Olson was born in Evanston, Illinois,[1] on October 8, 1930, and he was a graduate of Northwestern University.

[5] His Broadway credits include Of Love Remembered (1967), Slapstick Tragedy (1966), The Three Sisters (1964), The Chinese Prime Minister (1964), Romulus (1962), J.B. (1958), The Sin of Pat Muldoon (1957), and The Young and Beautiful (1955).

He made numerous stage, feature film, and TV appearances from the mid-1950s until 1990, when he retired.

[4] His other TV appearances included guest roles on scores of shows, including episodes of Kraft Television Theatre; Ironside; Murder, She Wrote; Little House on the Prairie; Hawaii Five-O; Battlestar Galactica; Lou Grant; The Bionic Woman; Wonder Woman; Mannix; Bonanza; Have Gun-Will Travel-as Owen Deaver S1 E32 (1958); Marcus Welby, M.D.

; Police Woman; Barnaby Jones; The New Land; Columbo; Maude; The Virginian; The Streets of San Francisco; and Cannon.