Dan Duryea

Acting

Dan Duryea

Born 1907-01-23 · White Plains, New York, USA

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dan Duryea (January 23, 1907, in White Plains, New York – June 7, 1968, in Hollywood, California) was an American actor of film, stage and television. Duryea graduated from Cornell University in 1928. While at Cornell, Duryea was elected into the Sphinx Head Society. He made his name on Broadway in the play Dead End, followed by The Little Foxes, in which he played the dishonest and not particularly bright weakling Leo Hubbard. He moved to Hollywood in 1940 to appear in the film version in the same role. He established himself in films playing similar secondary roles as the foil, usually as a weak or annoyingly immature character, in movies such as The Pride of the Yankees. As his career progressed throughout the 1940s he began to carve a niche as a violent, yet sexy, bad guy in a number of film noirs. In so doing he established a significant female following and, over time, something of a cult status. His work in this era included Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window, Criss Cross, Black Angel and Too Late for Tears. From the 1950s, Duryea was more often seen in Westerns, most notably his charismatic villain in Winchester '73 (1950). Other memorable work in the latter part of his career included Thunder Bay (1953), The Burglar (1957), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), and the primetime soap opera Peyton Place. He also appeared in one of the first Twilight Zone episodes in 1959 as a drunken former gunfighter in "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," written by Rod Serling. He guest starred on NBC's anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show. In 1963, Duryea appeared as Dr. Ben Lorrigan in the episode "Why Am I Grown So Cold" on the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour. Duryea was far removed from many of the characters he played in the course of his career. He was married for thirty-five years to his wife, Helen, who preceded him in death on January 21, 1967. The couple had two sons: Peter, who worked for a time as an actor, and Richard. Dan Duryea died of cancer at the age of sixty-one. His remains are interred in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article Dan Duryea, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

The Little Foxes poster
7.5

In 1900, a clan attempts to strike a deal with a Chicago industrialist to get him to build cotton mills in their Deep South town.

The Little Foxes

1941

The Flight of the Phoenix poster
7.2

A cargo aircraft crashes in a sandstorm in the Sahara with less than a dozen men on board. One of the passengers is an airplane designer who comes up with the idea of ripping off the undamaged wing and using it as the basis for a replacement aircraft they need to build before their food and water run out.

The Flight of the Phoenix

1965

Winchester '73 poster
7.3

Lin McAdam rides into town on the trail of Dutch Henry Brown, only to find himself in a shooting competition against him. McAdam wins the prize, a one-in-a-thousand Winchester rifle, but Dutch steals it and leaves town. McAdam follows, intent on settling his old quarrel, while the rifle keeps changing hands and touching a number of lives.

Winchester '73

1950

That Other Woman poster
6.7

A secretary by the name of Emily Borden comes up with a convoluted plan to get her boss to marry her which backfires after some bad advice.

That Other Woman

1942

Taggart poster
5.5

Taggart's family is slaughtered by a rival rancher. Taggart mortally wounds the rancher and kills his son. Before he dies the rancher hires three bounty hunters to avenge him with the promise of $5000 as a reward. Taggart must flee into Apache territory to escape the wrath of the trio of hired killers.

Taggart

1965

The Valley of Decision poster
7.2

Mary Rafferty comes from a poor family of steel mill workers in 19th Century Pittsburgh. Her family objects when she goes to work as a maid for the wealthy Scott family which controls the mill. Mary catches the attention of handsome scion Paul Scott, but their romance is complicated by Paul's engagement to someone else and a bitter strike among the mill workers.

The Valley of Decision

1945

Scarlet Street poster
7.6

Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.

Scarlet Street

1945

Ball of Fire poster
7.4

A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang—and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.

Ball of Fire

1941

Night Passage poster
6.5

Grant MacLaine, a former railroad troubleshooter, lost his job after letting his outlaw, the Utica Kid, escape. After spending five years wandering the west and earning his living playing the accordion, he is given a second chance by his former boss.

Night Passage

1957

The Woman in the Window poster
7.4

A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.

The Woman in the Window

1944

Incident at Phantom Hill poster
6.1

At the end of the Civil War, a major shipment of Union gold has been stolen and buried in the desert. Only one man knows the whereabouts of gold and the US Army sends captain Matt Martin to arrest him and come back with the gold. Martin, his prisoner and a handful of men enter Indian territory in search of the precious cargo. The Apaches, outlaws and storms will make it difficult.

Incident at Phantom Hill

1966

Criss Cross poster
7.1

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

Criss Cross

1949

The Bamboo Saucer poster
5.2

A flying saucer hidden in a Red Chinese peasant village is sought by teams from the United States and U.S.S.R. On finding it, they band together to explore the saucer and take a trip into space.

The Bamboo Saucer

1968

Too Late for Tears poster
6.8

Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder.

Too Late for Tears

1949

Sahara poster
7.2

In Libya, an American tank commander, along with a handful of Allied soldiers, tries to defend an isolated well with a limited supply of water from a German Afrika Korps battalion during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.

Sahara

1943

Black Angel poster
6.1

A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.

Black Angel

1946

The Pride of the Yankees poster
7.3

The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.

The Pride of the Yankees

1942

Black Bart poster
4.9

Cheerful outlaw Charlie Boles leaves former partners Lance and Jersey and heads for California, where the Gold Rush is beginning. Soon, a lone gunman in black is robbing Wells Fargo gold shipments. One fateful day, the stage he robs carries old friends Lance and Jersey...and notorious dancer Lola Montez, coming to perform in Sacramento. Black Bart and Lance become rivals for both Lola's favors and Wells Fargo's gold.

Black Bart

1948

Ministry of Fear poster
6.9

Stephen Neale is released into WWII England after two years in an asylum, but it doesn't seem so sane outside either. On his way back to London to rejoin civilization, he stumbles across a murderous spy ring and doesn't quite know to whom to turn.

Ministry of Fear

1944

Five Golden Dragons poster
5.2

While travelling through Hong Kong, Bob Mitchell accidentally stumbles into the middle of criminal negotiations between a mean gang, the Five Golden Dragons and the local mobsters.

Five Golden Dragons

1967

Stranger on the Run poster
5.7

A drifter finds himself wrongly accused of murder by a power-crazed sheriff. The sheriff gives him a horse, some supplies, and a one-hour head start into the desert before sending his murderous posse after him.

Stranger on the Run

1967

He Rides Tall poster
5.1

A rancher is pressured by his cheating wife and a gang leader, into trying to cripple a marshal's gun hand, after that marshal killed his murderous son in self defense.

He Rides Tall

1964

Along Came Jones poster
5.8

An easy-going cowboy is mistaken by the townsfolk for a notorious gunman. The cowboy decides it would be best to leave town, until he meets the gunman's girlfriend.

Along Came Jones

1945

Thunder Bay poster
6.0

Shrimpers and oilmen clash when an ambitious wildcatter begins constructing an off-shore oilrig.

Thunder Bay

1953