Clothed in anonymity, actors like John Breen are often overlooked by
movie and television audiences alike.
Breen started in films in the 1930s and worked steadily in movies
through the early 1950s.
Unfortunately for him, his short appearance and natural curly hair
didn't allow him to fall into the typical dinner party scenes in dramas
so much of his work was in the background as one of the local citizens,
courtroom spectators, or bar patrons.
Like many of his counterparts, by the 1950s, Breen found his way into
television and really excelled at it while still appearing in films in
the usual courtroom scenes. He managed to appear in many of the early
television shows dramas like Dangerous Assignment (1950), Screen Directors Playhouse (1955), and Superman - Retter in der Not (1952).
By the late 1950s he found a niche for himself doing television
westerns appearing in many television episodes as waiters, and just
your typical townsman working for the lower budget television companies
like ZIV and Four Star productions.
In the early 1960s his career was going strong and he found steady work
on Bonanza (1959) and Rauchende Colts (1955) while still managing to appear in other
westerns like Die Leute von der Shiloh Ranch (1962), Westlich von Santa Fe (1958), Big Valley (1965), and Der Marshall von Cimarron (1967), finally wrapping up his long career in 1968.
