Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty 'Gloria Stuart' during an afternoon's band practice. Thoroughly taken with her slinky allure, he enacts a drum-solo piece that is of such crescendo, and played with such innuendo, as to suggest - glaringly - nothing except his own fantasized sexual journey from cymbal foreplay through bass-drum climax.
He died on the same day as his Johnny Cool co-star Elizabeth Montgomery.
Enlisted in U.S. Army on 15 August 1942. Height and weight at enlistment given as 5 5" and 123 lb. Education given as three years of high school.
He received his nickname "Hollywoods Lightest Heavy" from playing cowardly villains in his movies.
Was an assistant stage manager at age 17.
Was a lifelong registered Republican.
Biography in "Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir" by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry.
His film career, including his later television roles, lasted almost 60 years.
He was married to his second wife, Peggy, for 25 years before they divorced. About three years later, they remarried and remained together for another 19 years until she passed away.
After a very successful career of playing lightweight heavies and losers, he ended his career as a connected underworld boss who knew how to make things happen on Magnum PI as "Ice Pick".
