Dan Duryea
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Not Available
Hissable movie heavy Dan Duryea was handsome enough as a young man to secure leading roles in the student productions at White Plains High School. He majored in English at Cornell University, but kept active in theatre, succeeding Franchot Tone as president of Cornell's Dramatic Society. Bowing to his parents' wishes, Duryea sought out a more "practical" profession upon graduation, working for the N. W. Ayer advertising agency. After suffering a mild heart attack, Duryea was advised by his doctor to leave advertising and seek out employment in something he enjoyed doing. Thus, Duryea returned to acting in summer stock, then was cast in the 1935 Broadway hit Dead End. The first of his many bad-guy roles was Bob Ford, the "dirty little coward" who shot Jesse James, in the short-lived 1938 stage play Missouri Legend. Impressed by Duryea's slimy but somehow likeable perfidy in this play, Herman Shumlin cast the young actor as the snivelling Leo Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. This 1939 Broadway production was converted into a film by Sam Goldwyn in 1941, with many members of the original cast -- including Duryea -- making their Hollywood debuts. Duryea continued playing supporting roles in films until 1945's The Woman in the Window, in which he scored as Joan Bennett's sneering "bodyguard" (that's Hollywoodese for "pimp"). Thereafter, Duryea was given star billing, occasionally in sympathetic roles (White Tie and Tails [1946], Black Angel [1946]), but most often as a heavy. From 1952 through 1955, he starred as a roguish soldier of fortune in the syndicated TV series China Smith, and also topped the cast of a theatrical-movie spin-off of sorts, World for Ransom (1954), directed by Duryea's friend Robert Aldrich. One of the actor's last worthwhile roles in a big-budget picture was as a stuffy accountant who discovers within himself inner reserves of courage in Aldrich's Flight of the Phoenix (1965). In 1968, shortly before his death from a recurring heart ailment, Duryea was cast as Eddie Jacks in 67 episodes of TV's Peyton Place. Dan Duryea was the father of actor Peter Duryea, likewise a specialist in slimy villainy.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Bamboo Saucer |
|
— | 1968 |
No Score Yet | The Hills Run Red |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | Winchester '73 |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | Five Golden Dragons |
|
— | 1967 |
No Score Yet | Incident at Phantom Hill |
|
— | 1966 |
86% | The Flight of the Phoenix |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | The Bounty Killer |
|
— | 1965 |
No Score Yet | Taggart |
|
— | 1964 |
No Score Yet | Do You Know This Voice? |
|
— | 1964 |
No Score Yet | Six Black Horses |
|
— | 1962 |
No Score Yet | Platinum High School |
|
— | 1960 |
No Score Yet | Gunfight at Sandoval |
|
— | 1959 |
No Score Yet | Kathy O' |
|
— | 1958 |
50% | Night Passage |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Battle Hymn |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | The Burglar |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Slaughter on Tenth Avenue |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Storm Fear |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | The Marauders |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Foxfire |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Silver Lode |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | World for Ransom |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | Ride Clear of Diablo |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | Thunder Bay |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | 36 Hours |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | Al Jennings of Oklahoma |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | Chicago Calling |
|
— | 1951 |
100% | Winchester '73 |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | One Way Street |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | The Underworld Story |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | Johnny Stool Pigeon |
|
— | 1949 |
100% | Too Late for Tears |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Manhandled |
|
— | 1949 |
92% | Criss Cross |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Another Part of the Forest |
|
— | 1948 |
No Score Yet | Black Bart |
|
— | 1948 |
No Score Yet | Black Angel |
|
— | 1946 |
100% | Scarlet Street |
|
— | 1945 |
71% | Lady on a Train |
|
— | 1945 |
No Score Yet | Along Came Jones |
|
— | 1945 |
No Score Yet | The Valley of Decision |
|
— | 1945 |
No Score Yet | The Great Flamarion |
|
— | 1945 |
88% | The Woman in the Window |
|
— | 1944 |
88% | Ministry of Fear |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | None But the Lonely Heart |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | Mrs. Parkington |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | Man from Frisco |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | Main Street After Dark |
|
— | 1944 |
100% | Sahara |
|
— | 1943 |
93% | The Pride of the Yankees |
|
— | 1942 |
100% | The Little Foxes |
|
— | 1941 |
100% | Ball of Fire |
|
— | 1941 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962-1965
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Bonanza
1959-1973
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Rawhide
1959-1965
|
|
|
82% |
The Twilight Zone
1959-1964
|
|
|
Quotes from Dan Duryea's Characters
Nat Harbin: | It's hot out there. Boiling hot! |