Philip Abbott

Philip Abbott (March 20, 1924 – February 23, 1998) was an American character actor. He appeared in several films and numerous television series, including a lead role as Arthur Ward in the crime series The F.B.I. Abbott was also the founder of Theatre West in Los Angeles.

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Abbott attended Fordham University in New York City, and later studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He served in the United States Army during World War II.

Abbott was a secondary lead in several films of the 1950s and 1960s, including Miracle of the White Stallions (1963).

He made more than one hundred guest appearances on various television series from 1952 to 1995, including NBC's Justice about the Legal Aid Society of New York and The Eleventh Hour, a medical drama about psychiatry. He appeared on the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure and The Lloyd Bridges Show. He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason: in 1961 he played journalist Edmond Aitken in "The Case of the Envious Editor," and in 1965 he played Harry Grant in "The Case of the Wrongful Writ." He guest starred on Jack Lord's ABC series, Stoney Burke, and in Dennis Weaver's NBC sitcom, Kentucky Jones, in the episode "The Music Kids Make". In 1986 he portrayed Grant Stevens in the daytime soap The Young and the Restless.

Abbott is best remembered as Assistant Director Arthur Ward on the ABC series, The F.B.I., with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., in the starring role as Inspector Lewis Erskine.

Abbott died in 1998 of cancer in Tarzana, California. He is interred at the Roman Catholic San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles.