Nelson Olmsted

Nelson Olmsted, born Leroy Nelson Olmsted Jr., was a veteran character actor on scores of radio, television, and motion pictures. His screen credits include over a dozen movies, including "Lover Come Back," "That Touch of Mink," "Fitzwilly," and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." The son of Leroy Nelson Olmsted and Jane Hurford Long Olmsted, he was born on January 28, 1914, in Minneapolis, MN. He grew up in Texas and began his career as a radio announcer for WBAP in Fort Worth, where he launched a late-night 30-minute horror series, "Black Night," on November 5, 1937. Olmsted starred in the series and played a variety of different roles. The impact of "Black Night" catapulted Olmsted to New York in 1939, where he became NBC's resident storyteller, a position he held for over a decade. An ability to do multiple character voices won him his own radio shows, beginning with "The World's Greatest Short Stories" (1939, 1944, 1947) and "Dramas by Olmsted" (1940-41). During World War II,