Login
Login

Howard Duff

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}

{{Short description|American actor (1913–1990)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Howard Duff

| image = Howard Duff 1969.JPG

| caption = Duff in 1969

| birthname = Howard Green Duff

| birth_date = {{birth date|1913|11|24}}

| birth_place = Charleston, Washington, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1990|07|08|1913|11|24}}

| death_place = Santa Barbara, California, U.S.

| occupation = Actor

| yearsactive = 1943–1990

| spouse = {{Plainlist|

  • {{marriage|Ida Lupino|1951|1984|end=divorced}}
  • {{marriage|Judy Jenkinson|1986}}}}

| children = 1

}}

File:Howard Duff Eileen Ryan Twilight Zone.JPG in "A World of Difference", an episode of The Twilight Zone, 1960]]

Howard Green Duff (November 24, 1913{{spaced ndash}}July 8, 1990) was an American actor. He started in radio during World War II before appearing in many Hollywood features and television programs from 1947 to 1990. He also directed for television. His career was marked by accusations of disloyalty during the red scare of the 1950s.

Early life

Duff was born in Charleston, Washington (today a part of Bremerton), in 1913.{{cite news|title=Actor Howard Duff, Radio's Sam Spade, Dies at 72|work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=July 10, 1990}} He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932, where he began acting in school plays after he was cut from the school basketball team.

Duff worked locally in Seattle-area theater until entering the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He was eventually assigned to their radio service, and announced re-broadcasts prepared for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). In this role, he served as the announcer for the drama Suspense, dated March 16, 1943.

Career

=Sam Spade=

Duff's most memorable radio role was as Dashiell Hammett's private eye Sam Spade in The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946–1950).{{cite book|author=Buxton, Frank and Owens, Bill|title=The Big Broadcast – 1920–1950|publisher=The Viking Press|date=1972}} Due to accusations of Duff being a communist and with his TV and film career starting to take hold, he ultimately left the program in 1950 at the start of its final season; Stephen Dunne took over the voice role of Spade.{{cite news|author=Roberts, C. |date=September 25, 1950|title=Howard duff fired but he doesn't mind so much; 20 will film Joe Louis fight.|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|166147950}}}}{{cite book|author=Dunning, John|title=Tune in Yesterday|publisher=Prentice-Hall|date=1976}}

=Contract with Universal=

Duff was signed to a long-term contract with Universal, and made his film debut alongside Burt Lancaster as an inmate in 1947's Brute Force. The movie was produced by Mark Hellinger and directed by Jules Dassin, who gave Duff a bigger role in their next film, The Naked City (1948).{{cite book|author=Maltin, Leonard|title=TV Movies|edition=1981–82|publisher=New American Library|date=1980}} He subsequently reunited with Lancaster for the family drama All My Sons (also 1948), based on the play of the same name by Arthur Miller.

More substantial roles soon followed, with Duff taking the lead in numerous Westerns and films noir including Illegal Entry, Red Canyon, Johnny Stool Pigeon, Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (all 1949);{{cite news|author=Hedda Hopper |title=Howard Duff to Star Opposite De Carlo|date=October 2, 1948|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|165902216}}}}Spy Hunt, Shakedown and Woman in Hiding (all 1950). The latter film saw Duff act alongside his future wife Ida Lupino; the couple would subsequently co-star in a further four films during the 1950s.

In 1951, Duff made a pilot for a new radio series, The McCoy.{{cite news|author=Ames, W.|date=April 24, 1951|title=Howard duff cuts audition for new private eye series; pinky lee on sullivan show.|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|166179601}}}} Following his marriage to Lupino in October 1951, Duff was granted a release from his contract with Universal.{{Cite news|author=Schallert, E.|title=Drama|date=October 16, 1951|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|166281180}}}}

=Freelance actor=

Duff appeared in the 1952 film That Kind of Girl (aka Models Inc),{{Cite news|author=Hopper, H.|title=Looking cat hollywood.|date=January 9, 1952|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|id={{ProQuest|178267712}}}} and also featured in Spaceways, and Roar of the Crowd (both 1953), the latter for Monogram Pictures, which ultimately made Jennifer (also 1953), the second movie in which he starred alongside his wife.

His other film appearances beside his wife; Don Siegel's Private Hell 36 (1954); Lewis Seiler's Women's Prison (1955), and Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956) continued Duff's successful run of movies during the 1950s.

=Television=

In addition to his movie roles, Duff also experienced success in television, with appearances in the 1950s series The Star and the Story, Climax! and Crossroads. From January 1957 to July 1958, he appeared with Lupino in the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, which revolved around the private lives of two fictitious film stars, Howard Adams and Eve Drake, who were married to each other. They also served as producers.{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Tim |author-link1=Tim Brooks (historian) |last2=Marsh |first2=Earl |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946–present |publisher=Ballantine |date=1979 |isbn=9780345282484}}

Other TV roles included an appearance in NBC's Western series Bonanza, playing a young Samuel Langhorne Clemens in his early life in the West as a satirical and crusading journalist, in the first-season episode "Enter Mark Twain". Duff also featured in episodes of numerous TV series during the 1960s including The Twilight Zone, Burke's Law, Combat! (episode “Missing in Action”), The Eleventh Hour, Mr. Novak and Batman (episode "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra", alongside wife Ida Lupino). In 1960, Duff portrayed Arthur Curtis on The Twilight Zone in an episode titled “A World of Difference.” In 1963 Duff appeared as Ed Frazer on The Virginian in the episode titled "A Distant Fury."{{cite book |last=Lentz |first=Harris M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O85kAAAAMAAJ |title=Television Westerns Episode Guide: All United States Series, 1949-1996 |date=1997 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-7386-1 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina}}{{Rp|page=428}}

Duff had the lead role in the short-lived TV series Dante (which ran for only one season; 1960–61), but found greater success as Detective Sergeant Sam Stone in the ABC police drama Felony Squad (1966–69). Duff appeared in all 73 episodes of the series during its three-season run, alongside his co-stars Dennis Cole and Ben Alexander. He also directed one episode; "The Deadly Abductors".{{cite news |first=Lawrence |last=Laurent |author-link=Lawrence Laurent (critic) |date=May 25, 1967 |title=Howard Duff Has a Pet Line |newspaper=The Washington Post and Times-Herald |department=Radio and Television |page=D24 |id={{ProQuest|143123554}}}}

Duff also directed seven episodes of the 1965–1966 television sitcom Camp Runamuck.

File:Howard Duff Felony Squad 1967.JPG]]

=Later career=

Duff continued to make guest appearances in TV series during the 1970s including The Streets of San Francisco, Police Story, The Rockford Files, and $weepstake$, amongst others, and also featured in the TV movies A Little Game (1971) and Snatched (1973). In 1971 Duff appeared as Stuart Masters in The Men from Shiloh (the retitled final season of the TV Western The Virginian) in the episode titled "The Town Killer".

Duff was part of an ensemble cast in the 1978 comedy film A Wedding, and had a prominent role as the attorney to Dustin Hoffman's character in the Academy Award-winning Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). In 1980 he played Charles Slade in the 1980 mini series The Dream Merchants.

Duff portrayed villain Jules Edwards in Part 1 of the 1981 mini-series East of Eden, and was part of the main cast in the TV series Flamingo Road (1980–82), appearing in all 38 episodes of the show.{{Cite news|author=Smith, C.|title=Howard Duff Discovers Villainy |date=June 1, 1981|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|152835761}}}}

He continued to make guest appearances in TV series during the 1980s, including Charlie's Angels (1980) (as bumbling private eye Harrigan in the episode "Harrigan's Angel"); Murder, She Wrote (1984); Magnum, P.I. (1988) (as Capt. Thomas Magnum, II, the grandfather of main character Thomas Magnum, played by Tom Selleck); and Dallas (also 1988).{{cite news|author=Martin Weil|date=July 10, 1990|title=Longtime character actor Howard Duff dies at 76|newspaper=The Washington Post|id={{ProQuest|140163634}}}} Duff also had a recurring role as Paul Galveston during the sixth season of Knots Landing (1984–85), appearing in 10 episodes. He returned for one more episode in 1990.

Although Duff made few film appearances during the 1980s, he did have a prominent role in the 1987 thriller No Way Out, alongside Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman. In 1990, shortly before his death, Duff made his final acting appearances in the TV series Midnight Caller and The Golden Girls, and the film Too Much Sun.

Personal life

Duff had a tempestuous relationship with actress Ava Gardner in the late 1940s. In October 1951, he married Ida Lupino.{{cite news|title=Howard Duff weds Ida Lupino|date=October 22, 1951|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|111948214}}}}{{cite news|title=Ida Lupino Becomes Bride of Howard Duff|date=October 22, 1951|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|166228206}}}}

After he was listed in Red Channels as a communist subversive in 1950, he lost his radio work and might have forfeited his entire career had it not been for his marriage. Duff and Lupino had a daughter, Bridget Duff (born April 23, 1952). The couple separated in 1966 but did not divorce until 1984. He subsequently married Judy Jenkinson. Like former wife Lupino, Duff was a staunch Democrat.{{cite book|title=Ida Lupino: A Biography|author=Donati, W.|date=2013|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=9780813143521|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Whjb4eJKkHYC|access-date=January 7, 2015}}

=Death=

Duff died at age 76 of a heart attack on July 8, 1990, in Santa Barbara, California.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63953987/obituary-for-howard-duff-aged-76/|title=Howard Duff; Starred in Radio, TV, Films |date=July 10, 1990|work=Los Angeles Times|first=Burt A.|last=Folkart}}

Filmography

{{div col}}

{{col div end}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|United States|California|Radio|Film|Television}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb name|0003318}}
  • [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt8489r0cj/?&query=howard%20duff&brand=oac Howard Duff Collection at UCLA]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duff, Howard}}

Category:1913 births

Category:1990 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male radio actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:California Democrats

Category:Male actors from Washington (state)

Category:Military personnel from Washington (state)

Category:People from Bremerton, Washington

Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II

Category:Universal Pictures contract players