Ray Walston Transcends ‘Martian’ in Filming ‘Of Mice and Men’

For a lot of people, Ray Walston will always be Uncle Martin.

“It took me a while to get used to it,” Walston says of his enduring popularity as Bill Bixby’s extraterrestrial “uncle”--complete with pop-up antennae and magical powers--in the 1963-66 TV series “My Favorite Martian.” On the streets of Los Angeles, in Spain, in Malta and even behind the Iron Curtain, he says, “People point at me, ask me crazy questions. I thought it would go away, never last. But the power of TV is mind-boggling.”

Before coming to Hollywood in 1957, Walston made a big splash on the stage as Luther Billis in “South Pacific” and the Devil in “Damn Yankees,” for which he won a Tony Award. Later, he reprised both roles on film--and also appeared in the movies “The Apartment,” “The Sting,” “Popeye” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Now he’s co-starring as the elderly ranch hand Candy in Gary Sinise’s film version of “Of Mice and Men.”

The Louisiana native, 67, (who has a daughter and two grandchildren with his wife, Ruth) began his transformation to the character early on in the audition process.

“I memorized the script, so I wouldn’t have to wear my horn-rim glasses,” he says. “And I went to a beauty parlor, had my hair--which is lightly flecked with gray--bleached white.” He thinks the experience probably spoiled him for future work. “After working on John Steinbeck’s wonderful dialogue,” he says with a sigh, “you look at some of these TV shows and say, ‘What are these words?’ ”

One show he finds “far above average” is CBS’ “Picket Fences”--and, not coincidentally, he’s got a recurring role on the new series playing the town judge. But it’s “Of Mice and Men” that he hopes will finally shake loose his decades-long identification as Uncle Martin. “Entertainment carries several curses--and that’s one of them,” the actor says. “If it involves something people really like, you might as well give it up.”