LORNE GREENE: A BIOGRAPHY (1915-1987) 
Much has been written of Lorne Greene both in his adopted home of the USA and his native land, Canada. His eldest daughter Linda wrote an entire book about her famous father titled My Father's Voice, and a famous voice it was. It was Lorne Greene's magnificent voice that set him apart from other actors, gave him the bold presence to be Ben Cartwright, his most famous role and got him started in show business in radio. What follows is the story of a man whose life was full and rich from beginning to end.
THE CANADIAN YEARS Lorne Greene was born on February 12, 1915 to Daniel and Dora Greene, in Ottawa, Canada. They were Russian-Jewish immigrants and he was their second son. The first had sadly died in infancy, and Lorne remained their only child. He was very close to his parents and admired his father so much he patterned his most famous role, that of Ben Cartwright after Daniel Greene. Greene once said of his father "he didn't have to punish; all he had to do was look. He had almost perfect control, never got excited. Like Ben, he thought things thru; he never spanked. Just gave me one of those looks." When one of Greene's TV sons, notably Little Joe acts up "I'd give him the same look." Lorne's parents where theatergoers and their interest rubbed off on the young Greene. He went to high school at Lisgar Collegiate Institute and while there was cast in the play Les Deux Sourds as one of the deaf characters that shouts thru out the play. His booming deep voice got him the part and he recalled years later, "I was more interested in basketball at the time, but I did it and I got hooked."
Lorne's college years were spent at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He originally enrolled as a chemical engineering major to please his father. But the theatre continued to beckon and he changed his major to French and German so he could have more time for the plays he was starting to do. There was no drama department at Queens but there was a drama guild and Lorne was a very active member. He acted, directed and even produced numerous productions. He maintained a close relationship with Queen's University and in 1971 was awarded an honorary doctorate.
He graduated with a BA in 1937 and received a fellowship to study acting. He used his fellowship in New York City at the Neighborhood Playhouse and studied with Stanford Meiser and also with the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. After a brief stint in the Royal Canadian Air Force to help with the British Empire's response to growing Nazism in Europe, Lorne returned to Canada and tried to pursue a career in theatre. There were however no jobs on the stage but there were jobs in radio and here Lorne found his niche. He was working in an ad agency making a very low wage when his lovely voice caught the attention of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). WW II had broken out and Lorne each night broadcast the news of the war in deep somber tones. He quickly was dubbed “the voice of doom'. The early 40's were a busy time for Greene. He met and married his first wife, Rita Hands; he was so vital to the CBC that he was referred to by all in radio in all seriousness as The Voice of Canada.
In 1942 the American broadcasting company NBC awarded Lorne Greene their top-announcing award. (The only Canadian to ever win.) His narration, because of his lovely voice, was soon in great demand by everyone and in the mid 40's he did well over 25 narrations for films and documentaries including the John Gierson documentary on Winston Churchill that won an Academy Award. In the mid 40's Greene went to Hollywood to do 25 short documentaries to help raise money for the war effort. These jobs were not under CBC contract but were done freelance, and CBC wanted Greene to return the money he had earned. He refused and quite. He immediately got another job in radio and became co-founder of the Jupiter Theatre in Toronto directing and/or acting in over 50 productions.
In 1945 he and Rita became the proud parents of twins. A boy named Charles and a girl named Belinda Susan. With the advent of a new family Lorne Greene became busier than ever. In 1946 he founded the Academy of Radio Arts. Students fondly addressed him as "Dean Greene". The academy was a great success, graduating over 400 students that included the actor Leslie Neilsen who became a lifelong friend of Greene's. In 1950 Greene organized a Canadian television clinic and also tinkered with inventing. His experience as an announcer had taught him that one needs to know how much time is left, not when you started so he invented a stop watch that ran backwards from 60 to zero so an announcer could tell how much time he had remaining in his dialogue.
THE AMERICAN YEARS In 1953 Lorne separated from his wife Rita who was not involved in show business and went to New York City to try and market his reverse watch to NBC. The watch never caught on, but Lorne did. While in New York Lorne ran into a former teacher from his radio academy, Fletcher Markle who was now a producer of the very prestigious Studio One an early television show that did fine drama. Greene appeared in several plays for Studio One decided to close his radio school and stay in the Big Apple. He appeared on Broadway in the 1953 production of The Prescott Proposal opposite Katherine Cornell. Hollywood began to take notice of Lorne Greene and he was offered the role of Peter in The Silver Chalice. (This movie was also a first for another young actor by the name of Paul Newman.) Other early films of the 50's included Autumn Leaves with Joan Crawford and Peyton Place with Lana Turner. He kept close to Canada however and worked at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in summers.
Television was now the medium of choice for anyone who wanted steady work and Greene wanted steady work and he wanted to be in his own words "a star!" He worked a lot of television and in 1957 was cast as (of all things) a widower with three children on the show Wagon Train. His booming voice and dominant presence quite over shadowed the marvelous star of this show the great Ward Bond. The producer, David Dortort came over to the Wagon Train set to check Greene out on the advice of his wife. According to David Dortort's wife Rose she first saw Lorne Greene at a party and was very impressed with his silver gray hair, ability to fill a room with his presence and his wonderful bassoon like voice. She pointed him out to her husband and said, " I think Ben Cartwright just walked in." Dortort later went over to the Wagon Train set and the rest as they say "is history."
THE BONANZA YEARS 
In 1959 Lorne Greene was cast as the patriarch Ben Cartwright lord of the manor on Bonanza, television's first color western. One of the first things Greene needed to do was learn to ride a horse. Never a good horseman the riding duties on the Ponderosa were said to be not his favorite. His co-star Michael Landon in late night talk show interviews often told fun stories of the not-so-family oriented names Greene would call his ever patient horse "Buck." When Bonanza first aired the lord of the Ponderosa was in Greene's words "not a very nice person: I worked to have him made over into a warm person, a strong man, but one with a sense of humor, a human being." Greene threatened to quite the show early on if the character of Ben was not lightened up a bit. Early episodes have him quoting in a Moses like way from the Bible and threatening to shoot anyone who sets foot on the Ponderosa. He was also terribly course and strict with his three sons. A thing Greene definitely wanted to change. He wanted a warm relationship, like with his own father, and he worked hard to pattern Ben after his own father Daniel who had passed away in 1956.
This unique father figure that Lorne had carved out for Ben Cartwright helped to send the ratings to the top. Fans wrote in, in droves "When I grow up" writes a 12 year old from Detroit "I want you to know, Mr. Cartwright, that I'm going to become a father exactly like you. My own is a big, fat slob." Another young girl wrote from a correctional institution for juveniles "If you'd been my father I wouldn't be here today." "The trouble with my husband" carps a wife from Washington DC "is that he's got the roar of a lion and the courage of a mouse. If he showed one ounce of the gumption you showed on your program last week I wouldn't be leaving him." This all troubled Lorne who felt that life outside the TV box was filled with a world of people who could not or would not show love to their friends and family. "I've come to the conclusion" Greene once said sadly, "that the average guy is so busy making a living, providing for his family, that he has little time or energy or love to spend on his children." Greene had by this time found the love in his life. His two children were growing up and doing quite well, son Charles went to MIT while daughter Linda went to the University of Toronto and Lorne had remarried in 1961 to Nancy Ann Deale.
Nancy was an attractive young actress, just 28 when she married the then 46 year old Greene. She had appeared in the Bonanza episode Death at Dawn in 1960 as the character of Beth Cameron. Her stage name at the time was Lisa Cummings. Many people believe Lorne and Nancy met on the set of Bonanza, but that is not true. They were friends from Lorne's days in New York and she had been a teenage student at his Academy of Radio Arts that he had founded in Canada. They dated quietly for several years, always keeping far from gossip columns. Lorne was not yet divorced from his first wife, but the marriage had been over for years. He finally obtained a divorce in 1960 and in December of 1961 took Nancy as his bride in a private ceremony presided over by his rabbi and witnessed by his good friend and boss David Dortort and his wife, Rose. The reception that followed however was open to all and the entire Bonanza cast and crew showed up at the Greene's new home for a gala wedding reception. In 1968 Lorne celebrated his year of being a father. Nancy presented him with their daughter Gillian and his eldest daughter Linda presented him with is first grandchild, Stacey.
Lorne Greene kept very busy with Bonanza, rodeo appearances, and nightclub acts with his middle "son" Dan Blocker, late night TV interviews and recordings. He and the other Bonanza cast members did several albums a Ponderosa Party Time and a Christmas album but one of the most unusual things that happened to Lorne was hitting the charts at number 1. In 1964 Lorne Greene did a ballad song about a young drifter named Ringo. On October 31, 1964 Billboard Magazine listed Ringo as NUMBER ONE! The Beatles couldn't do better! It stayed on the charts for 12 weeks!
Lorne was a rich man. He had numerous partnerships with two of his co-stars Michael Landon who worshipped him as a father figure and Dan Blocker. They owned real estate together and even started a chain of steak houses The Bonanza Steak House. He also was deeply involved in social causes one in particular with his other Bonanza "son" Pernell Roberts that provided scholarships to Native Americans.
In 1973 NBC canceled Bonanza due to poor ratings and the untimely death of Dan Blocker. Lorne was grateful to his 14 years on the show. "What 'Bonanza' has given me is freedom without fear," Greene told reporters upon learning of the shows cancellation. "Actually, I never was fearful. I gave up $70,000-a-year job as a newscaster to go into acting. But today I have a firm financial base to work from. I can only wish it for every actor."
THE LATER YEARS. One would think at the age of 57 with many good years left a man with so much behind him and a lovely old and new family and all the money he would ever need, would quietly retire to the Fiji Islands but no, one of Lorne Greene's greatest qualities was his endless energy. When Bonanza ended Greene philosophically said, "No program should last on television for more than five years. There are far to many people around with so many great ideas who would never see the light of day if we didn't move on and make room for them." With that his career as Ben Cartwright ended and a new one began.
He went right on with more television. He started off as a private eye in a short lived detective show called Griff. Then came Battlestar Galatica where he played Adama (hmmmmm). He was an arson investigator in Code Red. He appeared in Vegas with his eldest "son" Pernell Roberts and with his youngest "son" in Highway to Heaven with Michael Landon. He was made famous in his Alpo dog food commercials. Always an animal lover (in spite of names he called his loyal "Buck") he was vice chairman of the American Wild Horse Association and honorary chairman of the Wildlife Federation. He even wrote a book called The Lorne Greene Book of Remarkable Animals.
Later in life Greene experienced hearing loss and for a time was in denial about it. He attributed it to close-at-hand gunshots fired during his years on the Ponderosa. His wife, Nancy helped him thru the vanity wrenching admission that he needed a hearing aide. He had worn a hairpiece for years and almost drowned during his Ponderosa years when he was dropped into a water tank during a shanghai scene in an episode of Bonanza and lost his toupee, he refused to come up until he had put it back on his head and when he didn't come up for air in a timely fashion the crew went after him. On February 15, l985 Greene got his star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. In March he went into the hospital for prostate surgery. In l987 he was looking forward with great anticipation to doing Bonanza once again this time in a show called Bonanza; The Next Generation. In June of that year he was filming one of his famous Alpo dog food commercials when he began to feel severe abdominal pain. He had a severe bleeding ulcer and went right into surgery. His health, however, declined and blood clots formed and Lorne Greene died of pneumonia on September 11th (infamous day) in 1987. One of the most devastated people by his death was Michael Landon who summed up Lorne Greene in the end: "I never stopped seeing Lorne as my dad."
Written for BonanzaWorld by Pamela T. Pentz
References:
Bonanza, A Viewer's Guide by David R. Greenland
Bonanza The Definitive Ponderosa Companion by Melany Shapiro
The Bonanza Book, TV Weekly, Australia
A Reference Guide To Television's Bonanza, Leiby/Leiby
Special Thanks for reference material provided by
Blue Velvet Photos:
Thompson collection 
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