Percy Helton

Percy Alfred Helton (January 31, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was one of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood of the 1950s. Career A Manhattan native, Helton began acting at the age of two, appearing in vaudeville acts with his British-born father William Alfred "Alf" Helton. He was a cast member in the Broadway production of Julie BonBon (1906). Helton performed in stock theater and in other Broadway plays. Helton joined the United States Army in World War I. Deployed to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his duty with the 77th Infantry Division's 305th Field Artillery. A change in his voice altered Helton's career. He remained in acting but chiefly as a character actor in a wide range of films and television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. Among those programs were three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Asa Cooperman in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Pathetic Patient", as a pawn broker in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Torrid Tapestry" and as a hotel clerk in the 1965 episode "The Case of the Careless Kitten."