H.M. Wynant

Deputy D.A. Sampson from Perry Mason Little Pinto from The Wild Wild West

H.M. Wynant, always a master of the beautiful, deep voice. I would happily listen to him read the phone book!

I believe my first encounter with him was around 1999 or 2000, when I checked out a Nancy Drew tape from the library. I was ecstatic enough that there were Nancy Drew television episodes, and then the one with H.M., The Ghostwriter's Cruise, was even more of a special treat.

As with all of the actors I like whom I first saw years ago, I liked him immediately. I think I was a bit surprised when the episode slightly toyed with a May-December romance between him and Nancy, though. Back then I was too young to appreciate it. And I also had no idea who he was; the episode didn't match up the main guest-stars' names with their characters.

My next encounter was around that same time, when my local station started airing Perry Mason. H.M. is a Perry guest-star with an amazing track record: ten guest-spots over nine seasons! He plays one character three times and also had seven other memorable Perry characters, from every season except season 2.

I have rather a confusing history with his recurring Perry character, Deputy District Attorney Sampson. I did not like him at first; he was very blustery and loud and didn't seem to have the same consideration for witnesses that Hamilton Burger did. But when I watched his episodes the next time they came on, I realized my view had been colored because I was frustrated over Hamilton's extended absence from the series (due to the real-life scandal his actor inadvertently ended up in). Sampson actually does show kindness to some of the witnesses, especially the widow of the deceased in The Loquacious Liar and the young teenager in The Red Riding Boots. But he's also very blustery, as previously thought. He also, I feel, is one of the most clever of the deputy D.A.s and put together some of the strongest cases. He's young, but very competent and capable.

Well, when my view shifted 180 degrees, I also started taking note of his actor. I looked up everything I'd previously seen that he was in and was surprised to discover that he was the actor from that Nancy Drew episode of long ago. I also started looking up things I hadn't ever seen with him before. I'm still doing that!

My favorite H.M. characters are probably Sampson and also Coley Rodman from The Wild Wild West. I could go on for pages about what a fascinating antagonist the latter is and how he seemed to have a certain sense of honor. He is a central figure in my stories for fun (fanfiction stories) based around The Night of the Sudden Plague episode. Little Pinto, pictured above, became one of Coley's adversaries in said stories.

H.M. doesn't seem to give interviews very often, or at least, I can scarcely find any. But a couple of lucky people managed to interview him at the Motor City Comic-Con last year, so I will provide links to those awesome things. Unfortunately, they didn't ask him about the two shows I wanted to hear about most, Perry and The Wild Wild West. They're still great fun, though!