James Olson Dies: ‘Rachel, Rachel’, ‘The Andromeda Strain’ Actor Was 91

Greg Evans
·3 min read
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James Olson, who starred opposite Joanne Woodward in 1968’s Rachel, Rachel, played a surgeon investigating a deadly alien organism in the 1971 sci-fi classic The Andromeda Strain and survived the notorious Broadway flop Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring Mary Tyler Moore that closed before it opened in 1966, has died. He was 91.

His April 17 death at his home in Malibu was reported by the Malibu Times.

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A familiar character on television and in film for four decades before retiring in 1990, Olson received his first national exposure in the title role of Kraft Theatre‘s 1956 TV installment The Life of Mickey Mantle, following up that high-profile performance with guest appearances throughout the decade and into the 1960s among them Robert Montgomery Presents, Have Gun – Will Travel, Playhouse 90, Route 66, The Defenders and The Magical World of Disney.

His breakthrough film role came in 1968 with Rachel, Rachel, an Oscar-nominated drama produced and directed by Paul Newman starring Newman’s wife Joanne Woodward as a sexually repressed 35-year-old schoolteacher. Olson played the cad who woos and then rejects Woodward’s character.

Following Rachel, Rachel, Olson became a busy and recognizable presence on episodic television throughout the 1990s, guest starring in, among others, The Virginian, Medical Center, Columbo, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Rookies, The F.B.I., Marcus Welby, M.D., Mannix, Kung Fu, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, Little House on the Prairie, Hawaii Five-0 and, his final credit in 1990, Murder, She Wrote. While his roles tended to fall in dramatic series, he recurred as a senator for a several-episode arc on the Bea Arthur sitcom Maude in 1975.

Paula Kelly, James Olson, ‘The Andromeda Strain’ (1971) - Credit: Everett Collection
Paula Kelly, James Olson, ‘The Andromeda Strain’ (1971) - Credit: Everett Collection

Everett Collection

The same year he appeared in The Andromeda Strain, Olson also co-starred in Wild Rovers, a poorly received Blake Edwards Western starring William Holden and Ryan O’Neal.

In 1981, Olson appeared as Father in Miloš Forman’s all-star film adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel Ragtime, appearing alongside James Cagney, Mary Steenburgen, Howard Rollins and many more. The following year, Olson played the priest Father Adamsky, who attempts to drive out evil in Amityville II: The Possession.

Born in Evanston, IL, Olson graduated from Northwestern University and, after serving in the U.S. Army, settled in New York to study in Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio. He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived 1955 play The Young and Beautiful, and in 1958 appeared in Archibald MacLeish’s groundbreaking avant-garde biblical allegory J.B., directed by Elia Kazan. Subsequent stage credits include The Sin of Pat Muldoon, Romulus, The Chinese Prime Minister, The Three Sisters, Tennessee Williams’ Slapstick Tragedy and, in 1967, his final Broadway production Of Love Remembered, directed by Burgess Meredith.

Olson entered into Broadway lore as an original cast member of the ill-fated Breakfast at Tiffany’s, one of Broadway’s legendary failures. Originally titled Holly Golightly, the production was closed by producer David Merrick before its December 26, 1966, opening night, with the headline-making Merrick taking out an ad in The New York Times stating he was closing the show “rather than subject the drama critics and the public to an excruciatingly boring evening,” thus ensuring the production a place in Broadway history.

Olson is survived by nieces Susan Baker and Robin Olson, nephew David James Olson, their spouses and three grandnephews.

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