Most impressionable and indelibly remembered as the sensitive,
cherubic-faced college student/boyfriend of
Liza Minnelli in
Pookie (1969),
actor Wendell Burton was born in Texas on July 21, 1947. When he
was only five, his father, an Air Force technical sergeant, was killed
in a plane crash in Washington state, where the family had relocated.
As a result his family returned to Texas in order to be near relatives.
While in high school the family moved once again, this time to the San
Francisco area. Following graduation, he majored in political science
at Somona State College and, after taking some public-speaking classes,
joined in a few campus stage productions.
By chance, and at the insistence of a friend, he auditioned for and won the title role in the
San Francisco production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." Fully
engaged by this early theater success, he continued his education
during the run of the show and transferred to San Francisco State where
he took classes in acting and directing.
Wendell was "discovered" during the show's run by "Sterile Cuckoo"
director Alan J. Pakula and chosen over
hundreds of more experienced film actors to play the coveted role of
Jerry Payne opposite Minnelli's Pookie Adams in the bittersweet campus
romance that became an unqualified hit. Exquisitely paired, he and
Minnelli are still identified with the movie's touching Oscar-nominated
song "Come Saturday Morning."
In order to avoid a fresh-off-the-bus
typecasting, Wendell took on the role of "Smitty" in the controversial
screen adaptation of
Menschen hinter Gittern (1971)
in which he played a naive young inmate who is raped shortly after
entering prison, and, by film's end, has degenerated into a sexual
predator himself. He counterbalanced this with a Hallmark TV adaptation
of his "Charlie Brown" musical. The small screen proved a viable medium
for the young rising actor in the early 70s with above-average roles in
the well-received mini-movies
Murder Once Removed (1971),
Go Ask Alice (1973) and
The Red Badge of Courage (1974).
He also played Dick Van Dyke and
Hope Lange's son for one episode on the
comedy star's "new" TV series in the 70s.
A soul-searcher by nature, Wendell questioned the direction of his life
and, after much travel and study, fully immersed himself in the
Christian religion in 1978. That same year he married and became the
father of a daughter, Haven, who is now an actress in New York, and
son, Adam, a San Francisco-based musician. Reminiscent of the
perennially boyish and now balding
Ron Howard in both mild-mannered
looks and open, easy-going temperament, his career began to subside
after a time due to the lack of quality acting opportunities offered,
the importance of turning down roles he deemed morally objectionable,
and ever-growing family responsibilities over the uncertainties of
gainful TV/movie employment
Wendell eventually taught acting for a time in Hollywood. In 1988, he
decided to pursue the business side of television and found work in ad
sales, eventually becoming the West Coast Director of Sales for the
Family Channel. In 1997 he and his family moved back to his home state
of Texas in order to help launch a local independent TV station in
Houston. The family eventually settled there.
Wendell served and found spiritual fulfillment as Director of Creative
Ministries for a Houston megachurch organization in association with Joel Osteen and the Lakewood Church. He particularly enjoyed overseeing drama, dance and
videography services for the various ministries and also pastors adult
singles. Diagnosed with brain cancer, he died on May 30, 2017, at age 69.
