Joseph Kearns
- Category : 1907-births
- Type : GE
- Profile : 4/6 - Opportunistic / Role Model
- Definition : Triple Split
- Incarnation Cross : RAX Explanation 1
Biography
American actor, best remembered for his role as George Wilson ("Mr. Wilson") in the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death in 1962, and for providing the voice of the Doorknob in the animated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland.
Kearns moved with his family to California when he was very young. His mother was Cordelia M. Kearns (née Peterson; 1877–1962), a concert pianist, from whom Kearns derived his love of music. His acting career began in 1916 when he joined "The Rising Generation", a vaudeville troupe of eleven children that toured for 14 months.
Kearns began his acting career in radio in the 1930s (playing the Crazyquilt Dragon in the serial The Cinnamon Bear), becoming active during the 1940s in dozens of shows. On Suspense, he was almost a mainstay, heard regularly as the host "The Man in Black" in the early years, announcing many episodes in the later run, and playing supporting and occasional lead roles in hundreds of shows throughout the series' tenure in Hollywood, from judges to kindly old-timers to cowards. Kearns played Ed, the security guard for Jack Benny's underground money vault, on The Jack Benny Program.
Kearns made his film debut in Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951), appeared in other movies, and made his final film appearance as the crime photographer in Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
On television, Kearns reprised his radio roles on The Jack Benny Program and appeared in many more shows.
Kearns, who never married or had any children, died of a cerebral hemorrhage during the third season of Dennis the Menace. He died on 17 February 1962, five days after having turned 55.