Hayden Rorke: 7 Facts About Dr. Bellows from 'I Dream of Jeannie'

If they handed out an Emmy Award for Most Put-Upon Performance, it would have undoubtedly gone to Hayden Rorke for his portrayal of Dr. Alfred Bellows on the 1965 to 1970 fantasy sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. This poor fellow was a NASA psychiatrist, a professional in every sense of the word, who was simply incapable of explaining the things that were happening to and around Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) as he was unaware that the beautiful blonde, Jeannie (Barbara Eden), was actually a genie constantly using magic to manipulate reality.

Born William Henry Rorke on October 23, 1910 in Brooklyn , New York, his grandfather was the well-known American producer William R. Hayden, while his mother — Margaret Hayden Rorke — was a stage actress who had made her debut opposite Chauncey Olcott in a production of Rose of Athlone.

Taking his stage name from her maiden one, Hayden Rorke first studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and started performing on stage in the 1930s as a part of the Hampden Theatrical Company. Enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II, he made his film debut in the Ronald Reagan musical This is the Army.

To learn more about Hayden Rorke, check out the following facts.

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1. Cutting school led to the start of his acting career

Hayden Rorke had an extensive education, having attended the Brooklyn Preparatory School, Villanova College, the University of Pennsylvania and the aforementioned American Academy of Dramatic Arts. While attending the latter, one afternoon he elected to cut class so that he could audition for a New York stage production of If Booth Had Missed. Accepted, he signed the contract and made his Broadway debut as Major Rathbone, an aide to President Lincoln.

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2. He was successful but unknown in his early days

On January 13, 1942, the Evening Courier carried an item on the actor, noting, "Hayden Rorke ... can boast of one record which probably no other actor on the stage today had accomplished. Since his debut in The Puritan some nine years ago, and among the 15 Broadway productions in which he has appeared, he has understudied by actual count 1312 performances in seven different productions without getting a chance to enact one of the roles. But during those seven seasons he averaged 31 working weeks a year, which also set a record."

3. Five years later, things had really begun to change

Flash forward to July 9, 1947, and this bit from The Windsor Star: "Hayden Rorke spent three years in a globe-girdling tour with Irving Berlin's This is the Army. Before putting on khaki, he played with Walter Hampden in Cyrano de Bergerac and Richelieu, with Ruth Chatterton in Pygmalion, with Ann Corio in White Cargo and with Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, to name a few. Now Mr. Rorke is at the Music Hall in Detroit, giving a brilliant performance as the wolfish bookman in Dream Girl, which stars Lucille Ball."

4. He had success in movies and television

In 1949, Hayden Rorke had gone to Hollywood and between an uncredited role in that year's Lust for Gold and 1964's The Night Walker, he appeared in about 50 films. On television there were a dozen or so guest appearances, including on I Love Lucy (which reunited him with Lucille Ball), The Twilight Zone ("A Penny for Your Thoughts," appearing alongside future Bewitched star Dick York) and The Beverly Hillbillies. He was also a regular on the 1957 series Mr. Adams and Eve, playing a film agent named Steve.

5. Dr. Bellows and I Dream of Jeannie

From 1965 to 1970, Rorke took on his only other regular television role in the form of Dr. Alfred Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie. As the NASA psychiatrist, week-after-week he would try and figure out what was "wrong" with Tony Nelson that made him act so oddly, and why so many strange things seemed to happen around him. Needless to say, Jeannie's antics oftentimes made Bellows seem out of his mind — not the best position for a psychiatrist to be put in.

"I've actually had letters from several psychiatrists who've told me that I'm a credit to the profession," he differed to The Cincinnati Post on December 29, 1966. "One even wrote, tongue-in-cheek, he wouldn't mind being psychoanalyzed by me. At first I thought the audience for the show would be limited to youngsters, from teenagers on down, but I found out that the show is just as popular with adults. Most adults want to escape. What Barbara [Eden] does as a genie convinces adults that escape is within reach. It's part of the endless pursuit for release and change from the mundane."

6. His acting life post-Jeannie

There's no question that Rorke suffered from typecasting following the end of I Dream of Jeannie — who could ever look at him and not think of Dr. Bellows? — but he pushed forward, making guest appearances on Cannon and The Love Boat, appearing in the film The Barefoot Executive (1971) and television miniseries The Moneychangers (1976), and, finally, reprising the role of Dr. Bellows in the TV movie I Dream of Jeannie ... Fifteen Years Later (1985).

In the early 1980s there would be several stage appearances, including The Pleasure of His Company with Joan Caulfield at the old Showboat Dinner Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a St. Louis, Missouri production of Mr. Roberts.

7. 'Unashamedly Gay'

When she wrote her autobiography Jeannie Out of the Bottle, Barbara Eden noted that Hayden Rorke was "unashamedly gay. He and his partner, Justus Addiss, lived together for many years in Studio City, along with their menagerie of dogs."

Television critic Brett White, who has been working on a biography of the actor, writes of Rorke and Addiss at haydenrorke.com, "[They] lived together for 40 years, stage managing through World War II, moving to Hollywood at the height of McCarthyism and surviving one chaotic sitcom run. Their love story upends what we know about gay life in the 20th century. Hayden didn't squash tabloid rumors like Rock Hudson, he didn't obfuscate his sexuality behind multiple dead wives like Raymond Burr, and he didn't push everyone away with drunken tirades like Paul Lynde. He persevered, never compromising his unashamedly gay self."

Hayden Rorke died of multiple myeloma on August 19, 1987 at the age of 76.

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