Ray Walston (December 2, 1914 – January 1, 2001) was an American stage, television and feature film character actor who played the title character on the situation comedy My Favorite Martian and Judge Henry Bone on the drama series Picket Fences.

Born in New Orleans, Ray Walston started his acting career as a spear carrier with a local stock company. When the family moved to Houston, Walston's father wanted to teach him the oil business, but Walston instead joined a traveling repertory company (selling tickets as well as acting). He went on to associate with Margo Jones at the Houston Civic Theater for six years, then spent three seasons with the Cleveland Playhouse before arriving in New York in 1945. He has won a Tony for his performance as the Devil in Broadway's "Damn Yankees", two Emmys for television's "Picket Fences" (1992), and become a household name playing the extraterrestrial "Uncle Martin" on TV's "My Favorite Martian" (1963).

Ray Walston was born on December 2, 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and began his acting career in 1939, receiving his first big break when cast as the reporter in the Ben Hecht (I)-Charles MacArthur classic "The Front Page". Later, he came to the New York critics' attention with the play, "The Alchemist". Prominent in Walston's career was an association with director George Abbott which included appearing in five productions over a span of 20 years. They began working together in 1949, around the time Walston was cast in "South Pacific". Then, in 1955, Walston won a Tony award as best male musical comedy star in the Abbott production of "Damn Yankees". Walston came to Hollywood in 1957 for Kiss Them for Me (1957). Since then, his other films have included Apartment, The (1960), Portrait in Black (1960), Paint Your Wagon (1969), Sting, The (1973), Popeye (1980), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and O'Hara's Wife (1982). In 1963, he began the TV series "My Favorite Martian" (1963), which ran for three years.