John Anderson: Quincy's greatest character actor
Patrick McGinley
Quincy can claim some well-known actors and actresses, but none can come close to the quantity of work of John Robert Anderson.
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Quincy can claim some well-known actors and actresses, but none can come close to the quantity of work of John Robert Anderson, who was born on Oct. 20, 1922, on a small farm near Clayton. While he was still a child, the family moved into the city of Quincy where his mother operated a small newsstand and cigar store in the WCU Building. The family lived at 613 1/3 Maine Street.

In April 1970, "J.R.," as his friends called him, wrote of growing up in Quincy: "I could never understand why a number of young people (who seemed old to me at the time – mid 20s) were in such a hurry to get out of Quincy. I had lived and gone to school in St. Louis, Urbana, Mexico, Missouri – back to St. Louis – back to Quincy. And to me Quincy had just about everything a boy could ask for in a town: not too big; not too small; the river, which I used a lot; wonderful countryside to roam; Baldwin Pond for ice-skating in the winter; and the WCU Building lobby where mother had a cigar stand."

John went to Quincy High School (today's Quincy Junior High building at 14th and Maine) and graduated in 1940. He was a member of the track team, the drum major for the band, and a member of the radio club. He was also a Boy Scout of Troop 9 sponsored by Vermont Street Methodist Church. The first National Boy Scout Jamboree was to occur in 1935 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Scouting in America. However, due to a polio epidemic, it was pushed back two years, and 14-year-old John Anderson went to the first National Boy Scout Jamboree held in Washington, D.C., in 1937. During World War II, he served in the Coast Guard working on convoys protecting ships from submarines.

On Saturday, June 8, 1946, Anderson married Patricia A. Cason in the rectory of St. Boniface Catholic Church. After the wedding the couple moved to Iowa City where Anderson studied in the liberal arts college at the University of Iowa and earned his master's degree in drama. In the 1940s, actors seeking jobs would head east to be on the stage in New York City, and so did the Andersons. John was cast in a role for the famous Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." After this came summer stock productions in various New York areas. He also appeared in "Home of the Brave" and "High Button Shoes."

Anderson's perfect timing in moving to California just as television was becoming a home fixture allowed him to become one of the medium's greatest character actors of all time. In the mid-1950s and for the next decade, the most common venue of television shows was the "western," with half-hour weekly shows. Anderson became one of the most popular of character actors for the western genre. Listed below are a number of his appearances and the popular westerns he appeared in:

"Gunsmoke" (12)

"The Virginian" (6)

"Bonanza" (3)

"The Rifleman" (11)

"Tales of Wells Fargo" (3)

"The Lawman" (2)

"Have Gun, Will Travel" (3)

"Rawhide" (2)

John Anderson also appeared in many other TV shows, including: "Quantum Leap," "MacGyver" (6), "Matlock" (2), "Murder She Wrote," "North and South" (TV mini-series), "MASH," "Quincy, M.E." (2), "The Jeffersons" (2); "Kung Fu" (3); "The Rat Patrol" (3), "The Fugitive" (2), "The Twilight Zone" (4), "The Untouchables" (3), "Peter Gunn" and "Sea Hunt" (3). These are just a few of the TV productions which included Anderson as a character actor.

Aside from the television shows, Anderson was in more than 30 movies, which included "Psycho" (1960), "Walk on the Wild Side" (1962), "Geronimo" (1962), "Ride the High Country" (1962), "The Hallelujah Trail" (1965), "Namu, the Killer Whale" (1966), "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970), "Executive Action" (1973), "The Lincoln Conspiracy" (1977), "Smokey and the Bandit II" (1980), "Eight Men Out" (1988), and his final movie, "Deadly Innocents" (1990).

Anderson came to Quincy a number of times to visit his hometown, and to see his mother, who later moved into the Newcomb Hotel. John and Patricia Anderson visited Quincy in 1966, along with their two children, Jeff and Kelsey. On May 1, 1970, J.R. came to Quincy to participate in the city's first Dogwood Festival. The night before, he was hosted at a dinner by the occupants of the WCU Building where he and his mother had worked. In March 1977 he came to Quincy after filming "The Conspiracy to Kill Mr. Lincoln." In May 1977 he returned to Quincy to help celebrate the Mary Astor Festival which recognized another Quincy performer. Astor remains best remembered for her starring role in "The Maltese Falcon," which co-starred Humphrey Bogart. In October 1990, Anderson returned for his 50th High School reunion. In May 1992 he returned to Quincy to deliver the commencement address at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo.

Perhaps his most important visit was to film a movie in Quincy. Because of his tall, lanky frame, Anderson played Abraham Lincoln in a few movies. In August 1970 it was announced that he would portray Lincoln in a movie focused on the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The majority of dialogue would be the exact words spoken by Lincoln and Douglas when they debated here in Quincy in 1858. Stephen A. Douglas was played by Gene Roche, a Broadway actor known for his portrayal of Douglas. The movie was filmed mostly at the John Wood Mansion, with a few scenes around the area. The movie was called "A House Divided," a quote from Lincoln's speech at the time he accepted his party's nomination to oppose Douglas for his U.S. Senate seat.

Patricia Anderson died in 1989, and her death hit Anderson very hard. He became a recluse for a while until friends convinced him to work again. In early 1992, he appeared in "Jake and the Fatman" and a few times as the grandfather of "McGyver."

Anderson died of a heart attack in his home on Aug. 7, 1992. Counting TV shows and movies, John Robert Anderson had 539 credits to his name, far more than any other Quincy actor or actress. He is known as one of the greatest character actors of the 20th century, with a body of work spanning five decades (1950s – 1990s).

Patrick McGinley is a retired teacher of Quincy Public Schools and John Wood Community College. He attended Quincy University , Western Illinois University, and Southern Illinois University where he earned a doctorate.

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