I was quite young when I first saw his picture in a movie magazine and after I got over fidgeting at his handsomeness, I could not get over how much he looked like a family friend, an old beau of my mother's actually, a man who stood in for my errant father. Beholden I was for his dollops of wisdom and a caring manner and I still am. He was a substitute dad and Agar so reminded me of him that I immediately felt a bond with the actor as well.
Agar was born in Chicago in 1921 to a meat-packing family. He was the oldest of four kids and for the most part, his young life appears uneventful. He attended prep school in New York. The girls were crazy about his good looks and after he overcame some shyness, he stopped resisting them. He was 20 years old when, some time after his father's death, he moved with the rest of his family to Los Angeles.
He joined the Navy during WWII but later switched to the Army. He was still in the military when he came home on leave and his sister asked him if he would accompany a friend of hers to a party that required an adult escort. She was 16. His life would never again be the same.
Temple, of course, was no longer the dimpled darling who put smiles on people's faces during the Depression. She was a strong-willed, chain-smoking, continual bundle of energy. She was in the teenage phase of her career with her best film being Since You Went Away and a little less so I'll Be Seeing You, both 1944. The titles inform they are wartime dramas.
Temple was under contract to independent film producer, David O. Selznick, ego-maniacal magician of Hollywood's most successful movie, Gone with the Wind (1939). His few contract players included his future wife, Jennifer Jones, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Temple. Soon Gregory Peck would come aboard.
Agar and Temple dated for about two years before they married. They had their first serious fight on the honeymoon when he accused her of not being a virgin. From then on, according to her autobiography, Child Star, she saw red flags time and again which, by and large, she tucked away rather than completely ignoring. Besides, she loved her handsome husband and wanted her marriage to work.
He felt what others close to them also knew... he was in over his head with her. He was just a regular guy from the Midwest, still rather shy, emotionally immature and uncertain of himself. He practically died of fright when he was thrust into the public's consciousness. As flashbulbs popped and women tugged at him at movie premiers and his life was thoroughly examined, he took to the bottle to calm his jangled nerves.
By the time they were married, it certainly occurred to her that he had a serious drinking problem. He also had a woman problem and brought several of them home to parade in front of her. He told her more than once that she wasn't his type and that he preferred blonde, long-legged showgirls.
The public intrusion into their private lives was unchecked for some time, starting, of course, with a lavish Beverly Hills wedding. When he was asked if he wanted to be an actor, he said no. He was then asked what he wanted to do and he said he didn't know. In time, Temple found him to be lazy and undisciplined and that became another prescription for bitter fights. He knew the public found him to be America's new prince because she was clearly its Cinderella. However, his fury was greatly aroused when he was called Mr. Shirley Temple.
Selznick was constantly waving contracts at him, giving him reasons after reason why he should take up acting and one day he capitulated when he was offered a nice salary and the promise of training. Before Selznick could put him in one of his own productions, however, director John Ford came-a-calling. He had cast Mrs. Agar as Henry Fonda's daughter in Fort Apache (1948). John Wayne would be top-billed and an actor was needed to play Ward Bond's soldier-son who would be romancing the young lady. Welcome, Mr. Agar.
I thought he was perfection as 2nd Lt. Michael O'Rourke but Ford never did. The irascible director always seemed to need someone in his casts to pick on. Frequently it was Wayne but new actors annoyed the hell out of Ford and Agar and Harry Carey Jr. got the worst of it. A Ford biographer, Ronald Davis, wrote psychologists might suggest that Ford feared the feminine side of himself and lashed out at pretty boy types, An even darker interpretation might infer that the director's need for dominance was a form of seduction.
Wayne felt sorry for both young actors, both of whom would remain friends with the star. By the time Wayne and Agar made their next film together, they had a bromance going, with booze as its centerpiece, that would last forever.
The public clamored for another Temple/Agar pairing and voila!... suddenly there was an innocuous, fluffy, little comedy, Adventure in Baltimore (1949). With it's turn-of-the-century picture postcard look, it concerns a minister's feisty daughter who paints a risque picture of a hot young guy that causes all Baltimore knickers to bunch up. Agar is again third-billed with Robert Young in the lead as Temple's father. It bombed at the box office except for the couple's diehard fans.
With She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), director Ford completed his cavalry trilogy and it was well-received. As the love interests, Agar and Joanne Dru joined Ford's stock company, again headed by Wayne. It is a rousing yarn to be sure. On the eve of retirement, a crusty colonel must evacuate the women from the fort before an Apache invasion. Agar and Dru are an attractive couple... he seemed far more suited to her than to his young wife. While Agar and Wayne became even better friends, Ford still harassed the young actor relentlessly.
The Woman on Pier 13 (1949) starred Robert Ryan as a former communist whom the party will not allow to quit. His wife, Laraine Day, and her brother, Agar, get pulled into the ruckus. Unfortunately, it quickly disappeared.
Agar was back supporting Wayne in an exciting WWII drama, Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Wayne received his first Oscar nomination as an embittered Marine sergeant whose wife has just left him. He takes out his wrath on his men and Agar is one of those who hates his guts. I regard it as one of the best war movies ever made and it is Agar's best role.
It would be many years before the two Johns would make three more movies and by then Agar's roles would be very small. Nonetheless, the actors would remain drinking buddies for decades.
Despite having a daughter, the Agar marriage was in shambles. He slapped her around, and as said earlier, cheated on her and brought other women into his home, disappeared after many arguments and drank himself into a stupor. Temple claimed she did everything she knew how to do to save the marriage but couldn't. They were both so young.
In his last year of marriage, Agar had a months-long, clandestine affair with Elizabeth Taylor. She told intimates that she loved his square jaw, beautiful blue eyes and handsome face. She cooed that she found him to be a wonderful lover when he was sober.
The Agars' divorce was final in December of 1950 and she was married again a couple of weeks later. They had not been living together for almost a year. Agar remarried five months later. Both of their second marriages would last for decades until their spouses passed away. After the Agar-Temple divorce, he got the first of four drunk driving violations. Although a couple were reduced to reckless driving, Agar had a serious drinking problem almost his entire life.
It is generally conceded that his purported mistreatment of America's sweetheart and their subsequent divorce put the kibosh to his ever being an A-list actor although he continued working almost until the end of his life.
Breakthrough (1950) was a so-so war film about an Army infantry unit that occupies France after the Nazis do. Agar is a soldier fresh out of Officer Candidate school who runs afoul of his commanding officer, played by top-billed B actor David Brian.
Along the Great Divide (1951) is a western about a marshal who rescues a man from hanging but plans to deliver him to town for trial. Agar plays the marshal's deputy and bites the dust about midway through the film. He is far overshadowed by Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo and Walter Brennan. It is beautifully photographed but too bad the writing didn't match it.
Agar must have realized how dismal things were looking when he was thrown into some Arabian Nights nonsense called The Magic Carpet (1951) with Lucille Ball, of all people, as his leading lady and Raymond Burr as the evil no-good. It bombed at the box office but Agar and his leading lady got to know one another very well.
He spent three years or so working in television with no acclaim. In 1954, Agar signed a seven-year contract with Universal, a sure sign that one's career wasn't going well. It didn't take long before he became disenchanted because he felt he was fifth in line for decent parts after Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Jeff Chandler and George Nader.
Agar made his first film noir in Shield for Murder (1954), directed by and starring Edmond O'Brien as a murderous cop. Agar plays another cop who slowly turns on his buddy when sees how dirty he is. It was a B noir, to be sure, but a good one. I think it was the first film I ever saw Agar in a movie.
I rushed out to see two films he made with Marilyn Monroe-wannabe, Cleo Moore, Bait (1954) and Hold Back Tomorrow (1955). Technically, both were just so-so but the second one was special to me. I thought Agar nailed it as a prisoner who is about to be executed and who requests the company of a woman for his last night. He never looked more like that family friend of ours than he did in this film. I wrote earlier of my meeting Cleo Moore at the opening of Hold Back Tomorrow in my hometown.
Also in 1955 Universal starred Agar in Revenge of the Creature, one of the Creature of the Black Lagoon sequels, and its success at the box office started the actor on his long road to starring in B horror flicks. Even after leaving the studio, his name was synonymous with such fare and other studios hired him in the same capacity.
His résumé ultimately would be filled with titles such as Tarantula, The Mole People, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, The Brain from Planet Arous and Attack of the Puppet People. Appearances in these films and some of the studio's low-budget westerns gave him a certain popularity, particularly with the kiddies, but his standing in Hollywood was not elevated.
He said later in life: I don't resent being identified with B science fiction movies at all. Why should I? Even though they were not considered top of the line, for those people who like sci-fi, I guess they were fun. My whole feeling about working as an actor is, if I give anyone enjoyment, I'm doing my job and that's what counts. Fine, but it sounds like press agent mumbo-jumbo to show what a decent, no-hard-feelings actor feels about not making top-flight movies.
I did enjoy him in a rare Audie Murphy comedy, Joe Butterfly (1957), an obvious but fun ripoff of the more famous Teahouse of the August Moon. Agar and Universal parted company after filming wrapped up.
Six years later I saw him in Of Love and Desire (1963). He is the third male lead (after Curt Jurgens and Steve Cochran) as Merle Oberon's brother in this lurid sex romp filmed in Mexico.
In the mid-60's producer A. C. Lyles whipped up a series of unrelated, cheapie westerns with each one featuring a gaggle of old-timers. A number of these actors appeared in several Lyle productions. Agar's contribution came in Law of the Lawless, Stage to Thunder Rock, Young Fury, Waco and Johnny Reno. He was never the lead. He liked to say a lot of my pictures were never released... they escaped.
He had longer periods of unemployment than actors care for and one didn't usually hear about him, unless he was being arrested for drunk driving.
In the late 60's and early 70's, his longtime buddy Duke Wayne rescued him with small roles in three of his oaters, The Undefeated, Chisum and Big Jake. Agar drifted into episodic television in various guest roles and made a number of movies that no one has ever heard of.
That continued until the end of his life, which came in 2002 in Burbank. He was 81 when he died of emphysema.
Retrospectively, his long career seems almost incidental. Movie buffs know him from his early John Wayne movies and sci-fi enthusiasts must know his name. He never lived in white-columned mansions or owned a slew of expensive cars. The money that would take was out of reach for him. After his time with Temple, he never pursued publicity, probably to his detriment as it's a necessity for Hollywood actors.
Sadly, he is almost exclusively known as the brief, first husband of America's beloved princess. Being referred to as Mr. Shirley Temple was deafening and he drowned out the sound with booze. With their divorce and when news got out that he mistreated her, well, let's just say he's lucky to have had a film career at all.
Still, I saw a lot of promise in John Agar in those early films. I always liked him. I couldn't help myself.
Next posting:
a 40's film noir
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