More B Leading Men

The following three men added a great deal to the climate of the supporting actor (not too far down the list) who also had leading roles in B movies.  If you were around in the 1950's you know them and if you are a big movie and old TV fan you're likely to know them.  It would be a rare indeed that at least one of them hasn't a flick on the tube every single day.  Collectively, they have made 310 movies so obviously we're not discussing them all.  Let's hit some highlights.


       John Ireland



I always liked John Ireland, liked his low-key manner, loved his voice.  All three of the men mentioned in this piece did lots of westerns, so, of course, that resulted in my seeing them all over and over again.  He played villains and other unsavory characters countless times but he could also show up as a good cop.  It didn't hurt his status with me that his second (of three) marriage was to one of my favorite actresses, Joanne Dru.

Born in Vancouver, BC, in 1914, he moved with his mother to Harlem, living in abject poverty.  Although he quit school in the seventh grade to help support her, he got into constant trouble and spent time in reform school.  He became a good swimmer, eventually competing with Johnny Weissmuller in a grueling 15-mile marathon.  His abilities also secured him a job in a water carnival.

In the early 40's he made his Broadway debut (he would make random stage appearances throughout his life) and in 1945 Hollywood came calling.  He first appeared in the war film A Walk in the Sun as the thoughtful letter-writer.  But his generally shifty look and a sullen attitude made him perfect for the saddle.

He played Billy Clanton in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946), was Monty Clift's buddy in 1948's Red River (director Howard Hawks disliked him and cut out a number of his scenes), played the "I" in the decent B western, I Shot Jesse James (1949) and was part of a group of treasure seekers in the good Randolph Scott western, The Walking Hills (1949).

He married Dru after they made Red River together.  Their next pairing was Ireland's best film... All the King's Men (1949) where he plays a reporter who is a devotee of a demagogue who turns on him and becomes his fiercest critic. Ireland would get a best supporting actor nomination from the Oscar folks.  He and Dru would go on to make Vengeance Valley (1951), Hannah Lee (1953) and Southwest Passage (1954).

Their divorce was messy after he had an affair with Joan Crawford while making Queen Bee (1955).  It was also claimed that he knocked Dru around one too many times.   Ireland appeared with Laurence Harvey and Gloria Grahame in the superb heist movie, The Good Die Young (1954).  He and Harvey would make three more films together and would become BFFs.  He had a good role as Johnny Ringo in 1957's The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  

He enjoyed quite a reputation as one of Hollywood's biggest lotharios and one with a penchant for young women.  He famously dated Natalie Wood and Sue Lyon and fell in love with 16-year old Tuesday Weld in 1959.  He was 45.  Two years later they would appear together in the Elvis Presley film, Wild in the Country.  He would enjoy supporting roles in the 60's spectacles Spartacus, 55 Days at Peking and The Fall of the Roman Empire.

While some of these are notable films, he made 111, quite a number of which are utterly forgettable.  Television became a mainstay in later years as well as a restaurant he opened in his beloved Santa Barbara.  He died of leukemia in 1992 at age 78.



     Cameron Mitchell


His movie career, nice as it was there for a spell in the mid-50's, didn't provide Cameron Mitchell his most enduring fame.  That comes from the 1967-1971 television western The High Chaparral.  It was clearly a cousin to Bonanza, both produced by David Dortort.  Mitchell as hard-drinking, two-fisted Buck Cannon, while not the lead, was the most watchable.  To his credit, he was good at getting audiences to watch him in scenes with top leading actors.

Most of his characters were somewhere between snarky and downright mean-spirited.  He rarely ever seemed to just go along with things. As a result he was the bad guy in many of his 124 big-screen roles.  Also worth noting is he could be such a decent good guy, too.  I thought he was a good actor... he certainly was a prolific one.

He wanted to act practically from the time he first saw life in 1918 Pennsylvania.  He was the fourth of seven children of two Scottish-German ministers and one can only wonder how that background meshed with his chosen profession.   He dashed off to New York as soon as he could and became a Radio City page (along with Gregory Peck). 

He managed to secure Broadway roles quickly and with more success than a lot of fledgling actors.  His stage work was deemed solid enough for him to nab a contract at prestigious MGM.  While there, he worked with some of the greats... Gable, Tracy, Wayne, among others.  In 1949 he returned to Broadway and into playing one of the sons (Arthur Kennedy was the other) in Arthur Miller's famed Death of a Salesman.  His reviews were laudatory.  He would repeat the role in the 1951 film.  

Mitchell's best years came when he joined up with 20th Century Fox.  In 1952 he was a murderous thug snowbound in a mountain cabin with wife Anne Baxter and others in Outcasts of Poker Flat,  a Cree India in the colorful Pony Soldier and Marius in Les Misérables.  In 1953 he was a Czech stable boy in Man on a Tightrope and played opposite a feisty Lauren Bacall in the immensely popular How to Marry a Millionaire.

One of Mitchell's most endearing roles comes as Doris Day's piano- playing second husband in 1955's Love Me or Leave Me.  In 1956 he got to sing as Jigger Craigin in Carousel, which brought him further fame.  Family frontier life was given a tender look in 1957's All Mine to Give with Glynis John and Mitchell in the leads.  Another lead came in the dramatic story of boxing and drug addiction in Monkey on My Back (1958).  He was chilling as a neighborhood rapist in 1958's No Down Payment.

He turned largely to television beginning in the 1960's.  He did snag some small roles in films that achieved a measure of success (Hombre, Buck and the Preacher, My Favorite Year).   He also played in scores of films that I have never heard of.  Quite a number were in Italy, a sure sign that things weren't working out at home.  The same could be said for working in TV's Murder, She Wrote, which all three of these actors did.  Why he stopped working in important films is lost on me.

He had six children, a few of whom are in the business, and was married three times.  At the time of his death, he was reconciling with his first wife.  A life-long heavy smoker, Mitchell died of lung cancer at age 75 in 1994 in Los Angeles.



      Forrest Tucker

Like Mitchell, Forrest Tucker is probably more famous for a television series than he is for his long movie career.  In the mid 60's he made the wacky comedy western F Troop and became famous to a whole new generation.  In films he did some comedy but was far more well known for dramatic roles, particularly in westerns.  He could be a scary bad guy at 6'5" and he usually was one.  He was in a couple of films I very much liked.  

Tucker was born into an Indiana farm family in 1919.  He knew he wanted to be in show business from the time he was 14 and sang at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.  He had always been a showoff... whether dressed or undressed (regarding the latter, there's an amusing clip at the end)... and presumed that one day he would get paid for performing. His first real job, while still under age, was as an MC in burlesque. 

In 1939, with the help of a wealthy benefactor, he headed out to Los Angeles and within a short time auditioned for a role in William Wyler's The Westerner (1940).  He was likely hired for his size which, in turn, made him an able opponent in fight scenes with Gary Cooper.  His tall, blond, handsome ruggedness appealed to movie-makers and he was soon cast in one action flick after another, mainly war films.  After a stint in the army, he returned to Hollywood and into a good comedic role as Errol Flynn's rival for the affections of Eleanor Parker in Never Say Goodbye (1946).  Flynn won.

MGM borrowed him to cause Gregory Peck grief in The Yearling (1946) and he played opposite John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).  He alternated between Columbia Pictures and lowly Republic Studios in scores of films.  He was mainly used in westerns (he was Randolph Scott's nemesis in four of them).  In one of my favorite westerns, Jubilee Trail (1954), he was effectively used as the hero opposite Joan Leslie.  Another fun outing was in 1953's Pony Express as Wild Bill Hickok opposite Charlton Heston.

Other than the fame we have alluded to, Tucker and his pal  Sterling Hayden were considered the tallest actors in Hollywood.  He was also known for his astonishing sight reading.

In 1958 he was given a rare opportunity to have the leading male role opposite Rosalind Russell in a big movie, Auntie Mame.  His comedic skills were in full view as Mame's first husband, wealthy Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside.  He then toured for four years as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man.  While not one of my favorite musicals, I saw Tucker in it and was very impressed with him.  

After F Troop ended, he returned to his burlesque roots to make his last A picture, the 1968 comedy The Night They Raided Minsky's.  From then on he made one B flick after another and appeared in countless TV guest roles and did some stage work.

He was married four times and had three kids.  Like a number of people of his generation, he smoked and drank too much.  In his later years he appeared bloated and his good looks had long disappeared.  He died at age 67 in 1986 in Woodland Hills, California, of lung cancer and emphysema.

Next posting:
Cary Grant's Films of the 50s