OBITUARIES : Whitfield Connor; Longtime Actor Who Became Producer

Whitfield Connor, a Broadway and radio actor who became a theatrical producer in Denver two decades ago, died Saturday in a Norwalk, Conn., hospital. He was 71 and had undergone stomach surgery.

Connor, executive producer of the Elitch Theater in Denver since 1965, started in radio in the 1930s and was heard regularly as Frank Chase on “The Romance of Helen Trent,” as Harry Davis on “When a Girl Marries” and as a featured player on Jack Webb’s old “Pete Kelly’s Blues.”

In 1945 he made his Broadway debut as Horatio in a production of “Hamlet” and by 1948 had won his first theatrical award, a Theater World prize for his portrayal of Macduff in “Macbeth,” starring Michael Redgrave.

In the 1950s and ‘60s he was on Broadway in “Lunatics and Lovers,” “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” “The Disenchanted,” “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer” and other plays.

His films ranged from “Tap Toots” in 1948 to “Butterfield 8” in 1960, and he was seen often on television in “Omnibus,” “Studio One” and “The Guiding Light.” He also did commercials for Gulf Oil Corp.