Early career Pollard had his earliest screen roles in television, with multiple appearances in programs broadcast during 1959. He had two roles in episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Appointment at Eleven", a minor part as a shoeshine boy and as herpetologist Hansel Eidelpfeiffer in "Anniversary Gift". Pollard also portrayed Homer McCauley, the dramatic lead, in a television adaptation of
William Saroyan's novel
The Human Comedy, narrated by
Burgess Meredith and broadcast as an episode of the
DuPont Show of the Month. That same year Pollard appeared in
David Hedison's 16-segment
NBC espionage TV series
Five Fingers in the episode "The Unknown Town". Later that same year, Pollard appeared in episode five of
CBS's
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis as Jerome Krebs, the first cousin of
Maynard G. Krebs, played by
Bob Denver, who in real life had been drafted into the
United States Army. Pollard's character was to have been a replacement for Maynard but disappeared when Denver was classified
4-F and was able to return to the series. Pollard created the non-singing role of Hugo Peabody in the original
Broadway production of
Bye Bye Birdie. He also played a quirky character in a 1962 TV pilot "The Laughmakers" written by
Woody Allen, which never aired. The cast included
Alan Alda and
Louise Lasser but Pollard's role was uncredited. In 1963, he appeared on an episode of
ABC's
Channing, a drama about college life starring
Jason Evers and
Henry Jones. That same year Pollard played the role of Digby Popham in the
Walt Disney family musical
Summer Magic, opposite
Hayley Mills. He was cast as Danny Larkin in the 1963 episode "Tell Me When You Get to Heaven" of the ABC drama,
Going My Way, starring
Gene Kelly as a
Roman Catholic priest in
New York City. Pollard played the role of Cyrus in a 1964 episode of the CBS western series
Gunsmoke, titled "Journey for Three". That year he also appeared as Ted Mooney, son of Mr. Mooney, on
The Lucy Show. Also in 1966, Pollard played the (uncredited) role of Stanley, the runny-nosed airplane mechanic, in
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. Pollard was short (five feet and six inches), which facilitated his getting youthful roles into his thirties. One such role was in the original
Star Trek series as the teenage leader of an all-child planet in the episode "
Miri" (1966): He also appeared in a first-season episode of
Irwin Allen's
Lost In Space as a nameless Peter Pan-like boy who lives in the dimension behind all mirrors ("The Magic Mirror"). In 1967, Pollard played the supporting role of C. W. Moss in
Arthur Penn's
Bonnie and Clyde, with
Warren Beatty,
Faye Dunaway,
Gene Hackman, and
Estelle Parsons, for which he received
Academy Award and
Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and won a
BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. The role led to his satiric candidacy in 1968 for
President of the United States, complete with a campaign song: "Michael J. Pollard for President", recorded by DJ and recording artist
Jim Lowe, best known for the 1950s hit "
The Green Door". (The record features Pollard, asking, "Hey, man ... president of
what ...?" and a snippet from real candidate
Robert F. Kennedy; Kennedy was
assassinated soon after the disc came out, which led many radio stations to refuse to play it.) Also in 1967, Pollard played the lead role in
Derek May's short drama,
Niagara Falls. Later that year, he was once again singled out for praise in
Carl Reiner's autobiographical comedy
Enter Laughing; noted film critic
Roger Ebert wrote: Michael J. Pollard, an unknown before his fascinating entry in
Bonnie and Clyde, brings his squint and grin to the part of Marvin, our hero's buddy, and steals every scene. There is something about Pollard that is absolutely original and seems to strike audiences as irresistibly funny and deserving of affection. If he works at it and gets a break or two, there will be no stopping him. Really. All he needs is visibility, and people will become addicted. In 1969, he played the supporting role of an escaped American
POW, "Packy", in the British
World War II-themed comedy,
Hannibal Brooks, directed by
Michael Winner.
1970s–2019 In 1970, Pollard had a starring role as Little Fauss in the cult motorcycle racing movie
Little Fauss and Big Halsy with
Robert Redford,
Noah Beery Jr.,
Lucille Benson, and
Lauren Hutton. Pollard starred in
Dirty Little Billy (1972), a
revisionist western depicting
Billy the Kid at the beginning of his criminal career, set in
Coffeyville, Kansas:This is no typical, Tinseltown western though. It's more like The Making of a Sociopath, with Michael J. Pollard starring as displaced, 17-year-old Billy Bonney, in the days leading up to his evolution into the notorious Billy the Kid ... this is the perfect role for Pollard. And though a little old to play a teenager (he was 33), he hands us a Billy who's perpetually victimized by bad luck, until he finally blows a gasket at the very end and sparks his future. In 1974, he played the role of a young man dying of cancer, in the season one opening episode, "The Time of His Life", of the trucking TV series ''
Movin' On. He later had a key supporting role in the 1980 cult film Melvin and Howard about the Melvin Dummar-Howard Hughes Mormon Will controversy. Pollard also starred in 6 episodes of the failed CBS comedy series Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills'' (1986) with
Harvey Korman and
Valerie Perrine. In 1987, Pollard played the role of an inquisitive volunteer firefighter, Andy, in the film
Roxanne, starring
Steve Martin. The following year Pollard played the role of Herman, a homeless man whose death strongly affects
Bill Murray's character in the Christmas movie
Scrooged. Also in 1988, Pollard played a villain in the horror film
American Gothic. In 1989, Pollard had a minor role in
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland and a larger role (as the inventor of super weapons and a super car) in
Tango & Cash, which also starred
Kurt Russell and
Sylvester Stallone. Also in 1989, he had a two-episode role as the fifth-dimensional imp-villain
Mr. Mxyzptlk in the
Superboy TV series. Pollard played Bug Bailey in the popular 1990 film
Dick Tracy. In 1992, he starred in a sixth-season episode of
Ray Bradbury Theater,
The Handler, in which he portrayed a
mortician who tried to give his clients a little extra treatment that he thought they should have. In 1993, he appeared in the horror film
Skeeter. In 1997, he played the role of
Aeolus in
The Odyssey starring
Armand Assante. ==Personal life==