Walker Edmiston

Walker Edmiston (February 6, 1926 – February 15, 2007) was an American actor and puppeteer. Early years Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Edmiston participated in local theater productions during his high school years. He later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. Career In the 1950s, Edmiston worked on puppet shows on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles. His voice was heard on the puppet programs The Buffalo Billy Show and Time for Beany and on Dumbo's Circus, which included live action and animation. He was also a member of the cast of Lidsville and voiced characters on Pandemonium. He appeared in character roles on several TV programs during the 1950s through the '70s, including the Star Trek episode The Corbomite Maneuver as the voice of Balok. He also appeared in Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Knots Landing, Adam-12, The Bob Newhart Show and The Dukes of Hazzard. He also played a character based on "Chester" in "Gun-Shy," the Maverick parody of Gunsmoke starring James Garner. In 1966, Edmiston had a recurring role as Regan in the short-lived ABC comedy western series The Rounders with co-stars Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne, and Chill Wills. Edmiston also did many television commercials and cartoon character voices, such as "Ernie the Keebler Elf" in hundreds of commercials for the cookie products of the Keebler Company, and voices for characters on H.R. Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos from the studios of Sid and Marty Krofft, as well as a recurring role as Enik the Altrusian on that studio's Land of the Lost. He also did many character voices on the Focus on the Family radio program, Adventures in Odyssey, in which he played the beloved Tom Riley and the infamous Bart Rathbone (and numerous other one-shot characters), for more than twenty years. At times the two characters would argue; however, Edmiston would require little redubbing or editing. He simply switched between the two characters without pause. After his death in 2007, the character of Riley was retired from the show, while Rathbone would make one more appearance (voiced by Robert Easton) before subsequently being written out as well.