Free-spirited actor Orson Bean dies at 91 in traffic accident

Orson Bean was killed in a traffic accident Friday in California. He was 91.

Orson Bean, the free-spirited television, stage and film comedian who stepped out of his storybook life to found a progressive school, move to Australia, give away his possessions and wander around a turbulent America in the 1970s as a lateblooming hippie, was killed in a traffic accident Friday in Venice, Calif. He was 91.

Early in his career, in the1950s and ’60s, Bean, a subtle comic who looked like a naive farm boy, was ubiquitous on TV. He popped up on all the networks as an ad-libbing game show panelist (a mainstay on “To Tell the Truth”), a frequent guest of Jack Paar and Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show” and a regular on drama shows.

He also starred on and off Broadway, made films, founded a society of Laurel and Hardy aficionados, amassed a fortune and was blacklisted briefly as a suspected Communist.

In 1964, captivated by a progressive-education theory, he created a small school in Manhattan, the 15th Street School, that made classes and most rules optional, letting children pretty much do as they pleased.

But he felt overwhelmed by the trappings of success and by turmoil in a nation caught up in conflicts over the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the assassinations of leaders and a political drift to the right.

Believing that America’s generals were planning an imminent coup d’état, Bean abandoned his thriving career and moved his family to Australia in 1970. He returned in 1971 and, for years, led a nomadic life as an aging hippie and self-described househusband, casting off material possessions in a quest for self-realization.

By 1980, he was bored with inactivity. Moving back into the public spotlight, he reappeared in TV movies, soap operas, game shows and episodic series. Over the next three decades, he took recurring roles in “Murder, She Wrote,” “Normal, Ohio” and “Desperate Housewives.” He also appeared in many movies, notably “Being John Malkovich” in 1999.

Although he eventually performed in about 50 TV series and 30 films, he may be best remembered for his appearances on early game shows.