Biography
He was born Wilfred Bailey Bixby, a fourth-generation Californian, in San Francisco, California where his father, Wilfred Everett Bixby, was a store clerk and his mother Jane Bixby, was a department store owner. In 1946, his mother encouraged him to take ballroom dance lessons and from there, he started dancing all around the city. While dancing, he attended Lowell High School where he perfected his oratory and dramatic skills as a member of the Lowell Forensic Society. He competed in high school speech tournaments regionally. After graduation, against his parents wishes, he majored in drama at San Francisco City College and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, the same university his parents went to.
After he graduated from college, he moved to Hollywood where he had a string of odd jobs that included bellhop and lifeguard. He organized shows at a resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In 1959, he was hired to work as a model and to do commercial work for General Motors and Chrysler.
Television career
In 1961, Bixby went to Detroit, Michigan, where he was in the musical, "The Boyfriend," at the Detroit Civic Theater. He then returned to Hollywood where he made his acting debut on an episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and as a character actor. As his name became popular, he guest-starred in many other situation comedies and TV series such as Ben Casey, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Kildare, Hennessey, among many others. He also joined the cast of The Joey Bishop Show in 1962.
My Favorite Martian
Bixby auditioned in 1963 for a new sitcom, My Favorite Martian on CBS, where he received a co-starring role as young news reporter, Tim O'Hara, who befriended an extraterrestrial played by Ray Walston. The show was a ratings winner in its first year, and it was ranked #10 for primetime programming. Also, Bixby often had the knack of comedic timing. But by 1966, bad scripts and high production costs forced the series to come to an end after 107 episodes.
Film work
After the cancellation of Martian, Bixby starred in four box-office movies: Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966), on which he played the evil, Johnsy Boy Hood, You've Got to Be Kidding (1967), and two of Elvis Presley's movies, Clambake (1967) and Speedway (1968). Bixby turned down the role as Marlo Thomas's boyfriend in That Girl and starred in two failed pilots.
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
In 1969, Bixby starred as Tom Corbett in another successful sitcom, The Courtship of Eddie's Father for ABC, about a widowed father who wants to spend more time with his son while dating women. It was based on the popular 1963 movie, starring Glenn Ford and Ron Howard. His co-star on the show was Brandon Cruz, with whom he developed a close relationship. He was nominated for a Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, but did not win. The following year, he won the Parents Without Partners Exemplary Service Award for 1972. He also made his directorial debut on the show in 1970, and would occasionally lost his cool when orders were not followed. By its final season, Courtship started to lose points in the ratings, and Bixby had an argument with James Komack which caused more friction. It was cancelled in 1972 after 78 episodes. Two years after Courtship, was off the air, Bixby called series star Brandon Cruz, and told him that he and Benet had Christopher. After his real-life son's, Christopher's death in 1981, Bixby confided in Cruz about this and stayed connected together for the next decade, just before Bixby's own death.
After Courtship and landing a role as a game show panelist
In 1973, Bixby starred in The Magician, playing Anthony Dorian, which lasted one season. As a popular game show panelist of the 1970s, he appeared mostly on Password and The Hollywood Squares. Bixby also appeared on the panelist on a pilot of a rejected 1970s game show that had never been aired. He was also a panelist on the revival of Masquerade Party, that was hosted by Richard Dawson (who appeared with him on "Cop-Out", and is of Hogan's Heroes and Family Feud fame). He co-starred with Tim Conway and Don Knotts in the 1975 movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang. Unlike the previous movies that Bixby starred in, this one wasn't a blockbuster hit, but received mediocre ratings. An accomplished amateur magician, Bixby also hosted several specials in the mid-1970s that featured other amateur magicians.
The Incredible Hulk
In late 1977, after working on two comedy series, Bixby starred in a two-hour pilot movie called The Incredible Hulk. The producers convinced CBS to turn it into a weekly science-fiction series beginning in early 1978. His character, Dr. David Banner, was a scientist/physician who turned into a green monster (played by Lou Ferrigno) when he became angry. A hit, the series was seen in over 70 countries as Bixby's character rips his shirts apart before becoming the Hulk. Bixby felt that the make-up requirements for his part were onerous however. More than a courageous move to star in a science-fiction series, but he decided to take a risky one after finished reading the entire script. On the pilot episode of the Hulk, his catch-phrase became popular as he uttered, "Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry," as this one became one of Bixby's better hit series, and making him a pop icon of the 1970s. During the show's run, he also invited two of his long-time friends (Ray Walston from My Favorite Martian and Brandon Cruz from The Courtship of Eddie's Father) from two of his previous hit series to guest-star with him on several different episodes of the Hulk. In 1981, Bixby not only acted, but served one time as director of the show. The series was cancelled that following year. Bixby was disappointed that his character was not cured of his condition in the final episode.
After Hulk
After he starred in three successful TV series, he wanted to concentrate on directing, from his own short-lived comedy, Goodnight, Beantown with Mariette Hartley (when she guest-starred with Bixby on The Incredible Hulk), to the successful, Sledgehammer. In addition to Hulk, Bixby directed two of the three TV movie revivals which he also produced. Prior to his death he was the lead director of the TV sitcom Blossom.
Private and later life
Just one month, before the wedding, Bixby had lost his father, Wilfred Bailey II, in 1971, of a massive heart attack, and Bixby had scattered his father's ashes in the Pacific off the island of Maui. He also had been married three times: he married actress and former MISS USA Brenda Benet in 1971, and the couple gave birth to Christopher, a few years later. Benet, guest-starred with him on The Incredible Hulk, just before they were divorced in 1980. In 1981, Bixby's six-year-old son Christopher died suddenly after an accident at the actor's Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA home, and his son's ashes are also scattered in the Pacific off the island of Maui, next to his grandfather's and before his own father, a decade later. Shortly afterwards, Benet committed suicide.
Nine years later in 1989, he met and fell in love with Laura Michaels, who used to work on the set of one of his Hulk movies. The couple married a year later in Hawaii. In early 1991, Bixby was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent treatment for the disease. He was divorced in the same year. In late 1992, friends introduced him to an artist named Judith Kliban, the widow of B. Kliban, a cartoonist who died of cancer. He married Judith in late 1993, just six weeks before he collapsed on the set of Blossom.
In early 1993, after several rumours and true stories swirling around the actor's health, Bixby had decided to go public with his illness, as he talked about his disease and the energy in order to keep him alive. As a result, he made several guest appearances on many shows such as, Entertainment Tonight (where he made 2 guest appearances), The Today Show, Good Morning America, among many others. Also, while working on Blossom, he would occasionally visit his old friend Loni Anderson on the set of Nurses, and the two had a wonderful reunion, just before Bixby's career was over. Eventually, Bixby's cancer recurred and was diagnosed as inoperable. Six days after his final assignment, directing an episode of Blossom, Bill Bixby passed away from complications arising from prostate cancer in Century City, California on November 21, 1993. His wife and another longtime friend of Bixby's, Dick Martin were both by his side, and were both very devastated by the loss. After his death, Bixby's ashes were scattered in the Pacific off the island of Maui, next to that of his father's and his son's.
