Stacy Harris (July 26, 1918 – March 13, 1973) was an American actor with hundreds of film and television appearances.[1] His name is sometimes found misspelled Stacey Harris.

Stacy Harris
Harris as Doug Carter in Doorway to Danger, 1953.
Born(1918-07-26)July 26, 1918
Big Timber, Quebec, Canada
DiedMarch 13, 1973(1973-03-13) (aged 54)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1951–1972

Early years

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Harris was an Army pilot whose leg was injured in a plane crash less than six months after he enlisted in 1937. That injury prevented him from re-enlisting when World War II began, but he served with the American Field Service as an ambulance driver and with the French Foreign Legion as a dispatch rider. Before becoming an actor, he held a variety of jobs, including newspaper reporter, boxer, sailor, and artist.[2]

Theatre

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Harris acted in five Broadway plays and received a New York Critics Award.[3][4]

Radio

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Harris was known for his role as agent Jim Taylor on ABC Radio's This is Your FBI. In 1946, Jerry Devine, that program's producer-director, told newspaper columnist Jack O'Brian: "Stacy has just the sort of voice I need for the quiet authority of the special agent on my show. On top of that, he's a good actor, and it's a combination on radio which can't be beat."[2]

His other roles in radio programs included Batman in The Adventures of Superman,[5] and Ted Blades in The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters.[5]: 319  He was also a member of the casts of Confession,[6] Dragnet,[6]: 200  Pepper Young's Family,[6]: 294  Destiny's Trails,[5]: 98  and Frontier Gentleman.[7]

Television

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A partial list of Harris's roles in television programs includes:

Year Title Role Notes
1951-1953 Doorway to Danger Agent Doug Carter[8]
1953 Four Star Playhouse Frank Le Beau Season 2 Episode 3: "A Place of His Own" (aired on October 8, 1953)
1955-1957 N.O.P.D. Detective Victor Beaujac[8]: 770–771  18 episodes
1956 Four Star Playhouse Troy Season 4 Episode 22: "To Die at Midnight"
1957-1961 The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp Mayor John P. Clum[8]: 600  23 episodes
1959 Rawhide Riggs Season 1 Episode 12: "Incident of the Chubasco"
1960 Bonanza Regis Season 1 Episode 18: "A House Divided"
1961 Bonanza Colonel Clinton Wilcox Season 3 Episode 3: "The Honor of Cochise"
1961 Rawhide Sheriff Season 4 Episode 2: "The Sendoff"
1961 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Cullen Season 7 Episode 8: "The Old Pro"
1963 Bonanza Mr. Corman Season 5 Episode 4: "Twilight Town"
1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour District Attorney Season 1 Episode 15: "The Thirty-First of February"
1964 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Lawyer Season 2 Episode 18: "The Final Escape"
1965 Bonanza Martin Melviney Season 6 Episode 16: "The Far, Far Better Thing"
1965 Bonanza Judge Simpson Season 7 Episode 12: "Five Sundowns to Sunup"
1969 Bonanza Harry Teague Season 11 Episode 5: "Anatomy of a Lynching"
1971 Bearcats! Emmet Grosvenor Season 1 Episode 11: "The Big Guns"
1971 O'Hara, U.S. Treasury Ben Hazzard[8]: 783  Season 1 Pilot Episode: O'Hara, U.S. Treasury"
1971 O'Hara, U.S. Treasury Ben Hazzard[8]: 783  Season 1 Episode 1: "Operation Big Store"
1971 O'Hara, U.S. Treasury Ben Hazzard[8]: 783  Season 1 Episode 10: "Operation: Hijack"
1972-1974 Return to Peyton Place Leslie Harrington[9]

Harris played varied characters, often villains, on various programs produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited, such as Dragnet, Noah's Ark, GE True, Adam-12, and Emergency!.[10][11][12]

Harris guest starred in the religion anthology series Crossroads and played a gangster in the 1956 time travel television episode of the anthology series Conflict entitled "Man from 1997" opposite James Garner and Charles Ruggles.[13] Thereafter, he appeared as Whit Lassiter in the 1958 episode "The Man Who Waited" of the NBC children's western series Buckskin.[citation needed] He guest starred as Colonel Nicholson in the 1959 episode "A Night at Trapper's Landing" of the NBC western series Riverboat starring Darren McGavin.[14]

Harris also appeared in three syndicated series, Whirlybirds, starring Kenneth Tobey, Sheriff of Cochise and U.S. Marshal, both with John Bromfield, and as the character Ed Miller in the episode "Mystery of the Black Stallion" of the western serious Frontier Doctor starring Rex Allen.[15][16][17] He was cast in two episodes of the David Janssen crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective.[18]

Harris in 1958 portrayed Max Bowen in "The Hemp Tree" and in 1959 as Abel Crowder in "Rough Track to Payday", episodes of the CBS western series, The Texan, starring Rory Calhoun.[citation needed]

In 1960, Harris was cast as a drummer named Cramer in the episode "Fair Game" of the ABC western series The Rebel starring Nick Adams.[19] Harris appeared in three episodes of CBS's Perry Mason, playing the role of murder victim Frank Curran in "The Case of the Married Moonlighter" (1958), Perry's client Frank Brooks in "The Case of the Lost Last Act" (1959), and murderer Frank Brigham in "The Case of the Crying Comedian" in 1961.[20] In 1963 Harris appeared as a Gambler on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled "If You Have Tears".[citation needed] In 1969, Harris played the corrupt and cowardly Mayor Ackerson in the episode "The Oldest Law" of Death Valley Days.[21]

Death

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Harris died March 13, 1973, at the age of 54 in Los Angeles, California, of an apparent heart attack.[22][23]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1950 Appointment with Danger Paul Ferrar
1951 His Kind of Woman Harry Uncredited
1953 The Redhead from Wyoming Chet Jones
1953 The Great Sioux Uprising Uriah
1954 Dragnet Max Troy
1955 New Orleans Uncensored Scrappy Durant
1956 Comanche Downey
1956 The Mountain Nicholas Servoz
1956 The Brass Legend George Barlow
1957 Raintree County Union Lieutenant Uncredited
1958 New Orleans After Dark Vic Beaujac this is an expanded version for theaters of "The Case Of The Missing Cigars" episode from the N.O.P.D. TV series
1958 The Hunters Colonel Monk Moncavage
1959 Good Day for a Hanging Coley
1959 Cast a Long Shadow Eph Brown
1962 Four for the Morgue Lieutenant Victor Beaujac
1963 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Police Radio Unit F-7 Voice, Uncredited
1965 Sylvia Mr. Leland Uncredited
1965 Brainstorm Josh Reynolds
1965 The Great Sioux Massacre Mr. Turner
1965 The Money Trap Drunken Man (scenes deleted)
1966 An American Dream Detective O'Brien
1967 Countdown Technician Uncredited
1968 Bullitt Voice, Uncredited
1970 Bloody Mama Agent McClellan
1970 The Wife Swappers Psychiatrist
1970 Noon Sunday Operations Commander Callan

References

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  1. ^ "Stacy Harris – Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie.
  2. ^ a b O'Brian, Jack (November 16, 1946). "Broadway". Hope Star. Hope, Arkansas. p. 4. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.  
  3. ^ "Stacy Harris, 54, Actor On Radio, Stage and TV". March 14, 1973. Archived from the original on May 9, 2023 – via The New York Times.
  4. ^ Celluloid Heroes (April 8, 1973). "Actor Moved By Applause". The Big September Man. Abilene (TX) Reporter News. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4. p. 16.
  6. ^ a b c Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920–1960, 2nd Edition. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. p. 156.
  7. ^ "Frontier Gentleman". Idle Minds Design. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7. p. 278.
  9. ^ "Actor Stacy Harris Dies". The Times. San Mateo, California. United Press International. March 14, 1973. p. 4. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.  
  10. ^ "Stacy Harris". TVGuide.com.
  11. ^ "Adam-12". TVGuide.com.
  12. ^ Yokley, Richard; Sutherland, Rozane (May 1, 2007). Emergency!: Behind the Scene. Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN 9780763748968 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ "Conflict (1956–57) Man From 1997–November 27, 1956". February 3, 2012.
  14. ^ "A Night at Trapper's Landing (1959)". Archived from the original on February 16, 2018.
  15. ^ "The Whirlybirds". TVGuide.com.
  16. ^ "U.S. Marshal". TVGuide.com.
  17. ^ "Mystery of the Black Stallion (1956)". Archived from the original on February 16, 2018.
  18. ^ "Richard Diamond, Private Detective". TVGuide.com.
  19. ^ "The Rebel". TVGuide.com.
  20. ^ "Stacy Harris – Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
  21. ^ "Death Valley Days". TVGuide.com.
  22. ^ "The Milwaukee Sentinel". news.google.com – via Google News Archive Search.
  23. ^ "Stacy Harris". Idaho State Journal. Pocatello, Idaho. Associated Press. March 16, 1973. p. 13. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.  
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