Celebrity Nooz: Michael J Pollard

Michael J. Pollard (Actor) - Bonnie and Clyde

Updated: 10/30/19

Name: Michael J. Pollard

Birth Name: Michael John Pollack Jr.

Born: May 30, 1939 in Passaic, New Jersey, USA

Claim To Fame: Michael J. Pollard is an American character actor. He is best known for playing C.W. Moss in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Family Life: Pollard married actress Beth Howland in November 1961. The two later divorced in 1969; together they have 1 child.

Info: His parents were both of Polish descent.

Pollard's father supported his wife and Michael, Jr. by working 60 hours a week as a bartender at O'Rourke's Tap Room.

Pollard attended Montclair Academy and Actors Studio in New York.

Trivia: Created the non-singing role of Hugo Peabody in the original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Pollard was brought in as a replacement during the first season of TV's "Dobie Gillis." Co-star Bob Denver, who was stealing the show as Dobie's beatnik buddy Maynard G. Krebs, was going to be drafted into the Army and had to exit the series. When Denver was classified "4-F" due to a longstanding neck injury and returned, Pollard's character of weird cousin Jerome Krebs was quickly written out.

In 1966, at the age of 27, Michael Pollard was hired as a guest star on Star Trek, playing "Jahn" in the episode "Miri". The script called for an actor 14 years of age, but Pollard got the part anyway since his agent convinced the show's producers that he looked like a teenager even though he was close to 30.

In 1967, he played the supporting role of C. W. Moss in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, alongside Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons, for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. The role led to his joke candidacy in 1968 for President of the United States, complete with a campaign song: "Michael J. Pollard for President", recorded by DJ and recording artist Jim Lowe.

Credited by Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi with coining the term "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys".

Before Robert Altman was signed to direct "Brewster McCloud", Michael J. Pollard was considered for the title role. Bud Cort eventually played it.

Actor Michael J. Fox, whose real middle name is Andrew, adopted the middle initial "J." as an homage to Pollard.

Where Are They Now: It appeared as if Pollard had retired from acting after the 2012 movie The Woods. Currently, he's part of a pair of projects: the comedy The Next Cassavetes which is in post-production, and the crime film The Black Caesar, now in pre-production.

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