Bill Bixby Biography

Actor. Born Wilfred Bailey Bixby on January 22, 1934 in San Francisco, California. After graduating from Lowell High School, Bixby attended San Francisco College to pursue a major in acting and then switched to the University of California at Berkeley. After college he held numerous odd jobs, including modeling, before landing his first television appearance on Dobie Gillis in 1961.

Two years later, Bixby was cast as Tim O'Hara in the popular sitcom My Favorite Martian co-starring with Ray Walston, a show that made him into a star. Throughout the 1970s and '80s Bixby would direct and star in a number of television series, including The Courtship of Eddie's Father, True Confessions and Goodnight Beantown. But his most memorable role was that of The Incredible Hulk, a hugely popular series that ran from 1978 to 1982 with Bixby starring as an everyday guy who turns into a wildly angry green monster when provoked.

Later in his career, Bixby directed several made-for-TV movies, including Barbary Coast in 1974 and The Woman Who Loved Elvis starring Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold in 1993, as well as the TV series Blossom.

Long one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, Bixby wed actress Brenda Benet in 1971. The couple divorced in 1979, their son Christopher died of a rare infection at the age of six. Bixby was married to Laura Jane Michaels from 1991-1992 and to Judith Kliban in 1993 until his death of prostate cancer that same year on November 21, 1993.

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