Eddie Fontaine

{{Infobox person

| image =

| caption =

| name = Eddie Fontaine

| birth_name = Edward Reardon

| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|3|6}}

| birth_place = Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_place = Roselle, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1992|4|13|1927|3|6}}

| other_names =

| occupation = Actor

| years_active =

| spouse =

| children = 2

}}

Eddie Fontaine (March 6, 1927 – April 13, 1992) was an American actor and singer, best known for television roles in the 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Born Edward Reardon in Springfield, Massachusetts, Fontaine signed as a vocalist with RCA in 1954 after serving in the US Navy. In 1955, he appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in disc jockey Alan Freed's first rock and roll show. He also sang in the Jayne Mansfield movie The Girl Can't Help It (1956).{{cite web|url=http://www.jiveaces.com/jives_present/pg001.html|title=The Jive Aces Present..."The Girl Can't Help It" (DVD)|publisher=Jive Aces|accessdate=September 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509142104/http://www.jiveaces.com/jives_present/pg001.html|archive-date=May 9, 2017|url-status=dead}}

Musically, he is best remembered for his 1958 single "Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on the Trees)", which was part of The Beatles early repertoire.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSNu3sirl7cC&q=Eddie+Fontaine&pg=PA50|title=Rockabilly: A Forty-Year Journey|last1=Poore|first1=Billy|year=1998|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=9780793591428|accessdate=September 19, 2010}} (The British star Billy Fury released a version in 1964.)[https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/58735/versions#nav-entity "Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on the Trees)"], secondhandsongs.com. Accessed June 4, 2024. He is listed as a "legend" but not an inductee at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame site.{{cite web|url=http://www.rockabillyhall.com/FRAB.html|title=Rockabilly Hall of Fame Legends List|accessdate=September 19, 2010|archive-date=May 14, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514191937/http://www.rockabillyhall.com/FRAB.html|url-status=dead}}

Fontaine moved to Van Nuys, California, in the 1960s after singing in night clubs in pre-Castro Cuba. He landed a role in the World War II series The Gallant Men, in which he played ladies' man PFC Pete D'Angelo, and occasionally sang.{{cite web|url=http://ctva.biz/US/Military/GallantMen.htm|title=US Military Series: The Gallant Men|publisher=Classic TV Archive|accessdate=September 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920032549/http://ctva.biz/US/Military/GallantMen.htm|archive-date=September 20, 2010|url-status=dead}}

Although he never won another regular role in a television series, Fontaine made many guest appearances on shows such as 77 Sunset Strip, Baretta, Happy Days, The Rockford Files (as a different character in four episodes) and Quincy.{{cite web|url=http://www.torrentreactor.net/actor/350799/Fontaine-Eddie|title=Eddie Fontaine filmography and biography|publisher=TorrentReactor|accessdate=September 19, 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615105500/http://www.torrentreactor.net/actor/350799/Fontaine-Eddie|archivedate=June 15, 2011}}

In 1984, Fontaine was convicted in a murder-for-hire case. According to police documents, in 1983, he approached a country singer with the promise of a recording contract with RCA and a large sum of money if the man were to kill his estranged wife, with whom he was engaged in a custody battle. He was sentenced to four years in a California prison. He had previously been convicted of child molestation and grand larceny. Fontaine successfully appealed his murder-for-hire conviction based on the trial judge's rulings concerning these earlier offenses.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-06-11-me-10454-story.html|title=Actor Wins Review of His Conviction in Murder Plot|last1=O'Shaughnessy|first1=Lynn|date=June 11, 1985|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=September 3, 2010}}

He made his last TV appearance in the NBC TV series Sisters in 1991, and died of throat cancer the following year at age 65 in Roselle, New Jersey.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

References

External links

{{IMDb name|0284798}}
[https://archive.today/20130201043421/http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/artists/r/rear5000.htm Discography for Eddie Fontaine (under original name of Eddie Reardon)]

Category:1927 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:20th-century American guitarists

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:20th-century American male singers

Category:Actors from Springfield, Massachusetts

Category:Apex Records artists

Category:American male guitarists

Category:American male television actors

Category:American people convicted of child sexual abuse

Category:American rock guitarists