There were solid performances by numerous B-movie actors but they never became major film stars. The new medium of television offered a career shift and kept them busy. Some became a household face if not a name.
Stacy (Stanley) Harris (1918-1973)
Harris was a Canadian-born actor with hundreds of television
appearances. Prior to his acting career, he was a newspaper reporter,
boxer, sailor, and a staff cartoonist for the New Orleans
Times-Picayune. Before television, Harris was best known for his role
as an FBI agent on ABC Radio's This is Your FBI. His reserved
vocal interpretation gave the special agent a calm authority. The radio series Dragnet
also benefited from his vocal work. It is speculated that he met Jack
Webb during those radio days. The two would become close personal
friends.
He hit the ground running in his first film, Appointment with Danger (1950) with fellow co-stars, Harry Morgan, Paul Stewart, and Jack Webb. Alan Ladd headlined the film. In between numerous television appearances, he starred in The Mountain (1956) with Spencer Tracy. However hard he tried, his acting ability could not save the sleazy, low-budget New Orleans After Dark (1958).
Television kept him busy with roles from westerns to crime dramas with appearances on Have Gun - Will Travel, Zane Grey Theatre, and a mayor on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp for twenty-three episodes. Away from the Old West were The Untouchables, 77 Sunset Strip with multiple roles on Dragnet 1967 to name a few. His life was cut short by an apparent heart attack at age 54.
Note: My TV TRANSITION series moved to this blog, now on Thursdays. Check out this first set of Monday posts below from my other site:
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