Person
Stephen Talbot
Acting · Born 1949-02-28 · Los Angeles, California, USA
Biography
Stephen Henderson Talbot is a TV documentary producer, actor, writer and reporter. Talbot directed and produced "The Movement and the 'Madman' " for the PBS series American Experience in 2023. He is a longtime contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and worked for over 16 years for the series Frontline. Before becoming a journalist and documentary producer, Talbot was a television child actor in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is best known for his role in the TV sitcom Leave It to Beaver, in which he played Gilbert Bates, friend of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers). Talbot's more than 40 documentaries include the Frontline films "The Best Campaign Money Can Buy", "Rush Limbaugh's America", "The Long March of Newt Gingrich", "Justice for Sale", and "News War: What's Happening to the News". Talbot has also written and produced PBS biographies of writers Dashiell Hammett, Beryl Markham, Ken Kesey, Carlos Fuentes, Maxine Hong Kingston and John Dos Passos. He was co-creator and executive producer of the PBS music specials, Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders.
Known for

Perry Mason
Jimmie Kendall

Lassie
1954

The Donna Reed Show
1958

The Twilight Zone
Howie Gutliff

The Lucy Show
Cadet Clark

Lawman
1958

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Jonathan

Leave It to Beaver
Gilbert

Wanted: Dead or Alive
Rufe Meecham

Sugarfoot
Ab Martin
Filmography
- 2005The Sixties: The Years That Shaped a GenerationDirector
- 1962The Lucy ShowCadet Clark
- 1960The Barbara Stanwyck Show
- 1960Because They're YoungEric Hendry
- 1959The Twilight ZoneHowie Gutliff
- 1959Law of the PlainsmanStevie Mullen
- 1959The DuPont Show with June AllysonRonnie Kramer
- 1958Lawman
- 1958The Donna Reed Show
- 1958Wanted: Dead or AliveRufe Meecham
- 1957Leave It to BeaverGilbert
- 1957Perry MasonJimmie Kendall
- 1957SugarfootAb Martin
- 1956Dick Powell's Zane Grey TheatreJonathan
- 1954Lassie
- —Under the Bridge: The Criminalization of HomelessnessWriter
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