Finding Doctor Bellows

It wasn't even a contest

by Brett White

The role of perpetually confounded NASA psychiatrist Dr. Alfred E. Bellows seemed tailor made for Hayden Rorke. After all, he’d spent the past 15 years playing authority figures like doctors, teachers, businessmen — even a space captain in short shorts (we will never forget Project Moonbase). Hayden, who continued to be booked and blessed even as a man in his mid-50s, no doubt saw himself in the part, and it had been six years since his last series regular role on a TV show. He went out for it, along with a lot of other actors who somehow didn't realize that the perfect Dr. Bellows already existed in the form of Hayden Rorke.

Hayden’s competition doesn't really seem like competition in retrospect. Jack Warden (Juror #7 from 1957’s 12 Angry Men) auditioned for Bellows. According to Sheldon’s list, Herb Anderson (the aw shucks dad from Dennis the Menace) was "too soft for Bellows"; George Ives (Mr. Roberts) read for Bellows but wasn’t interested; Laugh-In writer Digby Wolfe has a big ol’ “PASS” by his name; Peter Hobbs (Barney Miller) read for Bellows, and “GN knows” him; and then there’s Hayden.

The row second-from-the-top on page 2 reads, “HAYDEN RORKE [underlined], SS and GN met and read for Bellows, Very interested, AGENT: BARNES.” Hayden clearly made an impression, what with his already extensive filmography and his skill at playing characters with gravitas and warmth. Bellows was, after all, the trickiest Jeannie character to perform. The other three — the sweet and mischievous genie, the harried master, the snarky Lothario — have appeal built into their character descriptions. Bellows, though? He’s a comedic antagonist who’s never in on the joke, always a step behind, and consistently being fooled. Play him too clueless and he’s a Gladys Kravitz. Play him too stern and he’s a Mr. Wilson. Hayden could thread the needle and make a character who is essentially the spoilsport into a charming, endearing man. 

There’s also the undeniable fact that Hayden knew Jeannie director Gene Nelson from singing and dancing their way through World War II — a fact that probably helped seal the deal. Hayden was, after all, an expert at forging and keeping connections. Every friend he made was a friend for life, according to his niece-in-law Pati Rorke. “That's how Bill [Hayden] was. If he got a connection, he kept the connection, and he used the connections. He would catapult that into somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody and he’d end up with parts that way.”

Nelson wasn’t the only person impressed with Hayden. Casting director Eddie Foy III later called Hayden a “wonderful actor,” and Sheldon remained enchanted by Hayden for decades. Sheldon didn't write Bellows with Hayden in mind, but he definitely knew that the two were one and the same. They were both polite, proper, brilliant — the only difference between actor and character was that Bellows had a wife and Hayden had a husband.

And unlike a lot of gay actors at the time, Hayden wouldn’t even try to keep his work life separated from his personal life.