Shep Houghton

Biography

Born George Shephard Houghton on June 4, 1914, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Shep is the youngest of two sons born to George Henry Houghton and Mabell Viola Shephard. Far from being born into show business, his father was an insurance company representative who moved his family to Hollywood for business reasons in 1927. As luck would have it, they rented a house on Bronson Avenue just two blocks from Paramount Studio's iron front gate, and not far from the Edwin Carreau studio. Picked off the street by an assistant producer, Shep's first work in the movie industry was in 1927 as a Mexican youngster in Carreau's production of Ramona, released in 1928. As a thirteen-year old he also worked in Emil Janning's The Last Command, and continued to work for director Josef von Sternberg in several subsequent pictures. He found movie work to his liking, and out of high school he worked through Central Casting for Mascot Productions, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Fox Film Corporation, and Warner Brother's, where he became a favorite in the Busby Berkeley musicals as a dancer and chorus singer. In 1935 he married Jane Rosily Kellog, his high school sweetheart. Together they had one child, Terrie Lynn, born on September 22, 1939. They were divorced in October, 1945. In 1946 he married Geraldine Farnum, daughter of featured actor Franklin Farnum. They had also one child, Peter William, born August 19, 1947. He and Gerry were divorced in 1948. Shep was a talent in television from its earliest days. He acted in many recurring roles, beginning with the Jack Benny Program in 1950. That show, and Shep's work in it, lasted until 1965. He worked on many programs through their entire runs, with the notable exception of the original Star Trek of 1966, in which he appeared in only the first three episodes. In addition to these productions, he worked on the I Love Lucy show from 1951 to 1957, and Wagon Train, Perry Mason, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Mr. Lucky, The Untouchables, and The Twilight Zone, all in the 1950s. The 1960s brought him steady work in My Three Sons, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Loretta Young Show, both The Lucille Ball Show and the renewed Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Hogan's Heroes, Mannix, and Marcus Welby. In the 1970s he worked on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Shep was a charter member of both SAG and SEG, and continued to work in both movies and television until his retirement in 1976. He and Mel Carter Houghton were married in 1975, and continue to live happily ever after. She lets him play golf very nearly every day.