Vince Edwards Biography

The youngest of the seven children of a Brooklyn contractor, Vince Edwards left vocational school when he won an athletic scholarship to Ohio State University. He subsequently gave up college to attend New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After working as a chorus boy in the Broadway musical High Button Shoes, Edwards fell under the spell of the then-fashionable "Method" school of acting: "whoever had the dirtiest outfit was top man on Broadway," he would later comment. Edwards tended to be cast on the basis of his physique rather than his acting ability in such films as Mr. Universe (1951) and Hiawatha (1952). After ten years of film roles of varying quality, Edwards was starred in the television series Ben Casey (1961-66), rapidly developing a reputation as "TV's surly surgeon." Toward the end of the Casey run, Edwards began dabbling in directing, an activity that he has pursued ever since. Later projects involving Vince Edwards have included the brief 1970 TV series Matt Lincoln, an attempt to establish himself as a nightclub singer, and a voiceover stint for the TV cartoon daily The Centurions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi