Stacy Harris
Stacy Harris (July 26, 1918 – March 13, 1973) was a Canadian-born actor with hundreds of film and television appearances.[1] His name is often found spelled Stacey Harris.
Stacy Harris | |
---|---|
Harris as Doug Carter in Doorway to Danger, 1953. | |
Born | Big Timber, Quebec, Canada | July 26, 1918
Died | March 13, 1973 54) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1951–1972 |
Early years
Harris was an Army pilot whose leg was injured in a plane crash less than six months after he enlisted in 1937. That injury prevented him from re-enlisting when World War II began, but he served with the American Volunteer Group as an ambulance driver and with the French Foreign Legion as a dispatch rider. Before becoming an actor, he held a variety of jobs, including newspaper reporter, boxer, sailor, and artist.[2]
Radio
Harris was best known for his role as agent Jim Taylor on ABC Radio's This is Your FBI. In 1946, Jerry Devine, that program's producer-director, told newspaper columnist Jack O'Brian: "Stacy has just the sort of voice I need for the quiet authority of the special agent on my show. On top of that, he's a good actor, and it's a combination on radio which can't be beat."[2]
His other roles in radio programs included Batman in The Adventures of Superman,[5] and Ted Blades in The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters.[5]:319 He was also a member of the casts of Confession,[6] Dragnet,[6]:200 Pepper Young's Family,[6]:294 Destiny's Trails,[5]:98 and Frontier Gentleman.[7]
Television
Harris's roles in television programs included those shown in the table below
Program | Role |
---|---|
Four Star Playhouse: A Place of His Own (Charles Boyer) | Guest stars on October 8, 1953 as Frank Le Beau |
Doorway to Danger | Agent Doug Carter[8] |
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp | John Clum[8]:600 |
N.O.P.D. | Detective Victor Beaujac[8]:770–771 |
O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | Ben Hazzard[8]:783 |
Return to Peyton Place | Leslie Harrington[9] |
Bearcats! | Emmet Grosvenor |
Bonanza | Regis in the episode "A House Divided" (1960)
Col. Clinton Wilcox in the episode "The Honor of Cochise" (1961) Mr. Corman in the episode "Twilight Town" (1963) Martin Melviney in the episode "The Far, Far Better Thing" (1965) Judge Simpson in the episode "Five Sundowns to Sunup" (1965) Atty. Harry Teague in the episode "Anatomy of a Lynching" (1969) |
Harris played varied characters, often villains, on various programs produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited, such as Dragnet, Noah's Ark, GE True, Adam-12, and Emergency!.[10][11][12][13][14]
Harris guest starred in the religion anthology series, Crossroads, and played a gangster in the 1956 time travel television episode of the anthology series Conflict entitled "Man from 1997" opposite James Garner and Charles Ruggles.[15][16] Thereafter, he appeared as Whit Lassiter in the 1958 episode "The Man Who Waited" of the NBC children's western series, Buckskin.[17] He guest starred as Colonel Nicholson in the 1959 episode "A Night at Trapper's Landing" of the NBC western series, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin.[18]
Harris appeared too in three syndicated series, Whirlybirds, starring Kenneth Tobey, Sheriff of Cochise and U.S. Marshal, both with John Bromfield, and as the character Ed Miller in the episode "Mystery of the Black Stallion" of the western series, Frontier Doctor, starring Rex Allen.[19][20][21] He was cast in two episodes of the David Janssen crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective.[22]
Harris in 1958 portrayed Max Bowen in "The Hemp Tree" and in 1959 as Abel Crowder in "Rough Track to Payday", episodes of the CBS western series, The Texan, starring Rory Calhoun.[23]
In 1960, Harris was cast as a drummer named Cramer in the episode "Fair Game" of the ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams.[24] Harris appeared in three episodes of CBS's Perry Mason, playing the role of murder victim Frank Curran in "The Case of the Married Moonlighter" (1958), Perry's client Frank Brooks in "The Case of the Lost Last Act" (1959), and murderer Frank Brigham in "The Case of the Crying Comedian" in 1961.[25] In 1963 Harris appeared as a Gambler on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled "If You Have Tears."
In 1969, Harris played the corrupt and cowardly Mayor Ackerson of the since ghost town of Helena, Texas, in the episode "The Oldest Law" of the syndicated television series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Robert Taylor not long before Taylor's own death.[26] Popular character actor Jim Davis played Colonel William G. Butler (1831–1912), who takes revenge on the town after its citizens refuse to disclose the killer of Butler's son, Emmett, who died from a stray bullet from a saloon brawl. Butler arranges for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to bypass Helena; instead Karnes City, south of San Antonio, becomes the seat of government of Karnes County. Tom Lowell (born 1941) played Emmett Butler, and Tyler McVey was cast as Parson Blake in this episode.
Death
Harris died March 13, 1973, at the age of 54 in Los Angeles, California of an apparent heart attack.[27][28]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1950 | Appointment with Danger | Paul Ferrar | |
1951 | His Kind of Woman | Harry | Uncredited |
1953 | The Redhead from Wyoming | Chet Jones | |
1953 | The Great Sioux Uprising | Uriah | |
1954 | Dragnet | Max Troy | |
1955 | New Orleans Uncensored | Scrappy Durant | |
1956 | Comanche | Downey | |
1956 | The Mountain | Nicholas Servoz | |
1956 | The Brass Legend | George Barlow | |
1957 | Raintree County | Union Lieutenant | Uncredited |
1958 | The Hunters | Col. Monk Moncavage | |
1959 | Good Day for a Hanging | Coley | |
1959 | Cast a Long Shadow | Eph Brown | |
1962 | Four for the Morgue | Lt. Victor Beaujac | |
1963 | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Police Radio Unit F-7 | Voice, Uncredited |
1965 | Sylvia | Mr. Leland | Uncredited |
1965 | Brainstorm | Josh Reynolds | |
1965 | The Great Sioux Massacre | Mr. Turner | |
1965 | The Money Trap | Drunken Man | (scenes deleted) |
1966 | An American Dream | Detective O'Brien | |
1967 | Countdown | Technician | Uncredited |
1968 | Bullitt | Voice, Uncredited | |
1970 | Bloody Mama | Agent McClellan | |
1970 | The Wife Swappers | Psychiatrist | |
1970 | Noon Sunday | Operations Commander Callan |
References
- "Stacy Harris – Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
- O'Brian, Jack (November 16, 1946). "Broadway". Hope Star. Arkansas, Hope. p. 4. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Stacy Harris, 54, Actor On Radio, Stage and TV". 14 March 1973 – via NYTimes.com.
- "Actor Moved By Applause". stacysharris.blogspot.co.uk.
- Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4. p. 16.
- Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920–1960, 2nd Edition. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. p. 156.
- "Frontier Gentleman". Idle Minds Design. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
- Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7. p. 278.
- "Actor Stacy Harris Dies". The Times. California, San Mateo. United Press International. March 14, 1973. p. 4. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Stacy Harris". TVGuide.com.
- "CTVA US Medical Drama – "Noah's Ark" (Jack Webb/NBC) (1956–57) starring Paul Burke". ctva.biz.
- "CTVA US Anthology – "GE True" (MarkVII/(CBS) narrated by Jack Webb". ctva.biz.
- "Adam-12". TVGuide.com.
- Yokley, Richard; Sutherland, Rozane (1 May 2007). "Emergency!: Behind the Scene". Jones & Bartlett Learning – via Google Books.
- "CTVA US Anthology – "Crossroads" (Bernard L. Schubert/ABC) Season 1 (1955–56)". ctva.biz.
- "Conflict (1956–57) Man From 1997–November 27, 1956". 3 February 2012.
- "CTVA Western – "Buckskin" (Revue/NBC) (1958–59) Tommy Nolan, Sallie Brophy". ctva.biz.
- "A Night at Trapper's Landing (1959)".
- "The Whirlybirds". TVGuide.com.
- "U.S. Marshal". TVGuide.com.
- "Mystery of the Black Stallion (1956)".
- "Richard Diamond, Private Detective". TVGuide.com.
- "The Texan". Classic Television Archive. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
- "The Rebel". TVGuide.com.
- "Stacy Harris – Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
- "Death Valley Days". TVGuide.com.
- "The Milwaukee Sentinel". news.google.com – via Google News Archive Search.
- "Stacy Harris". Idaho State Journal. Idaho, Pocatello. Associated Press. March 16, 1973. p. 13. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- Heyes, Douglas, Bearcats! – The Complete Television Series, Timeless Media Group, UPC 011301675767, 14 May 2013. ASIN B00BCMT3TO (DVD)