Kenneth Tobey was one of those actors who, when he appeared on screen in anything from the classic sci-fi horror film “The Thing from Another World” to the TV series “I Spy,” you just felt like everything was under control.

Tobey, who was born in 1917 and died in 2003, was a character actor in films like “The Howling” who occasionally got to play the lead, as in his 1950s series “Whirlybirds,” about helicopter pilots.

Tobey is one of my favorite actors in one of my favorite movies, “The Thing from Another World.”

In the classic 1951 Howard Hawks production, Tobey played Captain Patrick Hendry, who quickly took control of a remote installation in danger from a fearsome alien (James Arness).

Hendry is low-key and no-nonsense and you had the feeling Tobey was likewise.