Although he went on to play a variety of street-wise working-class louts, William Bendix was the son of the conductor of the New York Metropolitan Orchestra. He appeared in one film as a child, then went on to a variety of jobs (including time spent as a minor league baseball player) before joining the New York Theater Guild. His first Broadway appearance was as a cop in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (1939); he then began a healthy film career in 1942 with Woman of the Year; the same year, he appeared in Wake Island, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. With his thick features, broken nose and affected Brooklyn accent, Bendix often played the time-weathered meanie with a heart of gold; eventually he was typecast as dumb and brutish characters. He is best known for his role on the radio show The Life of Riley, which he reprised in the film of the same name (1949) and into a television series in 1953. He played Babe Ruth in The Babe Ruth Story (1948), and generally worked for Paramount.