Marshall Thompson

Although he geared himself up for major film stardom throughout the 1950s, it took a leading role on a 1960s TV series opposite a lion and chimpanzee to make Marshall Thompson a genuine household name. Born on November 27, 1925, and named James Marshall Thompson after an ancestor, a famed Supreme Court justice, he moved at age 5 with his parents from his Peoria, Illinois, hometown to the Los Angeles area. There his father set up a successful Westwood practice in dentistry that continued for over three decades. His mother once took to the stage as a concert singer and musician. Marshall was their only child. He caught the acting bug while in high school when he appeared in a number of school productions and was spotted by a local talent agent. This did not pan out, but he also acted upon his early skills as a writer. The Westwood Village Players produced the young high school student's ambitious three-act play "Faith," the story of two young aviators in a Nazi prison. He enrolled at O