Rory Calhoun

Rory Calhoun: Biography in Details

Who is Rory Calhoun?

American actor Rory Calhoun worked in television and motion pictures. In the 1950s and 1960s, he played minor parts in movies including How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and starred in several Westerns.

Rory Calhoun: Bio, Age, Parents, Siblings, Ethnicity, Education

Rory Calhoun was born in Los Angeles, California, on August 8, 1922. His parents were Irish gamblers, Father James McCown and Mother Elizabeth Cuthbert.

Rory’s formative years were spent in Santa Cruz, California. His mother eventually remarried, and ten months after his birth, his father passed away.

He took on the last name of his stepfather, Frank Durgin. Because of his difficult background, he has committed stealing, robbery, and other offenses against the law.

At the age of 13, he stole a revolver and was sent to the “Preston School of Industry” reformatory in California. He fled from this correctional facility.

Rory Calhoun left his house when he was 17 years old to flee his stepfather beating and torturing him. After that, he began hotwiring cars and occasionally robbed cars and jewelry stores. He also received a three-year prison sentence for taking an automobile, which he then used to drive across the state.

He served out his sentence at the “United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners” in Springfield, Missouri. Prior to turning twenty-one, he was released from prison.

After that, Rory Calhoun worked as a truck driver, fisherman, cowboy, hard-rock miner, timber logger, mechanic, and so on until actor Alan Ladd saw him in a Los Angeles park while mounted. His life was never the same after that.

Rory Calhoun: Professional life, Career

Rory Calhoun was given a movie test at the “20th Century-Fox” by Hollywood agency Sue Carol. He played very small parts in Laurel and Hardy, Sunday Dinner for Soldiers, and Something for the Boys before receiving his first credit in The Bullfighters (1945) as Frank McCown.

Henry Wilson, a worker for David O. Selznick, later signed him under the name “Rory Calhoun” in Selznick’s business. He was, however, returned to prison in 1945 for striking a detective.

He landed his first big part in “The Red House” in 1947. In the same year, he contributed to two more films: “That Hagen Girl” and “Adventure Island.”

He in “Miraculous Journey,” which went on to become a big hit, in 1948. He worked on the films Sand and Massacre River in 1949.

His first film appearance was in a negative part in “Return of Frontiersman” (1950). In the same year, he portrayed the lead in “Country Fair.”

“Meet Me After the Show” (1951), “Rogue River” (1951), “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain” (1952), “With a Song in My Heart” (1953), “The Silver Whip” (1953), “How to Marry a Millionaire” (1953), and more films were among his other productions from the 1950s. Some films that were released in 1954 were “River of No Return,” “The Yellow Tomahawk,” “A Bullet is Waiting,” “The Spoilers,” “Raw Edge,” “The Hired Gun,” and “Ride Out of Revenge.”

Thunder in Carolina (1960), The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), The Treasure of Monte Cristo (1961), Marco Polo (1962), The Young and the Brave (1963), Apache Rising (1965), Our Men in Baghdad (1966), and The Emerald of Artatman (1969) were just a few of the films in which he starred in 1960.

Rory Calhoun acted in cult films such as “Hell Comes to Frogtown” (1989), “Angel” (1984), “Night of the Lepus” (1972), and “Motel Hell” (1980) during the 1970s and 1980s.

“Pure Country,” his final film, in 1992. In the film, he portrayed rancher and family patriarch “Earnest Tucker.”

Television Work

In 1958, Rory Calhoun made his on-screen debut in “The Texan.” Rory had begun producing and screenwriting at this same period.
He made an appearance in a 1959 episode of the CBS series “December Bride.” The name of the episode was “Rory Calhoun the Texan.”

In the 1960s, he participated in various shows such as ‘Death Valley Days (1963), ‘Bonanza’ (1964), ‘Gunsmoke’ (1965), ‘I Spy’ (1966), ‘Gilligan’s Island’ (1967), ‘Custer’ (1969), ‘Lancer’ (1971) etc.

He started appearing in television series between 1970 and 1980, including “The Doris Day Show” (1972), “Owen Marshall: Counsellor at Law” (1972), “Hec Ramsey” (1973), “Police Story” (1973), “Movin’ On” (1975), “Starsky and Hutch” (1975), “Fantasy Land” (1978), etc.

Rory Calhoun starred in several television series during the 1980s, including “The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (1988), “The Blue and the Gray” (1985), “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo” (1981), “Hart to Hart” (1982), and many more.

He started appearing regularly in the American soap opera “Capitol” in 1982, and he stayed on the show until its conclusion in 1987. In 1993, he made his final onscreen cameo in “Tales from the Crypt.”

Rory Calhoun: Net worth, Salary

Rory Calhoun was one of the well-liked performers in movies. Based on information analyzed from Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, we estimate that he had approximately $1.5 million net worth before his death.

Death

As per the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California Calhoun died because of emphysema and diabetes at the age of 76 on April 28, 1999.

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