Vernon Weddle

Vernon Weddle
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Portrays:	James
Date of Birth:	August 24,1935
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month!
Age:	90
Nationality:	USA
Related Media
		@ BW Media
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IMDb profile

Vernon Weddle (born Vernon Mansfield Weddle Jr., August 24, 1935) is an American actor who portrayed Sergeant James, billed on screen as "1st Cop," in the Galactica 1980 episode "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I".

Career

Early life and education

He was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the son of Vernon M. Weddle Sr. and Grace G. Weddle. Weddle moved to Texas with his family at the age of thirteen. He attended Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas, and graduated in the top ten percent of his class from the University of Texas at Austin in 1958. He then took a position as actor-in-residence and instructor in theatre arts at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.

Stage career

In 1961, Weddle and his wife. Geraldine "Gerri" Weddle née Peeples, premiered Guidebook to Bigamy, a comedy they co-wrote, at the Okoboji Summer Theatre in Iowa. Weddle wrote the dialogue in longhand and his wife handled the plotting. The finished script was their ninth complete draft, the product of roughly 2,000 pages written over the preceding year. The play centers on a psychologist, Charles Cook, who takes multiple wives to research his own theories on marriage "in the pure sense of the word." Weddle played Cook opposite Anita Stewart as his neglected wife, with Miles Shearer, William C. Cragen, and Virginia True in supporting roles. Stage and screen actor Tom Ewell and Broadway producer Arthur Penn both requested copies of the script to study, though neither appeared in the Okoboji production.

By 1966, Weddle had joined the summer repertory program at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, as its first visiting artist-in-residence, continuing his appointment at Stephens College during the academic year. In May 1967, he starred in Take Her, She's Mine at the Stephens Playhouse, playing one of the parents opposite Pamela Freihofer in the Phoebe and Henry Ephron comedy. He returned to Allan Hancock College for a third summer residency in 1968, when he played Sir Peter Teazle in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal, staged as the college's new thrust-stage theatre opened. That same summer, fellow actor Kirk Mee joined the Hancock program. Both had previously worked with actor Monte Markham at Stephens College in 1960.

Discussing that season's box-office results, Weddle noted that the Greek tragedy Oedipus had proven unexpectedly popular with Hancock audiences.

It reaffirms my faith that people are attracted to good drama and good theatre. It is really a tribute to the people of this community that they support the theatre so well.

Screen career

Weddle worked as a television and film character actor from the 1970s through 1990, often cast as doctors, officials, and other authority figures.

He appeared in three productions from Glen A. Larson in addition to Galactica 1980. On B.J. and the Bear he played Delwood P. Manners in two second-season episodes, "Cain's Cruiser" (1979) and "The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful" (1980). He guest-starred in three episodes of Quincy, M.E. between 1977 and 1980, as Mr. Carew, Hal Peters, and Peter Harper. He also appeared as Dr. Moray in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Mark of the Saurian" (1981).

In feature films, Weddle played Reverend Hubbard in Norma Rae (1979) and General Washburne in Short Circuit (1986). On Simon & Simon he appeared in three episodes between 1982 and 1985 in separate roles. His final credited screen role was a 1990 episode of Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

Personal life

Weddle met his future wife, Gerri, while both were students at Lon Morris, where they appeared together in the musical Roberta. Gerri Weddle, born Geraldine Peeples on November 5, 1936, in Dallas, Texas, was the daughter of Cecil E. Peeples and Gladys (Labenski) Peeples. Her father later served as president of Lon Morris Junior College. She graduated cum laude from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, in 1956. The couple had two sons, Richard and Kirk, and co-wrote Guidebook to Bigamy together (see: Stage career).

By 1970, Weddle's parents were living in Texas City, Texas, where his sister, Laura Hale, also resided.

References