He left school at a young age and worked various jobs but eventually was awarded a scholarship to Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, New York.

[3] Bellaver appeared in the original production of the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun as Chief Sitting Bull.

[citation needed] He appeared in Love Me or Leave Me with James Cagney and Doris Day in 1955 and The Old Man and the Sea with Spencer Tracy in 1958.

[5] Bellaver served in the Special Services Unit of the U.S. Army during World War II,[1] where he toured the front lines as a stage manager and actor in the U.S.O.

[5] He was survived by his daughters, Lee Bellaver of Stone Ridge, New York, and theatrical casting director Vaughn Bellaver-Allentuck of East Hampton, Long Island, two grandsons, a granddaughter, and two great-granddaughters.