Whit Bissell, born in 1909, was a versatile American character actor whose career spanned from the 1940s to the early 1980s. He is best remembered for his roles in cult classics such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), where he expertly embodied the archetypal authority figures and scientists that populate the genre. Bissell's performances in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Monster on the Campus (1958) showcase his ability to navigate the eerie landscapes of science fiction and horror, solidifying his place in the annals of cult cinema.
The Time Machine
A Victorian-era scientist invents a machine that transports him through time. He travels forward to flee the warlike world of 1900. He stops the machine in 1917, in 1940, and in 1966, but he finds the world at war on all three occasions. He eventually travels to the year 802,701 and discovers a race of benign humans, the Eloi, menaced by hordes of ferocious man-beasts, the Morlocks, who prey on the Eloi at will.
