Date of Birth : Sep 17th 1930
American actor, best known for his roles in Santa Claus: The Movie and The Big Lebowski.
Known mainly as a character actor, Huddleston starred in the title role of 1985’s big-budget film Santa Claus: The Movie, which featured a top-billed Dudley Moore as an elf.
Huddleston’s first major role came in the 1968 drama A Lovely Way to Die. Shortly afterward the actor became a frequent guest star on several of the leading television series of the 1960s and 1970s, among them, Adam-12, Then Came Bronson, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, Bonanza, Cannon, McMillan and Wife, The Waltons, The Rookies, Medical Center, Kung Fu, Emergency!, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Police Woman, Hawaii Five-O, Sanford and Son and The Rockford Files. Among Huddleston’s notable feature film credits prior to Santa Claus: The Movie are his co-starring roles in Blazing Saddles (1974); Billy Two Hats (1974); Breakheart Pass (1975); The Greatest (1977); The World’s Greatest Lover (1977); and Smokey and the Bandit II (1980).
Huddleston resumed his television career with roles in various television movies, among them Heat Wave! (1974); The Oregon Trail (1976); Shark Kill (1976); Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid (1978); Family Reunion (1981); Computercide (1982); and M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (1983). For much of the 1980s, Huddleston also starred in a series of television commercials for the Citrus Hill brand of orange juice. Huddleston’s post-Santa Claus career has found him making occasional co-starring roles, in Spot Marks the X (1986); Frantic (1988); Life with Mikey (1993); The Big Lebowski (1998); and G-Men from Hell (2000). Later, he also had a recurring role as Grandpa “Gramps” Albert in The Wonder Years (1988–1993). His appearance as Benjamin Franklin in a Boston stage production of 1776 is referenced in the book Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell.
CAREER
Santa Claus The Movie ( 1985 )
