Tom Lowell
Tom Lowell was born Lowell Thomas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both his
parents were teachers. They moved to California in the late forties, settling in
Sacramento. His father taught for 30 years as head of the Theater Department at
California State University, Sacramento. His mother taught English and Speech at
the same High School from which he graduated, El Camino. Tom Lowell started
his acting career on the TV show "Target the Corruptors," followed by the film Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. Then he was cast in the picture considered by many critics to be one of the
ten best films of all time, "The Manchurian Candidate," in the role of Lembeck.
He believes that this film got him the role of Billy Nelson on Combat!
Lowell was hired by Burt Kennedy to play a character he created for the
episode "The Celebrity." The character, Billy Nelson, was a great foil for
Littlejohn. When Peabody as Littlejohn and Lowell as Nelson got together, it was instant
chemistry. Kennedy knew a good thing when he saw it. He built on the
relationship, writing Billy Nelson into more and more episodes, despite killing off the
character. "In the first episode I appeared in," says Tom Lowell, "the one with
Tab Hunter, it looked as if I had died. By the time it aired, I had already
shot four more episodes."
The All-American, corn-fed boy, Billy Nelson, is the squad's youngest member.
He has a charming, boyish grin, and is rather gullible. So it's good he has
Littlejohn to look out for him. If going by the book, this private is not a good
soldier, always getting things wrong and mis-handling his equipment. But in the
field, he's a man you can count on to watch your back.
The relationship between Littlejohn and Billy became a trademark of the show.
Though by the end of first season he had became a major, continuing character,
appearing in most episodes, Lowell wasn't signed for a long-term contract.
“My time on the show was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life,” writes Tom Lowell in a letter to a fan. “The camaraderie established in the early sixties still exists. At the end of
the third season, an opportunity arrived that I could not pass up. I was offered
a contract at Walt Disney Studios to do two pictures a year for the next two
years. I chose to leave Combat! and move over to the "Mouse Factory." I was sad and elated at the same time.
I did four pictures at Disney, which I thought would propel me into a picture
career. But as we all know, the film business is a Quixotic animal — Star one day, Shlub the next! And the next few years were a struggle.”
Eventually, he decided enough was enough and went behind the camera. He
produced commercials for the Peterson Company in Hollywood, then moved over as head
of production for a videotape production center, VCI Studios. In the early
eighties, he was a Senior Production Manager for the local PBS affiliate, KCET,
working on Cosmos, Steve Allen's a Meeting of Minds, and others. In the mid eighties, he formed his own production company
specializing in commercials and industrial films and videotape. He took another fling
at television as Associate Producer on The New Gidget Show. But when he and twelve others were fired on the same day, he decided on a
career change. He went back to school, earned a B.A. in theater, then an M.A. in
screen writing, and found a teaching job.
Today, he teaches Theater, Video Production, English, and American Literature
and produces and directs all the plays at a California High School. He is
married to his second wife, Sharon. He has three sons from his first marriage: Ian,
Brady, and Chris, as well as his wife's two children, Ryan and Lauren.