Dan Tobin

Dan Tobin (October 19, 1910 – November 26, 1982) was an American supporting actor on the stage, in films and on television. He generally played gentle, urbane, rather fussy, sometimes obsequious and shifty characters, often with a concealed edge of malice.

Tobin was a native of Cincinnati, and he attended the University of Cincinnati.

Tobin acted with a touring troupe in England. After an impresario saw him in Ah, Wilderness!, he gained a role in Behind Your Back at the Strand.

Tobin's most memorable roles were as the overbearing secretary, Gerald, in Woman of the Year (1942), and the top-billed scientist in Orson Welles's innovative Peabody Award-winning unsold television pilot, The Fountain of Youth, filmed in 1956 and televised once two years later as an installment of NBC's Colgate Theatre.

Tobin also played as Alexander "Sandy" Lord in the original Broadway production of Phillip Barry's The Philadelphia Story, thus starting his career on stage in 1939. His work on Broadway included American Holiday (1939).

On television, Tobin was a regular on I Married Joan, My Favorite Husband, and Where Were You?

The Internet Movie Database lists 96 television and film acting roles for Tobin over a career spanning from 1939 to 1977, however TV Guide only credits him with 44 appearances. In 1966, he became a regular during the final season of Perry Mason as the proprietor of "Clay's Grill". He made a prior Mason appearance in 1964 as Dickens the butler in "The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor."

Tobin was married to film and television screenwriter Jean Holloway (born Gratia Jean Casey: August 16, 1917 - November 11, 1989) from 1951 to his death in 1982.

Tobin died in Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, in November 1982, at age 72. He was survived by his wife.