Orville Sherman was born in Oklahoma, where his great-grandfather bought land in 1894. He appeared in numerous television episodes, mostly Westerns. Being born in the frontier may have given him an edge to playing cowboys. Although most of his screen time can be counted in seconds, he was good at his craft. Orville started tap dancing at age nine and left home at 19 to pursue his career.

According to the 1940 U.S. census, he was living as a boarder in Shawnee, Oklahoma, giving his occupation as "actor, dancer, director". He served in WWII, enlisting from Santa Fe, New Mexico where he was working with a small theater troupe. A few years later he was in New York on stage later traveling to England to appear on stage in "Oklahoma", where he met his future wife, actress Marcella Dodge.

They married in 1948 and came to California from New York City in 1956 and appeared in film and TV episodes until his death. Relatives of his brother said Orville was too occupied with work to attend his fathers funeral in 1959. He was divorced from his first wife in the 1960s. In 1973, he wed, secondly, to Jean Reno, a woman eight years his senior. That same year, he added the occupation of minister to his life, teaching speech at the church of Religious Science in Downey, California. Sadly, he died alone, with no known family (his marriage long since ended) from prostate cancer in Los Angeles, aged 68.