Poster: Stuck In The '70's
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Here is Vince Edwards' Obituary from The New York Times.
Vince Edwards, 67, the Doctor In the Hit TV Series 'Ben Casey'
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: March 13, 1996
Vince Edwards, who played a handsome, brooding neurosurgeon in the 1960's television series "Ben Casey," died on Monday at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 67.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, The Associated Press reported.
From 1961 to 1966, Mr. Edwards won top ratings as a dedicated but difficult surgeon whose idealism often pitted him against the medical establishment. Fortunately, his mentor, Dr. Zorba (Sam Jaffe), was always on hand to guide him through turbulent waters. The series ran on ABC and competed with another hospital drama, "Dr. Kildare" (on NBC), which starred Richard Chamberlain.
Mr. Edwards was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. He and his twin brother, Anthony, were the youngest of the seven children of Vincent Zoino, an Italian-American bricklayer. He studied aviation mechanics at East New York High School, worked as a lifeguard at Coney Island and swam for the Flatbush Boys Club before winning a swimming scholarship to Ohio State University.
After two years at Ohio State, he transferred to the University of Hawaii to train year-round for the Olympics but spent most of his time acting in student and community theater productions. During summers, he worked as a singing waiter in the Catskills.
After leaving college and studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, he worked as a chorus boy on Broadway. In 1951 the Hollywood producer Hal Wallis, signed him to a film contract with Paramount Pictures. For the next decade, Mr. Edwards played gangster roles in such B pictures as "The Night Holds Terror," "The Killing" and "Murder by Contract." He also worked in television.
Mr. Edwards's big break came with "Ben Casey," whose title character was described by the show's producer as "a tender hunk of rock." Mr. Edwards described Casey as "a no-nonsense, rough-hewn doctor with no bedside manner whatsoever." The show aimed for a gritty immediacy that foreshadowed later series like "E.R."
After "Ben Casey" went off the air in 1966, Mr. Edwards acted in films and television but never again enjoyed the fame that "Ben Casey" brought him. His films included "The Devil's Brigade," "Hammerhead" and "The Desperados." He returned to television as a psychiatrist in the unsuccessful 1970 series "Matt Lincoln." He also appeared in the television movies "Cover Girls," "The Courage and the Passion" and "Firehouse." In 1988, he played Ben Casey in the syndicated television movie "The Return of Ben Casey."
In the 1960's, he recorded six record albums.
In addition to his brother, he is survived by his wife, Janet, and three daughters, Angela, Nicole and Devera.
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