Alan Bunce (actor)

Alan Bunce
Bunce with Peg Lynch as Ethel and Albert, 1954.
Born	Alan Coe Bunce (1900-06-28)June 28, 1900 Westfield, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	April 27, 1965(1965-04-27) (aged 64) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930-1965
Spouse(s)	Ruth Elizabeth Nugent (1902-1978) (m. 1924-1965; his death)
Children	Alan Nugent Bunce (1933-2008), J. Elliot Bunce (1936-2010), and Virginia L. "Jill" Bunce Thompson

Alan Coe Bunce (June 28, 1900 – April 27, 1965) was an American radio and television actor.

Bunce was best remembered for playing the role of Albert Arbuckle alongside Peg Lynch on the sitcom Ethel and Albert from 1944-50 on radio and from 1953-1956 on television. Bunce was also remembered as the first actor to portray physician Jerry Malone on radio's Young Doctor Malone in the early 1940s.

Alan Coe Bunce was born on June 28, 1900 in Westfield, New Jersey. His year of birth had been the subject of dispute, with varying sources citing 1902, 1903, and 1908. However, according to the Bunce family papers which were published publicly in 2008 by Bunce's grandson Andrew Bunce, the Bunce family has found evidence and have accepted Bunce's birth date to be June 28, 1900.

Bunce's year of birth is given as 1900 on his U.S. World War I Draft Registration Card (1917-18) Bunce's age is given as 39 in the United States Census of 1940 (enumerated on April 27, 1940).

Bunce was the only child born to Theodore Dwight Bunce, an inventor, and Alice Edwards Bunce. His mother died when Bunce was a young boy. He graduated from a high school in Melrose, Massachusetts in 1918.

Bunce's career began in the early 1930s with small roles in several films and guest appearances on several radio programs. Bunce did get household recognition until 1939 when he began playing the role of Dr. Jerry Malone, the young physician who dispensed prescriptions and advice to the folks of Three Oaks on the medical drama Young Doctor Malone. He left the program in 1944.

The same year Bunce left Young Doctor Malone, he replaced film star Richard Widmark in the role of working-class man Albert Arbuckle, the male lead on Peg Lynch's Ethel and Albert. Lynch played the female lead and Albert's wife Ethel Arbuckle. Bunce remained with the radio show for its entire six year run.

Bunce played New York State Governor Al Smith in "Sunrise at Campobello" about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's early battle with polio and return to public life during the 1924 Democratic convention where Roosevelt walked ten steps to the podium and stood for 45 minutes to nominate the Governor for president.