Richard Egan

It's likely even he would have said that he never made it to the top of the Hollywood heap, never achieved the status that he might have once wished for.  But he was most certainly a durable leading man, able to carry a movie and I know (because I just looked it up) that I didn't miss a single film of his in the 50's.  

His acting style was low-key and serious.  He was frequently the quietest one in a group.  The shame of that for the audience is that we were robbed of hearing that beautiful voice.  If speaking wasn't always his thing, his facial expressions did his talking for him.  Few actors expressed anger as silently or effectively as Egan.  That face could be frightening when it needed to be.

What about that face?   He was not a pretty boy but it was a great face, rugged, usually very tanned and he could look so different depending on whether he was smiling or not.  His head looked big... in fact, his body looked big, too... far larger than his 6' frame would have us believe.  The entire look, head to toe, was one that made him most impressive for the movies.  There's no doubt that this man should have been a movie star.

The 50's was, I think, at the head of the class on the promotion of actors.  Promotion/publicity, of course, has always been important in the business but probably never practiced more or been more obvious than in my favorite decade.  Today one admires an actor most for being good at their craft.  Sure there's personal stuff but it's mainly about the work and how one delivers.

In the 50's, one could mention an actor and someone would say... oh, he's dreamy or what a hunk.  Movie magazines were at their zenith and if someone wasn't photographed dining or dancing at Mocambo or Ciro's with some lovely actress, then he was on the beach or riding in a jeep or BBQing at home... often shirtless. 

In this regard, Egan was most cooperative.  I presume he wanted to show off his ripped bod as much as his bosses wanted him to do it.  He was, indeed, a movie hunk and there are plenty of photos to prove it.  Like budding actresses, a lot of males who got into that business of beefcake photos before they became established actors,
didn't end up with much of a career at all.  Richard Egan was an exception.  Even if he didn't make it to the top of the ladder, he made sure people heard of him.

Speaking of movie magazines-- and I've mentioned this in earlier posts-- my mother was a nonstop reader of them.  Her crowd passed them around, stole them from beauty shops and doctor's offices.  My mother passed them onto me with great relish.  As she came toward me with five or six at once, most would be open to some full-page color close-up of one of her three favorites... Robert Taylor, Jeff Chandler or Richard Egan.  Girlish, twitching and practically drooling, she'd coo... look at this, my boy Richie has never looked so good.  How could I, a mere youngster, not be bowled over by my mother's adoration of these three men and Hollywood, in general?  So here you go, Mama... finally... a piece on Richard Egan.  I guess you've waited long enough.

She would tell me or I would read for myself that he was a devout Catholic who attended mass every day.  It's not surprising that his only brother became a priest.  Egan was born in San Francisco in 1921 and raised in a family that believed in doing the right thing and to care about those less fortunate.  It was a lesson neither son would ever forget.  Young Richard was happy attending St. Ignatius College Preparatory.

Blessed with that deep, mellow voice, it probably didn't come as a great surprise when he won a public speaking competition at age 16.  What was a surprise was that it triggered something in him for performing. 

He studied acting while attending the University of San Francisco.  When the U.S. entered the war, Egan wanted to do his duty.  Putting country over his own interests was right in line with how he was raised.  He did a four-year stretch, with one year stationed in the Philippines teaching judo, bayonet and knife fighting.  He left the army as a captain.

He said the service provided plenty of time to think and a fair share of it was about acting and how it might all work out.  His brother encouraged him to do it and saw his handsome brother with the soothing voice as a natural.  Luckily, others would see the same thing.  So, now out of the army, he scooted over to Stanford University and collected a master's degree in theater history.  He then attended Northwestern University, both acting in many productions and teaching speaking.  While there, a Warner Brothers talent scout told he should try Hollywood.

In those days Universal took notice of handsome young men who looked good in fewer clothes.  An ability to act was optional but it was always a coup if one could.  Egan could... he filled the whole bill.  The studio of Rock Hudson, Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis and George Nader would find a place for Richard Egan. 

While the studio trained him, molded him into the type of personality they wanted him to be, he made brief stops in a bunch of movies, none of which would particularly rock your boat.  They sure were all on double bills at the Beverly Theater in Peoria, Illinois, I can tell you.  Egan was also frequently loaned out and on one of those, The Damned Don't Cry, at WB, he was the least interesting of Joan Crawford's three suitors (Steve Cochran and David Brian, being the others).  In real life, however, Egan got to know Crawford pretty well.

The queen of cougars, she was well-known for having her young male costars.  While that also applied to her leading men, directors, writers, costume designers, gaffers and best boys, she did like those strapping, young studly types out to set the town on fire.  She never minded giving personal instruction to the young.  And Egan was not only young but he looked so fine.  He was won over to the dating scene right away.  Being in a sea of beautiful women, a few of whom he was kissing on the screen, would work out just fine.  The Catholic that he was told him to gather up the girlfriends because once married, it will be forever one woman.

As a possible point of interest... Burt Lancaster, for one, became a star with his very first film and he remained a star until the end of his life.  The same can be said for another favorite of mine, Gregory Peck.  But there were far more Richard Egans who had a clear start through countless small roles in films that had a certain entertainment value but wouldn't be mentioned at the Oscars.  Perhaps he was in the background of so many early films that even when more fame and better scripts came his way, he'd learned to be more comfortable just being a part of it all.  I also suspect this was a person who while he loved his craft, it didn't hold a candle to his family as it would develop.

Two of those Universal epics should be mentioned because they're the ones that brought Egan into my young world... and there was always room for one more.  They were Flame of Araby (1951) and The Battle at Apache Pass (1952).   Now stop... stop snickering.  You're adults.  I was but a child.  My movie-lovin' mama and I saw them together because along with Egan, they both costarred Jeff Chandler.  It was almost too much for us.... um, her.

The earliest Egan film in my dvd collection is Blackbeard the Pirate (1952)... one of the huge influences on the adventure films I would come to love in the 1950's.  Put in a couple of beautiful leads, throw in lots of skulduggery, sword-fighting, men in tight pants and women in heaving bosom and hoop skirts and sign me the hell up.   The joy of this film was beautiful Linda Darnell, doing what she did best, and hunky Keith Andes as her frisky beau and Robert Newton as the comically-evil title star.  Somewhere on that ship was Egan.  I swear it.

He was more or less in the background of another attention-grabbing film... a harsh drama called Split Second (1953).  Stephen McNally starred along with Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, Andes and another half dozen or so as escaped killers and hostages at a Nevada mining ghost town that's about to be atom-bombed.  It is a nifty little thing where again, one might wish Egan had more to do.

Also in 1953 and now under contract to 20th Century Fox he made a good war film, The Glory Brigade.  Egan would make two additional films with its star, Victor Mature, and they would become buddies.  They had similar traits, physical and otherwise, although Mature's career was, in some ways, more successful,  Once Egan had settled down, he and his wife, Pat, preferred to  socialize with a few close actor friend... Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell among them.

With Susan Hayward

Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), a sequel to the previous year's blockbuster The Robe, was in its own right a success.  One had to admit Egan looked good in all that gear.  He was with Mature again and in the first of two successful films.  He was enjoying a sizzling affair with leading lady Susan Hayward.  They were denied a chance to marry because it would have meant he'd be marrying a divorced woman and that was not going to happen.

He dated a young starlet, Marisa Pavan, and also Ann Sothern, among others.  As usual, a number of their outings were reported in the press.  One day Egan would become godfather to Sothern's daughter.

The following year he first worked with Jane Russell in Underwater!  It's a sophomoric deep-sea diving tale starring two wet, tan and lusty leads which made for hefty box-office.  This film, done better, is called The Deep (1977) with Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset.

He joined Hayward and Tyrone Power in Africa for 1955's Untamed about the Boar Wars.  Egan was the villain of the piece and loses his real-life love to Power.  That same year's Violent Saturday had Egan joining his pals Mature and McNally for a well-done, tense drama about bank-robbers in a small town.  Egan plays an alcoholic miner.  He would be an alcoholic in a number of future films.

The good buddies in Mamie Stover

One of my guilty-pleasure Egan films is 1956's The Revolt of Mamie Stover, again with his pal, Russell.  We'll discuss this one later in more detail.  That same year he made one of the biggest films he ever made, the western Love Me Tender, and although top-billed, he was overshadowed by Elvis Presley in his film debut. 
Voice in the Mirror (1958) is one of those grim looks at alcoholism but both he and Julie London give deft performances.

In 1958 Egan married television actress Patricia Hardy.  The carefree bachelor days were over.  She never worked again and together they had a son and four daughters.  Hollywood lauded them as one of its happiest families.

In 1959 he made one of my favorite films ever and definitely my favorite Egan film... A Summer Place.  He and my cherished Dorothy McGuire were adulterous lovers while their teenage children were also involved.  Everyone in the movie took a back seat to Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue.  It was hugely popular.

With Hayley Mills and Agnes Moorehead in Pollyanna

The only time he worked for Disney was in 1960's Pollyanna, another crowd-pleaser.  He plays a doctor and harried suitor of crusty Jane Wyman but of course the film belonged entirely to young Hayley Mills.  I've always been a sucker for its sentimental ending (seen above).

He played ancient kings in both Esther and the King (1960) and The 300 Spartans (1962) and as his contract with Fox expired, so did his career to a large degree.  The next 20 years were largely taken up by television.  He starred in two series (playing the same character), several TV movies and did a number of TV guest roles.  There were a few utterly forgettable big-screen movies.  He also did some stage work.

He joined the Capitol soaper in 1982, looking older and more handsome than ever, playing a wealthy industrialist.  He stayed with the show until 1987 when he left due to illness.  Richard Egan died of prostate cancer in July of that year in Santa Monica, California.

I found him similar to Clark Gable in many ways but obviously Egan wasn't as successful in films as Gable was.  May I suggest, too, that Gable wasn't as happy as Egan was in the rest of life?  He did action pictures, war films, westerns and was an ideal romantic leading man.  He was a fine representative of the 1950's.  Have I mentioned that voice?



Next posting:
A good 50's film