'Courtship of Eddie's Father' Star Brandon Cruz Says TV Dad Bill Bixby Was 'Sadly Overlooked' by Hollywood

Bill Bixby was one of the most beloved actors and producers of the classic TV era. Known for his roles on My Favorite Martian, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Rich Man, Poor Man, and The Incredible Hulk, Bixby was a fixture on television for decades starting in the 1960s. In the early ‘90s, he famously directed the hit sitcomBlossom.

Bixby died in 1993 at age 59 while working on Blossom, leaving behind a rich legacy of work-but without the accolades he deserved.

In a resurfaced Closer Weekly interview, Bixby's Courtship of Eddie's Father co-star, Brandon Cruz, said he believed the late actor never received the respect he deserved in Hollywood.

"I think he's sadly overlooked," Cruz, now 64, said. "If you think about the talent that he had and what he brought to audiences-if the ultimate goal of Hollywood and television is to reach a vast audience and sell commercials, in his time, no one did it like Bill. He'd go from show to show, and they were all high quality. It wasn't crap. It wasn't crazy. Bill brought a certain class to it, and Bill never did anything that kids couldn't watch."

"Bill gave a lot of people their first break," Cruz continued. "He brought me on to Courtship of Eddie's Father and I was untrained. I was just a kid. Lou Ferrigno was just a weight lifter and, yeah, a famous one, but he owes his entire career to Bill and The Incredible Hulk."

Bixby never won an Emmy Award during his three decades as a Hollywood actor and producer. He was also never honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, despite Cruz's efforts to raise money for a posthumous nomination submission via a long-running GoFundMe campaign.

Cruz noted, "The money's there to buy him a star if they chose to do it today, but I don't have a good feeling about it. And the fact that we're losing people that remember who Bill was is sad. I get talking about it, and I get all wound up and emotional because it means so much to me that my friend is honored."

Bixby played widowed father Tom Corbett alongside Cruz on The Courtship of Eddie's Father from 1969 to 1972. The two formed an off-camera bond.

Speaking with Greasy Kid Stuff magazine, Cruz recalled that his friendship with his TV dad came as his real-life family was crumbling.

"I was raised by wolves. My parents divorced during production on Eddie's Father," he shared. "The family on the set really became my family. The first assistant director took me home on the weekends because he had kids, and he gave me as much of a normal life as possible. Bill took me to his house on weekends."

Of working with Bixby, Cruz added, "Bill Bixby didn't want me to act. He just wanted to be a regular kid."

Cruz stopped acting at a young age and went on to become a surfer and a punk rock singer. But he looked back fondly on his time as Bixby's son on The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

"I think it kind of transcends different eras," he once told NJ.com of the show. "It shows a situation of a widowed father trying to raise a kid. We obviously weren't poor. We lived in this big apartment. We had a maid. I had really hip and fancy clothes all the time. So did Bill."

"That wasn't real life. It was a TV show," Cruz continued. "But it gave people who were in similar situations - a single parent, or a child being raised by a single parent - something to watch that kind of took them away from their situation. It took their real-life situation and presented it back to them in a different package. They could relate to it."

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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 4:25 AM.