Douglas Easley

Doug Easley, formerly known as Louis Douglas Easley (aka "Buddy") spent his formative years in Dyersburg, Tennessee. After high school he enrolled at the Goodman Theatre School of Drama in Chicago where he overcame his southern accent and embarked on a career in the theatre. Among his classmates at Goodman were Geraldine Page, Abe Vigoda, Louis Zorich, and Harvey Korman of "The Carol Burnett Show". After a three year enlistment in the navy during the Korean situation he moved to Milwaukee to live with a favorite aunt. He auditioned for and was accepted as a member of The Milwaukee Players where he performed in leading roles in eight of their productions over a period of three years. At the urging of his director Doug moved to New York in 1960 and immediately began to build a resume of Broadway and off-Broadway credits, working with such notable actors and directors as Burgess Meredith, Dame Judith Anderson, George Gaynes, Vinnette Carroll, Salome Jens, Beatrice Straight, Peter Boyle, Rob Marshall, Abe Vigoda, Swedish film star Ingrid Thulin, and the “Wicked Witch of the West”, Margaret Hamilton. For the next 40 years he was a steadily working actor, and spent most of his acting life on stages removed from the bright-light marquees of New York, where he impressed audiences and critics in regional theater productions across the United States in a wide variety of leading roles opposite such notable performers as Celeste Holm, Edie Adams, Howard Keel, Gene Barry, Kay Medford, Alan Jones, Larry Kert, Cyril Richard, Ginger Rogers, Milo O’Shea, Joan Caulfield, Barbara Eden, Eartha Kitt, Orson Bean, Sada Thompson, Henderson Forsythe, Patrice Munsel, Ruta Lee, Sam Levine, Rosemary Printz, Kitty Carlisle, and many other notable performers. One of his most memorable stage experiences is to have worked for and directed by the legendary George Abbott in a production of "Damn Yankees" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. Roles in which he has starred or has been featured in New York or in Regional theatres are the stand-by for all three of the male leads in "Of Love Remembered" (Broadway); Couchon in "The Lark", The King in "The Cave Dwellers", Governor Danforth in "The Crucible", Percival Browne in two different productions of "The Boyfriend", Don Pedro in "Much Ado About Nothing", Macbeth in "Macbeth", The Guard in "A Shadow of Heroes" (off-Broadway), both Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering in two separate productions of "My Fair Lady", King Arthur in "Camelot", Tony Wendice in "Dial M for Murder", Beauregard Burnside in seven different productions of "Mame", Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd in six different productions of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", Eddie Edwards in five different productions of "Forty Carats", Theseus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (off-Broadway), Goatherd in "Man and Superman", (off-Broadway), The Narrator in "Mary of Nijmegen" (off-Broadway), King Henry II in "The Lion In Winter", Georges in two productions of "La Cage aux Folles", Harry in "A Delicate Balance", Sir Lucius O'Trigger in "The Rivals"(off-Broadway), Mr. Snake in "The School for Scandal", The Poet in "A Musical Jubilee" (national tour), a Shakespearean actor in "Elizabeth the Queen" (City Center), the General in "Boogie Woogie Rumble of a Dream Deferred", (off-Broadway); Richard Hilliard in "Once More With Feeling", Lindsey Woolsey in "Mame", Prince deLong in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", Tyler Raburn in "Light Up the Sky", Lord Evelyn Oakley in "Anything Goes", Baron Von Schroeber in "Blossom Time", Harrison Howell in "Kiss Me Kate", J.B. Biggley in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", Maurice Koenig in "Social Security", Mr. Welch in "Damn Yankees", Senex in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", Clive Champion-Cheney in "The Circle", Professor Van Helsing in "Dracula", Mr. Bardolph in "Lettice and Lovage", Colonel Gilweather in "Something's Afoot", James Callifer in "The Potting Shed", Cosmo Constantine in "Call Me Madam", George Hay in "Moon Over Buffalo", and numerous off-Broadway showcase productions in New York. On television he has been featured in minor roles in the afternoon soap operas "Guiding Light", "One Life To Live", "Search For Tomorrow", "As The World Turns", and was a member of “Pine Valley” society for over 20 years opposite Susan Lucci in “All My Children”. He was featured in national t.v. commercials with Muhamed Ali (aka Cassius Clay), and Mickey Mantle. He once portrayed Chet Huntley in a skit on "The Jackie Gleason Show", and was a guest participant on the t.v. show "What's My Line" as country singer Brenda Lee's husband. He appeared in a brief role opposite Jennifer Aniston in the film “Picture Perfect”. Doug retired from the theatre in 1997.