Actor and Teacher

 

Cliff Osmond (Clifford Osman Ebrahim 1937-2012) was an American character actor, screenwriter, and drama teacher. He appeared in a few films, most notably in four Billy Wilder comedies, but he was most visible from his over 100 appearances on television. Though few knew his name. A veteran acting teacher in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and nationwide, he also operated his own scene study studios for decades while conducting seminars throughout the US.

Osmond was active in television from 1962 to 1996. His first small-screen appearance was in The Rifleman playing a vengeful blind man. That same year he was cast in "The Gift", an episode of The Twilight Zone. He later appeared on six episodes of Gunsmoke and he played a lieutenant and personal aide to an Indian Princess on Have Gun -- Will Travel. The 6' 5" actor was in countless dramas and comedies from the Sixties to the Eighties, typically as a heavy, a sheriff, or a slow-witted strongman. Given his facial features and command of dialects, there were few ethnic characters he could not play.