W i l l i am R eynolds starred in " T he P u rple Testament , " as Lieutenant Fitzgeral d .
I've read about the tragic plane crash that occurred when "The Purple Testament" was first scheduled to air. Could you tell me about that?
"The Purple Testament" was originally sched
uled to show on February 1 2 . At the time, I had been working at MGM on a television pilot called The Islanders, in the next season at ABC,
in 1960. I was down in Jamaica doing some background shots for some run-throughs and things like that, and we were trying to get back.
The director of this series, as well as the
direc-Actor William Reynolds, cast, and crew during filming of a scene in "The Purple Testament."
tor of The Twilight Zone, was Dick Bare. And Dick and I were trying to get back to Puerto Rico in order to see the show that night. The plane crashed, and they didn't know whether anybody was alive. As a matter of fact, the cameraman, George Schmidt, was killed when he bled to death, and it was really a very bloody and messy type of thing. But I had post
poned my leaving, because my son was born on January 30. They had heard about the plane crash, Rod Serling and Buck Houghton, and postponed the airing of the episode; it was about a macabre scene of my seeing my own
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Dean Stockwell stars as Lieutenant Katell/Lieutenant Yamuri in "A Quality of Mercy."
death, which probably wouldn't have been thrilling for my wife with a 1 2-day-old child.
Anyway, Serling stepped in and they can
celled the broadcast for that night. This is the kind of sensitivity I don't think that you would find in most circumstances. I have forever been grateful to him. I have a very high opinion of this gentleman.
Strange circumstances, it was scheduled to shoot sometime in December. Somebody already was scheduled and I was a replacement.
I think it was Dean Stockwell who was origi
nally scheduled to play Fitzgerald. Stockwell had already done another episode that was sim
ilar to it, where he played in the military ["A Quality of Mercy"]. It was three days before shooting. I don't think Rod or Buck knew much about me, and I walked into the office and after we said, "Hello, how are you?" he just looked, and after just a few minutes he said, "Fine. Welcome aboard, I'm glad you're doing the part. " And whatever it was he saw in
Actors Dick York and William Reynolds with Rod Serling during his visit to the set.
me was an instant judgment. And we started shooting two or three days later.
Did you have any rehearsal time?
No, we had nothing, no rehearsal. I worked pretty hard, obviously, on the words, but the character wasn't a reach. Looking back on the character now, I probably could have, or should have, made it more interesting, or could have found ways to make it more inter
esting, but his dialogue was so precise there was no reach, I didn't have to accommodate anything.
The Twilight Zone is based in story, and when they say it's Rod Serling, they mean it's out of Rod Serling's imagination and the actors are able to contribute to the thing, but it's the story. I hadn't seen a really good movie, much less a great movie, that doesn't have those char
acteristics quite right, the cult of the personali
ty. I would say Rod was the most honest and straightforward [person], and I think those
Rod Serling enlisted in the US Army :1.:1.th Airborne Paratroopers Division in World War II, and served from January :1.943 through January :1.946. He was in combat in the Pacific, and while in the Philippines, was wounded by shrapnel in the knee. He received numerous decorations, including the prestigious Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals and was discharged with the rank of Technician 5th grade, the equivalent rank of Corporal.
people who were associated with that kind of function, in that capacity, they tried to project what Rod Serling was trying to do.
Had you been contacted by the producer, Buck Houghton?
It might have been Buck. They called my agent and they wanted to see me for this thing and so I went in and, as I say, I had been working on the lot, on The Islanders, which was being shot at MGM, and that was sold for the upcom
mg season.
I guess I could work now if I wanted to, but I'm kind of a tweener - I'm an old leading man who didn't really do too many character things.
I really don't have a character presentation. I could play doctors and stuff, but the business is so much rejection now, you meet for everything - it doesn't make any difference what it is, you know, two or three lines. I'd really like to work every fourth or fifth day. There used to be a feeling for performers that had paid their dues and you were treated with a kind of respect, but now that's not part of the game.
What was director Richard Bare like?
He was a crazy man, a nice man, and a very accomplished director. He'd do stuff faster and did several other Twilight Zone episodes, and it's kind of a release, the energy and focus, so then you can refocus and do it, and it really was a thing that can serve that for most people.
As quickly as The Twilight Zone happened, it's still got legs, it's still one of the highlights.
If people ask you what you did, you say,
"Well, I did a Twilight Zone. " You know, there weren't a lot of egos there, no prima donnas. These were his words, his stories, and his ideas. You can go on a show, any show, and you can sit on the set for half an hour, and you know who's in charge, who's the big cheese, who's gonna make the noise. And I think you could have walked on the set and there was no ego. The director, of course, was obviously giving orders, because he's setting
1 8 7
Richard Bare directs actor Marc Cavell ( Freeman) between scenes surrounded by the entire cast and crew.
up camera angles and stuff like that. Dick was such a low-level guy, I don't recall ever having any difficulty.
What an enjoyable experience! The more I think about it the more I like it. But I do remember a scene I wasn't comfortable with. It was the scene after the hospital sequence where the young private died. I did it anyway, and it wasn't bad, but I could have done it bet
ter, or found a hook that could have made it more effective.
Bert Granet commented that he thought Rod was a frustrated actor.
Well, I don't know how frustrated he was, he
Director Richard Bare works with the crew during scenes in the jungle set. Seen on the right is actor William Phillips.
was very good. There was much more colle
giality in those days. You used to go on other people's sets and see how people worked. But The Twilight Zone came at the end of that era.
The people who worked in the industry of the time were still veterans of this kind of thing, and like I say, there were no egos, unlike today.
I don't know whether Rod could have func
tioned in raday's industrial age. A lot of
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