The future movie bad man was born in Drummoyne, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and got his career start as an interviewer on the government's radio station. Pate also worked on the Australian stage and in Down Under movies before relocating to th e U.S. in the early 1950s to appear in Universal's "Thunder on the Hill, " the film version of a Charlotte Hastings play .
Son-in-law of Joe Rock and Louise Granville.
Father of actor Christopher Pate
Twice played Indians who rescued heroes of TV westerns from painful punishments. In a 2-13-59 episode of "Rawhide" , he intervened to keep Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood from being flogged while tied to tree trunks. In a 9-15-67 episode of "Hondo" , he saved Ralph Taeger from having hot coals poured on his bare chest while lying staked out on the ground.
Though he often played Indians in movie and TV westerns, he was in fact a Caucasian born and raised in Australia.
Fought in the Australian army during World War II.
Interviewed in "It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition" by Tom Weaver (McFarland, 1996).
Invited to join AMPAS in 1961.
Was the first actor to play James Bonds CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter, in the television adaptation of Casino Royale. In this version, however, he is renamed Clarence Leither and, since Bond and Leiters nationalities were reversed, he was an MI6 agent instead.
He was awarded the O.A.M. (Order of Australia Medal) in the 1997 Queens New Years Honours List for his services to the performing arts as an actor, producer, and writer for the Australian Film, Radio, and Television Industries.
Brother-in-law of Phillip Rock.
Also look at Felippa Rock.
There is a third incidence where he plays an Indian who rescues the hero of a TV western, not from a painful punishment, but from death. It is the Gunsmoke episode, "The Violators" where he plays the Comanche Chief, Buffalo Calf, who saves Marshall Matthew Dillon (James Arness) from being shot with a rifle at close range by Caleb Nash (Denver Pile). (Season 10, Episode 4 (airdate Oct. 17, 1964)).
As was mentioned earlier. Michael Pape had on two previous occasions played Indians who saved the hero of a series from injury or death. He did it a third time. When he saved Matt Dillion from death at the hand of white renegade in Season 4 Episode 30 "Renegade White".
