Sam Edwards
Sam Edwards
Sam Edwards was born in 1915 to a family familiar with radio show business. His mother was stage actress Edna Parks.
In 1930 in the early days of his career Sam Edwards played the role of 14 year old Buddy along side his brother Jack who starred as Sonny in Adventures of Sonny and Buddy, one of the first syndicated radio shows. Radio must have been in his blood, because Sam Edwards went on to have a flourishing career in radio.
The Edwards Family, was based on the life and times of his actual family - his parents, Edna Parks and Jack Edwards Senior, sister Florida and his brother, Jack and himself all starring in the series.
After a brief hiatus that Sam spent in the Army during World War II, he went back into radio, immediately getting a starring role in Meet Corliss Archer, also starring Jane Waldo.
Other roles and appearances included Gunsmoke, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and Father Knows Best. He played the role of Tracy Baker in One Man’s Family, one of the first soap operas that appeared on radio, again along side his brother Jack who played Wayne Grubb.
Guest roles for Sam Edwards were for some of the most popular series in the history of radio. They included Escape, Favorite Story, Screen Directors Playhouse, CBS Radio Workshop, Crime Classics, Tales of the Texas Ranger, Have Gun will Travel, Dragnet and Suspense.
These guest roles helped to catapult Sam Edwards into a period of great popularity and in the period between 1946 until 1962, he starred or appeared in over 8,000 radio episodes. Edwards was a master at changing his voice for certain radio roles and one role inparticular for Suspense, The Game, especially demonstrated this talent.
During his radio career, Edwards worked with such notables as Jack Webb in the Dragnet series, Burl Ives, John Wayne and Gregory Peck and was also a voice in animated movies such as Bambi (Sam was the voice of Thumper), The Cowardly Lion and The Tin Woodman in the Disney Oz series records.
Edwards was also prominent in many film and television shows including Little House on the Prairie, Dragnet and Gunsmoke. The first time Edwards appeared in a movie role was as Chuck Ramsey for the series, Captain Midnight in 1942.
Sam Edwards was born on May 26, 1915 and passed away on July 28, 2004 from heart problems at the ripe old age of 89 in Durango, Colorado where he lived with his wife of 35 years, Beverly.
Happy listening my friends,
