If there was an award for Best Supporting Husband, Sam Anderson would earn a spot in the Television Hall of Fame. It’s hard to say what you might recognize the journeyman actor of stage and screen from first — perhaps as the principal in “Forrest Gump” or from one of his more than 100+ appearances on television in shows from “Perfect Strangers” to the recent limited series “Painkiller.” Many viewers first fell in love with him as the loving, dedicated Bernard Nadler, husband of Rose, on the TV phenomenon “Lost.” And now the 78-year-old actor is back with another network hit, playing the supportive husband of Kathy Bates’ Madeline Kingston, a.k.a. “Matty” Matlock on the CBS series “Matlock.”
One of the few critical and commercial hits of the new season, the reboot from Jennie Snyder Urman puts a twist on the 1980s Andy Griffith series. Bates plays Matty, a sweet and folksy lawyer who is forced to come out of retirement and work for a big firm after she says her husband died and she is tasked with caring for her teen grandson. But by the end of the first episode, viewers learn the truth when Matty returns home to a gorgeous mansion and the arms of Edwin, her adoring husband of nearly 50 years. Matty is actually working undercover at the law firm that she blames for her daughter’s death, as they hid evidence that could have gotten opioids off the market — and Edwin is her partner, getting dragged into a world of deception and espionage that marks new territory for the retired professor. While much comedy comes from watching the affable Edwin being pulled into her schemes, there is also a lot of joy in seeing a mature couple who simply adore one another.
Here’s a few things to know about actor Sam Anderson, playing Edwin, and his storied career.
Even he has been caught off guard by the massive success of “Matlock.”
Though he’s no stranger to big projects with dedicated followings, Anderson admits that the critical and commercial love for “Matlock” has been overwhelming. “I literally shake my head daily and think, ‘How the heck did I get here? This is amazing.’”
He credits the show’s success to its impressive ensemble — even though Season 1 didn’t see Edwin interact with the characters at the law firm played by Beau Bridges, Jason Ritter and Skye P. Marshall — and creator Jennie Snyder Urman, who keeps the surprises coming every week. “I get these scripts and it’s like reading a best-selling novel,” he raves. “More often than not, I’m gasping because I can’t believe what Jennie has pulled off. It’s a joy to read and a joy to play.”
He and his Oscar-winning co-star go way back.
The warm and familiar chemistry he shares with Bates is helped by the fact they first met 40 years ago in a class taught by Anderson’s mentor, acclaimed theater director José Quintero. Over the years they would run into each other, even working together on another legal drama, 2011’s, “Harry’s Law,” and Anderson says he remained “one of her biggest fans.” When the “Matlock” offer came Anderson’s way, he says, “I jumped at it. And I’ll tell you, it has been such a gift. I say that as somebody who is as interested in the craft and how it works as she is, I just landed in co-star heaven.”
He adds that Bates makes it easy to portray the nearly 50 years of marriage between the two. “If you have someone like that, all you got to do is look in her eyes and tell the truth.” Within reason, as their characters are deceiving others. He adds, “Even if you’re lying, you have to tell the truth.”
He put himself on tape for the role of Edwin.
Not much was initially known about Edwin from the pilot, but the role has continued to grow throughout the season. “I try to go into things and stay open, and it seems to have developed really nicely,” he notes. It might surprise people to know that despite boasting more than 100 credits, Anderson auditioned for the role. He doesn’t mind, noting, “I think all the rules have changed since the pandemic, and I don’t have an attitude about opportunities to audition.” He admits that when COVID first hit, he wasn’t sure he would work again: “I thought I would probably have to retire, because we didn’t know when we’d be coming back or what we were doing.”
As it turns out, one of his first post-pandemic jobs was “Painkiller,” in which he portrayed Raymond Sackler, part of the family considered responsible for the spread of the opioid epidemic. He had just wrapped that shoot when he learned his “Matlock” character would be a father who lost his daughter to opioid use. “I had just come from the other side of the whole thing, so I was able to bring all that perspective and knowledge into this show.”
Kathy Bates and Sam Anderson on “Matlock.” Photo: Robert Voets/CBS
CBS
Roles for older actors appear to be better than ever.
“It’s starting to feel like 75 is the new 50,” Anderson says, before clarifying that he’s joking. But he’s not wrong — and he loves seeing people of a certain age being portrayed as vibrant and valuable. “For a long time, you would see people of a certain age be incapable or doddering; it used to be a big stereotype,” he says. There also appear to be more roles available for older actors. Anderson recalls an audition from about 30 years ago when he was going up for the role of a son and being paired against older actors. “I was in the waiting room and saw these iconic actors, one after another, competing for this part. At one point there was about 15 of them in the room, and this one actor walked in and said, ‘For God’s sake, don’t any of you have the decency to just die?’” He says the room erupted with laughter, and at the time he thought, “I so admired [that] all these actors were still doing this and thought to myself, ‘I hope I can, too.’”
“Lost” was a game-changer.
“That changed everything,” Anderson says of joining the sci-fi phenom in its second season as a “Tailie” — a previously unseen passenger who had been at the back of the plane when it broke in two, separating him from his wife Rose (played by L. Scott Caldwell). Caldwell, a Black actor, was already established as a beloved character in Season 1, and the reveal of Anderson as Bernard was best summed up by the character of Jorge Garcia’s Hurley, who deadpanned: “So, Rose’s husband’s white. Didn’t see that one coming.”
But the show never mentioned it again, and Rose and Bernard were probably the best couple on the island. “One of the things I loved about it most was that I think many people thought that someplace along the line, we were going to do an episode about race. And they never did — they normalized it. We were just two people incredibly in love.”
The only downside to his five seasons on “Lost”? People badgering him about whether or not the characters were dead — especially since Anderson says he himself would get confused and had to ask his then 14-year-old son (who said no.) And air travel could be interesting. “Sometimes, Scott and I would be traveling on the same flight and as we walked on, we’d see people’s faces like, ‘Get me off this plane; it’s gonna crash.’”
Prior to “Lost,” Anderson says he was usually most recognized for playing the chief of cardiology on the medical drama “ER.” (Interestingly, Anderson also appeared on the short-lived sitcom “ER” with George Clooney. He also worked with the actor in Clooney’s first play, “Vicious,” in 1986.) “I remember going to visit someone at [the hospital] and I got on the elevator with three doctors, and one would look at me and nod, ‘Doctor.’”
Theater is still a big part of his life and career.
A theater major who also earned master’s degrees in creative writing and American lit (“just to be on the safe side”), Anderson has been active acting and directing for stage since the 1970s. Highlights included playing the titular character in David Mamet’s “Edmund” and award-winning turns in 2010’s “The Bird and Mr. Banks” and 2011’s “Blackbird.” In 2005, he became a member of the highly regarded Road Theatre Company, where he now serves as a board member and co-artistic director. Though a non-profit 99-seat theater, the Road has had a major impact since launching in 1991. One of his favorite productions with the company was “The Play About the Baby” by Edward Albee. “He never gave the rights out, and he gave them to us which was wonderful,” Anderson notes, adding that the playwright passed away on their opening night. “It was a beautiful show and experience.”
