(March 20, 1935 – October 6, 1996) Born in Flushing, New York, on March 20, 1935, Bessell was originally gearing up for a career as a classical musician. As a 12-year-old child prodigy, he performed a piano recital at Carnegie Hall.

However, after graduating from college in 1958, Bessell focused on acting. He studied with Sandford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, studied dance and dramatic movement with Martha Graham and Louis Horst, was a member of a professional acting class under Meisner, and worked with Wynn Handman in another professional acting group.

He has acted and directed in stock where he appeared in a wide spectrum of theatre works ranging from Shakespeare to Jule Styne. He then was cast in the off-Broadway production of The Power Of Darkness, which led to further off-Broadway work with the Blackfriars Guild. He also co-produced with his brother, writer-director Frank Bessell, Joe Orton's Crimes of Passion directed by Michael Kahn.

Bessell first went to Los Angeles in the West Coast production of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel for which he received great critical notices. Following that he appeared in the film, The Outsider, with Tony Curtis and Lover, Come Back with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.

In 1962, he played college student Tom-Tom DeWitt on the short-lived series It's a Man's World, and in 1966 was regularly featured on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Bessell also appeared in feature films like McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force and Don't Drink the Water with Jackie Gleason and Estelle Parsons. He also appeared in the TV film, Your Money Or Your Wife, which won the Peabody Award for Best Mystery of the Year.

Ted's best-known TV role was unquestionably as Donald Hollinger - Marlo Thomas' boyfriend on the hit series That Girl, which ran for five seasons from 1966 to 1971. When that series ended it's run, Bessell tried his hand at yet another sitcom, Me and the Chimp in 1972, where he played opposite a primate. It was not until 1977 that he would appear in another sitcom, which was the character of Joe Warner, the boyfriend Mary Richards was most likely to marry on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

In the 1980s, Bessell appeared in several TV movies, including Breaking Up Is Hard to Do and The Acorn People. He also played regular roles on a pair of unusual sitcoms, Good Time Harry and Hail to the Chief (as husband to Patty Duke), but both of these series failed to catch on.

Bessell moved into directing, helming episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show and Sibs. In 1989, he shared an Emmy as a producer on Fox Broadcasting's Tracey Ullman, which was honored as best variety or comedy program.

Sadly, on October 6, 1996, Ted Bessell died due to an aortic aneurysm. He was 61. Ted was preparing to direct the bigscreen version of the TV series Bewitched.

He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.

Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. Episode Appearances

Cat Overboard
Gomer Captures a Submarine
The Grudge Fight
A Visit from Cousin Goober
Gomer the Peace Maker
Gomer Pyle, POW
Gomer Pyle, Civilian
Gomer and the Beast
Grandma Pyle, Fortune Teller
Arrivederci, Gomer
Sergeant Carter Dates a Pyle
Little Girl Blue
A Star Is Born
Gomer and the Phone Company
Duke Slater, Night Club Comic
Opie Joins the Marines
Sergeant Carter Takes a Desk Job
Gomer the Would-Be Hero
Goodbye Camp Henderson, Hello Sergeant Carter

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