Peter Donald

Peter Donald (June 6, 1918 – April 20, 1979) was a British-born actor who worked in American radio and television. He has been called "one of radio's great dialecticians."

Early years Donald was born in Bristol, England, in 1918. His father (a comedian) and mother (a singer) were performers in Vaudeville. He became an announcer on CBS in 1931. In 1952, Donald served as host of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club for six weeks while McNeill was away.

Stage Donald appeared on Broadway in Bitter Sweet (1929–1930) and Give Me Yesterday (1931).

Television Donald was the host of two early television series, The Ad-Libbers (1951) and Masquerade Party (1954–1956), and he made numerous TV guest appearances as a comedian (The Colgate Comedy Hour, The NBC Comedy Hour) and panelist (Pantomime Quiz, What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth). His TV appearances as an actor included Prize Performance (1950) and ABC Showcase (1950). He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1962, and one of his last TV appearances was on the daytime panel show Get the Message in 1964.

In the early 1950s, he lived in Manhattan on the south side of 58th Street between 7th Avenue and Broadway.

He hosted the Texaco Star Theater on the NBC television network on September 14, 1948. At the show's closing he announced that Milton Berle would commence hosting on the next week's show & Berle momentarily appears. In addition to Donald's delightful stories, the show's highlight is Sid Caesar's tour de force performance of his WWII bombing parody skit from the 1946 film Tars and Spars.

Writing Donald wrote "plays, satirical sketches, and song lyrics." )

Personal life Donald was married to Jo Janis, an actress in radio.