Frank Aletter

Accomplished actor Frank Aletter was elected the 11th vice president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1987. His career began on Broadway in the '50s, where he sang in the musicals "Bells Are Ringing" and "Wish You Were Here." He made his TV debut shortly thereafter, and earned a starring role in the single-season sitcom "Bringing Up Buddy," where he played a stockbroker living in Queens with his overbearing aunts. In 1958, Aletter wed former Miss America pageant-winner Lee Meriwether, who appeared on an episode of "Buddy" as a comely nurse. Aletter was cast as a regular on another short-lived series, "The Cara Williams Show," in 1964. He appeared as spouse of the eponymous actress, and the pair struggled to keep their marriage quiet at a company that forbade interoffice romance. Seemingly cursed to star in interesting but ill-fated series, Aletter's next endeavor was the prehistoric sitcom "It's About Time," where he played an astronaut thrust into the past, only to return to '60s society with cavemen in tow. Aletter is less known for his contributions to film, but he memorably portrayed Lieutenant Commander Francis J. Thomas in the Oscar-winning 1970 Pearl Harbor docudrama, "Tora! Tora! Tora! ." He retired in 1991, having fathered two would-be actresses: Kyle and Lesley Aletter. Aletter died of lung cancer at age 83.