Until the 1940s, Simon Oakland was a concert violinist, before turning to acting.
After a long string of roles in Broadway hits, including “Light Up the Sky,” “The Shrike,” and “Inherit the Wind,” he made his film debut as the tough, but compassionate journalist who speaks up for Susan Hayward’s “Barbara Graham” in “I Want to Live!” (1958).
He went on to play a long series of tough guy types, usually on the right side of the law (or in positions of authority), most notably in “Psycho” (1960, below), “West Side Story” (1961) and as Antonio Vincenzo (Kolchak’s boss) in the sci-fi TV series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.”
Alfred Hitchcock hated the infamous psychiatrist explanation scene done by Oakland’s character at the end of “Psycho.” He felt the scene was boring, and the movie came to a grinding halt at that point.
The scene has also been ripped to shreds by critics over the years as the worst scene in the movie, and one of Hitchcock’s worst scenes ever.
Hitchcock and viewers felt the scene was unnecessary, overly obvious, and too talky, slowing down the action and suspense of the rest of the movie. But there was strong pressure from the studios and powers-that-be that funded and distributed the movie to relieve the pressure from earlier scenes, and also to explain the action to less insightful audience members who might be confused by the big reveal at the ending, so the scene was kept in. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Simon Oakland!