, the greedy technician takes over his business. He ruthlessly climbs his way to the top of the local crime syndicate, but then gangsters from a big East Coast mob show up wanting a piece of his action.

711 Ocean Drive

1950

Murder or Mercy poster
10.0

An attorney comes out of retirement to defend a prominent doctor, who has been accused of the mercy killing of his wife.

Murder or Mercy

1974

White Line Fever poster
6.0

An independent trucker with a pregnant wife fights cargo crooks and the big shot they work for.

White Line Fever

1975

The Fallbrook Story poster
NR

“The Fallbrook Story,” is a 20-minute film of Cold War-era uneasiness in which director Frank Capra rails against what he calls the evils of Big Bureaucracy. In 1951, Capra lived in Fallbrook, California on his 1,000-acre Red Mountain Ranch farm filled with olive groves. The federal government, which had purchased the old Rancho Santa Margarita land in 1941 to build Camp Pendleton, was concerned that ranchers upstream would take or pollute the Santa Margarita River, which ran through Camp Pendleton. Capra’s film documents how Fallbrook residents fought back against the federal government.

The Fallbrook Story

1952

My Friend Irma Goes West poster
6.2

Singer Steve, friend Seymour and fiance Jane, along with her dizzy blonde room mate Irma, have a series of misadventures on a California-bound train and end up involved with a gang of murderous gangsters in Las Vegas.

My Friend Irma Goes West

1950

Cripple Creek poster
6.0

It's 1893 and gold is being smuggled out of the country. Instead of stealing gold bars, the outlaws are stealing high grade ore, having it smelted, and then having it plated to look like lead. The Government sends agents Bret and Larry who arrive in Cripple Creek posing as Texas gunfighters. Bret finds the smelting operation and Larry learns of the payoff. But the crooked town Marshal is suspicious of the two men and the reply of his inquiry to Texas exposes them putting their lives in danger.

Cripple Creek

1952