About Lorne Greene
Lorne Hyman Greene was a Canadian actor, singer, and radio personality. His notable television roles include Ben Cartwright on the Western Bonanza and Commander Adama in the original science-fiction television series Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980. He also worked on the Canadian television nature documentary series Lorne Greene's New Wilderness and in television commercials. During his radio days, Greene invented a countdown timer, making a stopwatch run backwards from a set time limit and count down to zero. The first of his continuing TV roles was as the patriarch Ben "Pa" Cartwright in Bonanza, the first one-hour Western series filmed in colour (1959–1973), making Greene a household name.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.