Howard Weston "Ted" Bessell Jr. (March 20, 1935 – October 6, 1996) was an American television actor and director. He is best known for his role as Donald Hollinger, the boyfriend and eventual fiancé of Marlo Thomas's character in the TV series That Girl (1966–1971).

Bessell played lacrosse in high school with future football star and actor Jim Brown.

Bessell died on October 6, 1996, due to a ruptured aortic aneurysm at age 61.[2][3] He is interred in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California.

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by Anonymous

reply 19

August 2, 2023 4:35 PM

Hot guy. Would love to see a nude photo or a dick pic. Any locals here had him?

by Anonymous

reply 1

August 1, 2023 9:55 PM

You don't "appreciate" him enough to spell his name correctly, OP.

by Anonymous

reply 2

August 2, 2023 12:16 AM

Ted Bessell was only 61 when he died in 1996.

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by Anonymous

reply 3

August 2, 2023 12:20 AM

I always felt that That Girl should have a better looking boyfriend.

by Anonymous

reply 4

August 2, 2023 12:23 AM

He must have been really unpopular with audiences on The MTM Show.

He was a serious love interest for like 3 episodes then just gone without explanation.

by Anonymous

reply 5

August 2, 2023 1:56 AM

[quote]I always felt that That Girl should have a better looking boyfriend.

It does seem like he should have been better looking.

However, after years of DL discussion about HER, we can assume she purposely chose someone who wouldn't deflect attention from herself.

by Anonymous

reply 6

August 2, 2023 2:00 AM

His MTM character was a creep and totally wrong for Mary.

He was HAF on That Girl.

by Anonymous

reply 7

August 2, 2023 2:16 AM

The point of MTM was that she was a career woman and had made it on her own. She was never going to have a boyfriend who lasted. The office was her family with carefully crafted characters. Home life was Rhoda and Phyllis--and that's it.

by Anonymous

reply 9

August 2, 2023 2:26 AM

I watched That Girl when I was a young teen and never found Ted Bessel to be remotely attractive. I also knew nothing about plastic surgery but knew that was not Marlo's real nose. It was so obvious.

by Anonymous

reply 10

August 2, 2023 2:37 AM

Well, I thought he held tremendous appeal.

by Anonymous

reply 11

August 2, 2023 3:25 AM

R4 with a punim like hers, she was lucky to get Donald

by Anonymous

reply 12

August 2, 2023 3:55 AM

Mea culpa for misspelling Ted Bessell's last name.

by Anonymous

reply 14

August 2, 2023 7:11 AM

My father was a classmate of his at the University of Colorado and they were in the same fraternity. He said that Ted was a real SOB and a mean drunk.

by Anonymous

reply 15

August 2, 2023 8:29 AM

The way that Penny wrote about him in her autobio made me suspect that both she and Ted dealt drugs (Ted on a larger scale than her).

Both were inexplicably popular in the industry for years, handed opportunity after opportunity when so many others wakes out, both mostly hung around with known drug users, both were known as "the life of the party" and invited to all the social events... circumstantial evidence, but to me, it makes a lot of sense.

by Anonymous

reply 16

August 2, 2023 8:57 AM

Anybody else see a Ben Platt thing going on here?

by Anonymous

reply 19

August 2, 2023 4:35 PM