This classic actor worked with Angela Lansbury on Murder, She Wrote and with Dolly Parton in a film

Roddy McDowall was one of the few actors who could say, "I worked with Angela Lansbury and Dolly Parton." It sounds surreal because it is. While Lansbury and Parton never worked together since they were in different fields, McDowall shared the screen with both separately in 1985, 1989, and 1996.

McDowall was from England and started in the industry in 1938, when he was about 10. He and Lansbury shared this background since she was also from England and began acting as a teen. He appeared in over 270 film and television productions during his career, including the Planet of the Apes series as Cornelius/Caesar, Cleopatra (1963), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Fright Night (1985), and A Bug's Life (1998).

Let's talk about his Murder, She Wrote appearances. In the season two episode "School for Scandal," McDowall played Dr. Alger Kenyon, PHD, a professor whose personal and professional life becomes entangled as Jessica Fletcher searches for the real murderer on campus. He returned in season 5 in an episode called "Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble." He played Gordon Fairchild, a local historian and author publishing a book about a witch named Patience Terhune. His character was initially rude to Fletcher.

In 1996, McDowall starred alongside Dolly Parton in the made-for-TV movie Unlikely Angel. He played Saint Peter while Parton portrayed a country-music performer who dies but cannot enter heaven until she performs a good deed on Earth.