Biography

Ed Nelson

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Born
December 21, 1928 · New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Died
August 9, 2014 · Greensboro, North Carolina, USA (congestive heart failure)
Birth name
Edwin Stafford Nelson
Nickname
- Edward Stafford Nelson
Height
6′ (1.83 m)

Ed Nelson was aiming for a career in the legal profession until he caught the acting bug during his second year of college. In 1952, he headed off to New York City, where he studied direction and production at the School of Radio Technique. He returned to his native New Orleans where he worked as an assistant director at WDSU-TV; he also narrated (and sometimes wrote) episodes of the New Orleans-made TV series N.O.P.D. (1955) with Stacy Harris. Nelson made the acquaintance of Roger Corman when the maverick movie-maker came to Louisiana to shoot the feature Swamp Women (1956); Nelson says he did "everything" on the picture, from playing a part and working as a location manager to wrestling an alligator(!). Nelson worked in many other Corman movies on Corman's Hollywood home turf, including Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), where Nelson played the crab. In later years, Nelson became one of TV's hottest stars via the nighttime soap opera Peyton Place (1964).
- IMDb mini biography by: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>

In the 1950s he became a member of Roger Corman's unofficial stock company. Like other members of the group, he would do a variety of jobs in addition to acting.
He and Barbara Parkins were the only two actors who appeared in the first episode of Peyton Place (1964) in 1964 and the final episode in 1969. They were the only stars who received screen credit for every episode (although not necessarily appearing in every episode) during the series' five-year run.
In July 2005 he appeared as a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, NC, along with Ty Hardin, Donna Douglas, Richard Anderson, Elena Verdugo, Adrian Brian, Henry Darrow and Jo Morrow.
Despite playing Harry S. Truman in a one-man touring production of "Give 'Em Hell, Harry", he was a Republican.
Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book "Attack of the Monster Movie Makers" (McFarland & Co., 1994).

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