Editing William Bendix (section)

===Radio and television===
Bendix's appearance in the [[Hal Roach]]-produced film ''[[The McGuerins from Brooklyn]]'' (1942), playing a rugged blue-collar man, led to his best-remembered role. Producer and creator [[Irving Brecher]] saw Bendix as the perfect personification of Chester A. Riley, giving a second chance to a show whose audition failed when the sponsor spurned [[Groucho Marx]] for the lead. With Bendix stumbling, bumbling, and skating almost perpetually on thin ice, stretching the patience of his otherwise loving wife and children, ''[[The Life of Riley]]'' was a radio hit from 1944 through 1951, and Bendix brought an adaptation of the film version to ''[[Lux Radio Theatre]]''.{{Citation needed |date=July 2024}}

The show began as a proposed Groucho Marx radio series, ''The Flotsam Family'', but the sponsor balked at what would have been essentially a straight head-of-household role for the comedian. Then creator and producer Irving Brecher saw Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in ''The McGuerins from Brooklyn''. Brecher stated, "He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. I thought, This guy could play it. He'd made a few films, like ''Lifeboat'', but he was not a name. So I took ''The Flotsam Family'' script, revised it, made it a Brooklyn Family, took out the flippancies and made it more meat-and-potatoes, and thought of a new title, ''The Life of Riley''. Bendix's delivery and the spin he put on his lines made it work." The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. His frequent exclamation of indignation{{snd}}"What a revoltin' development this is!"{{snd}}became one of the catchphrases of the 1940s. It was later reused by Benjamin J. Grimm of the [[Fantastic Four]].{{Citation needed |date=July 2024}}

[[File:Life of riley 1957.JPG|thumb|Bendix as Riley with [[Sterling Holloway]], 1957]]
Bendix was not able to play the role on television because of a contracted film commitment. The part instead went to [[Jackie Gleason]] and aired a single season beginning in October 1949. Despite winning an [[Emmy]] award, the show was canceled, in part because Gleason was less acceptable as Riley, since Bendix had been so identified with the part on radio. In 1953, Bendix became available for a new television version, and this time the show was a hit. The second television version of ''The Life of Riley'' ran from 1953 to 1958, long enough for Riley to become a grandfather.{{Citation needed |date=July 2024}}

On the 1952 television program ''[[This Is Your Life (American franchise)|This Is Your Life]]'', hosted by [[Ralph Edwards]], Bendix was claimed to be a descendant of the 19th-century composer [[Felix Mendelssohn]].

Bendix played the lead in [[Rod Serling]]'s "[[The Time Element]]" (1958), a time-travel adventure episode about a man who travels back to 1941 and unsuccessfully tries to warn everyone in Honolulu about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor; the program's success opened the doors for Serling's later series ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''. Bendix also appeared on ''[[The Ford Show|The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford]]'' (also 1958). He returned for a second appearance on October 1, 1959, the fourth-season premiere of the series, in which he and [[Tennessee Ernie Ford]] performed a comedy skit about a safari.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ernieford.com/FORDSHOW-SEASON4.html|title=Ford Show&nbsp;– Season 4|website=ernieford.com|access-date=November 21, 2010|archive-date=June 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609093959/http://www.ernieford.com/FORDSHOW-SEASON4.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In NBC's ''[[Wagon Train]]'' ("Around the Horn", 1958), Bendix played the captain of a sailing cargo ship who shanghaied Major Adams ([[Ward Bond]]), Bill Hawks ([[Terry Wilson (actor)|Terry Wilson]]) and Charlie Wooster ([[Frank McGrath (actor)|Frank McGrath]]), forcing them to work on his ship. On November 16, 1959, Bendix appeared on NBC's color broadcast of ''[[The Steve Allen Show|The Steve Allen Plymouth Show]]'' with [[Jack Kerouac]]. A color videotape of the broadcast survives. Bendix starred in all 17 episodes of the NBC [[Westerns on television|Western series]] ''[[Overland Trail (TV series)|Overland Trail]]'' (1960) in the role of Frederick Thomas "Fred" Kelly. He guest-starred in an episode of ''[[Mister Ed]]'' ("Pine Lake Lodge", 1961) which served as a [[backdoor pilot]] for a proposed sitcom that was not picked up.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIiXDwAAQBAJ&q=mister+ed+William+bendix&pg=PT29|title=Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Comedy Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series|first=Richard|last=Irvin|date=January 26, 2016 |publisher=BearManor Media|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In the fall of 1964, an American situation comedy starring Bendix and [[Martha Raye]] was scheduled to air on CBS, but due to Bendix's shaky health, the network decided not to air the program. This action resulted in a lawsuit from Bendix for $2.658&nbsp;million in May, with the actor stating that the decision hurt his career and that he was in excellent health and could perform all of the requirements of the agreement. The case was settled out of court. Bendix died on December 14, 1964, of complications from pneumonia.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-first=John B.|editor1-last=Manbeck|editor2-first=Robert|editor2-last=Singer|title=The Brooklyn Film: Essays in the History of Filmmaking|page=26|date=2002|publisher=McFarland & Co.|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0786414055|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HH1s4R3d99oC&q=%22Bill+and+Martha%22+bendix&pg=PA26}}</ref>