Herb Vigran: the character actor, raised here from sixteen

Born 5 June 1910 — died 29 November 1986

The tie, and a conflict carried: Herb Vigran's birthplace is given two ways in the record. His obituaries and the standard references make him a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, born June 5, 1910, whose family moved to Fort Wayne when he was sixteen; he attended high school in Fort Wayne. IMDb and a tier of listing sites instead give Fort Wayne as the birthplace itself. The biographical index NNDB flags the split directly, noting that some sources list Fort Wayne, "where he attended high school." This entry follows the obituaries: the Fort Wayne tie is an upbringing from the age of sixteen, and it is printed at that strength.

The career: Vigran took a law degree at Indiana University in 1933 and passed the bar, then chose acting over practice. After Broadway work in the later 1930s he built his career in radio, performing in hundreds of broadcasts alongside Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Jimmy Durante, and then in pictures and television: more than 350 film and television appearances across a fifty-year career, 1934 to 1986. His was the face American audiences knew without the name — cops, bartenders, jurors, repairmen, judges — and comedy was half the trade: recurring turns as villains on Adventures of Superman, guest appearances on I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show, and a late turn on Bewitched in 1971–72, in the same series that had made his fellow Fort Wayne-raised contemporary Dick York. He died on November 29, 1986. Character acting is the unglamorous bulk of screen comedy, and Vigran is its Fort Wayne representative: not a headliner, and in this history not a footnote either.

Sources:

1. Herb Vigran, biographical record as carried by Wikipedia from his obituaries (Los Angeles Times; The New York Times) — Cincinnati birth on June 5, 1910, the move to Fort Wayne at sixteen, the Indiana University law degree of 1933, the Broadway years, and the death of November 29, 1986.
2. NNDB, "Herb Vigran" — the birthplace split noted expressly: Cincinnati in the main entry, with the note that some sources list Fort Wayne, where he attended high school; the Bewitched sergeant of 1971–72 among the television credits.
3. Radio Spirits, "Happy Birthday, Herb Vigran!" (June 5, 2021) — over 350 film and television appearances in the fifty-year career; the move to Fort Wayne at sixteen; the radio years.
4. IMDb, "Herb Vigran" — the Fort Wayne birthplace as the listing sites give it, carried here as the conflicting version; hundreds of radio shows with Benny, Hope, and Durante; the Adventures of Superman villains.