Stacy Harris

Stacy Harris

Harris as Doug Carter in Doorway to Danger, 1953.
Born (1918-07-26)July 26, 1918
Big Timber, Quebec, Canada
Died March 13, 1973(1973-03-13) (aged 54)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality Canadian
Occupation Actor
Years active 1951-1972

Stacy Harris (July 26, 1918 – March 13, 1973) was a Canadian born actor with hundreds of film and television appearances. His name is often found spelled Stacey Harris.

Early years

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 Volunteer Group 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.[1]

Radio

Harris was best 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."[1]

His other roles in radio programs included Batman in The Adventures of Superman,[2] and Ted Blades in The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters.[2]:319 He was also a member of the casts of Confession,[3] Dragnet,[3]:200 Pepper Young's Family,[3]:294 and Destiny's Trails.[2]:98

Television

Harris's roles in television programs included those shown in the table below

Program Role
Doorway to Danger Agent Doug Carter[4]
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp John Clum[4]:600
N.O.P.D. Detective Victor Beaujac[4]:770-771
O'Hara, U.S. Treasury Ben Hazzard[4]:783
Return to Peyton Place Leslie Harrington[5]

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!.

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. Thereafter, he appeared as Whit Lassiter in the 1958 episode "The Man Who Waited" of the NBC children's western series, Buckskin. 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.

Harris appeared too 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 series, Frontier Doctor, starring Rex Allen. He was cast in two episodes of the David Janssen crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

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.[6]

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. 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.

In 1969, Harris played the corrupt and cowardly Mayor Ackerson of the since ghost town of Helena, Texas, in the episode "The Oldest Law" of the syndicated television series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Robert Taylor not long before Taylor's own death. Popular character actor Jim Davis played Colonel William G. Butler (1831-1912), who takes revenge on the town after its citizens refuse to disclose the killer of Butler's son, Emmett, who died from a stray bullet from a saloon brawl. Butler arranges for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to bypass Helena; instead Karnes City, south of San Antonio, becomes the seat of government of Karnes County. Tom Lowell (born 1941) played Emmett Butler, and Tyler McVey was cast as Parson Blake in this episode.

Death

Harris died March 13, 1973, at the age of 54 in Los Angeles, California of an apparent heart attack.[7][8]

Selected filmography

References

  1. 1 2 O'Brian, Jack (November 16, 1946). "Broadway". Hope Star. Arkansas, Hope. p. 4. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 3 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.
  3. 1 2 3 Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. P. 156.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7. P. 278.
  5. ↑ "Actor Stacy Harris Dies". The Times. California, San Mateo. United Press International. March 14, 1973. p. 4. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "The Texan". Classic Television Archive. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  7. ↑ Stacy Harris, actor, dies
  8. ↑ "Stacy Harris". Idaho State Journal. Idaho, Pocatello. Associated Press. March 16, 1973. p. 13. Retrieved June 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
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