Maurice Cass

Biography

Maurice Cass was born on October 12, 1884, in Vilnius, Lithuania (then Vilno, Russian Empire). He emigrated to the USA, and in his pursuit of an acting career, he began as announcer and comedian in New York. Cass had a pleasant face, a small body and a big voice. With his nearsightedness and his inevitable pince-nez adding weight to his intelligent face, Cass was destined to play professors, doctors, writers, and managers with his special brand of genial, slightly absent-minded officiousness. He started playing bit parts, often uncredited, and made a career as a character actor in more than 120 film and television productions. His best known work was Professor Newton, a supporting role in a series of space adventure movies made for TV and shown over the period from 1954 to 1956. Cass's snow-white haired Professor Newton could always be counted on to provide the scientific explanation for all the fantastic events that unfolded before the viewer. Professor Newton had his own observatory (which was filmed at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles) and although elderly, he would often accompany the astronauts on their adventurous space flights. Maurice Cass's character, Professor Newton, was replaced by Professor Mayberry upon Cass's death of a heart attack, at the age of 69, on June 8, 1954, in Hollywood, California.