Phillips Tead

Who was Phillips Tead?

Phillips Tead, sometimes billed as Phil Tead, was an American character actor in film and television.

Among his many roles he might be best remembered as the semi-recurring character "Professor Pepperwinkle", an eccentric inventor in several of the color episodes of the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman. His appearances included the final episode, "All That Glitters". His first appearance had been as a shopkeeper named Mr. Willy, a similarly eccentric character.

One visible early role is an appearance in Horse Feathers, the 1932 Marx Brothers comedy, in which he plays a radio play-by-play announcer at the film's climactic college football game.

His film career began in silent pictures in 1914 and ran some 40 years. In the early 1950s he turned his attention primarily to television, appearing in various western series as well as Superman.

Tead's final television work came in several episodes of the western series, The Lawman, during 1958-1959. He appeared as a storekeeper, as with his early Superman appearance.