Michael J. Pollard, a diminutive yet wispy-haired individual, was destined for typecasting due to his cherubic appearance, which often led to him being cast in impish or eccentric character roles. Born to a Polish ancestry bar manager father in Passaic, New Jersey, Pollard studied drama at the Actor's Studio, where he shared a class with a young Marilyn Monroe.
Pollard made his Broadway debut in November 1958 in "Comes the Day," alongside George C. Scott and Judith Anderson, receiving excellent critical notices the following year for his performance in William Inge's play "A Loss of Roses." This led to his discovery by Hollywood, and he went on to enjoy early success in anthology television.
Pollard had a brief stint as Bob Denver's cousin Jerome Krebs in a couple of episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959. He then appeared in Lost in Space in 1965 and Star Trek in 1966, his youthful appearance allowing him to portray characters significantly younger than his actual age.
True to form, Pollard also played the bowler-hat wearing, leprechaun-like trickster Mister Mxyzptlk in Superboy in 1988, based on the DC comic strips. He popped up in mainstream TV dramas like Gunsmoke in 1955, The Virginian in 1962, and I Spy in 1965, often playing simple country folk, sometimes evil, often mischievous, nervous, or downright weird.
Pollard's big break came with his critically acclaimed role as the loyal, inarticulate, and child-like garage mechanic turned get-away driver C.W. Moss in Arthur Penn's gangster epic Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. This earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, leading to offers for other high-profile off-beat character roles.
He gave a good account of himself as Packy, leader of a group of partisans joining Hannibal Brooks and his POWs in their escape from the Nazis across the Alps to Switzerland in 1969. Perhaps his most memorable post-Bonnie and Clyde impersonations was his powerful portrayal of the outlaw Henry McCarty (aka William H. Bonney) as a demented, twitching psychopath in Dirty Little Billy in 1972, marking the screen debut of actor Nick Nolte.
By the 1980s, Pollard had recovered from a period of alcohol and drug abuse, but his name had slipped down the list of credits, and he was reduced to minor support in films like Roxanne in 1987, American Gothic in 1987, Dick Tracy in 1990, and Rob Zombie's debut cult-horror House of 1000 Corpses in 2003.
Michael J. Pollard passed away on November 20, 2019, at the age of 80, due to cardiac arrest in Los Angeles.
