Henry Beckman

 played two characters in the fourth season of Bewitched (1967-1968), client Arch Wilkerson and McMann & Tate art director Bill Walters.

Early Life and Career
Henry How Beckman was a Canadian actor and screenwriter. Beckman appeared in hundreds of television shows, films and commercials in the United States and Canada, often playing heavies or roles requiring accents or foreign languages.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he served in the Canadian military during World War II and survived the Normandy invasion.

After the war, he ran a theater in New York and then moved to Hollywood to work as an actor, with one of his earliest roles on the 1950s series “Flash Gordon.” He appeared in shows during the 1960s including “Dennis the Menace,” “Dr. Kildare” and “The Twilight Zone.” He had larger roles as George Anderson on “Peyton Place” and Colonel Harridan in “McHale’s Navy.” He was also known for his role as Captain Clancy in “Here Come the Brides.” Beckman later appeared in shows including “The Rockford Files,” “Happy Days” and “Columbo.” He played Detective Briggs in “The X-Files.”

His stints in Canada brought two Canadian film awards, first known as the Etrog and now renamed the Genie, in best-supporting actor category, the last in 1978 for “Blood and Guts.”

His feature film roles included “The Man Upstairs” with Katherine Hepburn, David Cronenberg’s “The Brood,” “My Husband’s Secret Life,” “Lion of Oz,” “Shadow of a Doubt” and “Blood River.”

Beckman also wrote film scripts, and was a member of the Writer’s Guild of Canada, the Screen Writers Guild of America, SAG, AFTRA, ACTRA and the Director’s Guild of Canada.

Personal Life
He married actress and Broadway producer Cheryl Maxwell in 1955. They had two sons, Brian Beckman and Stuart Beckman.

Following their wedding, they eventually purchased The Dukes Oak Theatre in Cooperstown, New York. Two years after that, they sold the theatre and moved to California where he pursued an on-camera career.

In 1977, they were awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal for "contributions to Canadian culture and the esteem in which they were held by their peers". He became Sir Henry Beckman when he was invested as a member of the "Knights of Malta," The Order of Saint John of Jersualem of the Americas and Europe, a centuries-old military order. His two sons were also admitted.

He lived in warmer climates in later years, including Hawaii and then Mallorca and Barcelona.

Cheryl died on October 20, 1998. He married Hillary Beckman in 2001.

Henry Beckman died of heart failure on June 17, 2008, in Barcelona, Spain. He was 86. He was survived by his second wife, Hillary.

Bewitched Credits

 * Arch Wilkerson in How to Fail in Business With All Kinds of Help
 * Bill Walters in Once in a Vial