Myron McCormick

Born Walter Myron McCormick in Albany, Indiana, in 1908, he was the middle child of Walter P. and Bessie M. McCormick's three children.Digital copy of original enumeration page from [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R6H-NGB?mode=g&cc=1488411 "The Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920], Albany Town, Delaware County, Indiana, January 2, 1920. United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. FamilySearch, a genealogical on-line database and public service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Retrieved May 30, 2017. His father, according to the federal census of 1920, was a native of Illinois and a manufacturer of tinware. He attended New Mexico Military Institute and Princeton University.{{cite news|title=Myron McCormick Is One of Princeton School of Actors|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6817631/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|date=January 25, 1942|location=New York, Brooklyn|page=34|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = September 28, 2016}} {{Open access}} At the latter, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society, gained experience in musical theater and finished as a magna cum laude graduate.{{cite news|title=Myron McCormick Says Once He Was Five Men in One Play|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6827451/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|date=November 29, 1942|location=New York, Brooklyn|page=27|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = September 29, 2016}} {{Open access}}

McCormick was one of three cast members of the Broadway smash South Pacific to remain with the show during its nearly five-year run of 1,925 performances.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=15VRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mmoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2844%2C4317893 |agency=Associated Press |author= |title='South Pacific' Ends Run |page=2 |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=1954-01-18 |access-date=2025-02-02}} McCormick's performance of sailor Luther Billis won him a Tony Award in 1950 for best supporting or featured actor in a musical.{{cite web|title=("Myron McCormick" search results)|url=http://www.tonyawards.com/p/tonys_search|website=Tony Awards|access-date=29 September 2016}} He also won the Donaldson Award for best supporting performance (actor) of 1948–1949.{{cite magazine|title=Winners: The Sixth Annual Donaldson Awards 1948-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RA4EAAAAMBAJ&q=Billboard+Donaldson+award+1949&pg=PT46|access-date=30 September 2016|magazine=Billboard|date=July 16, 1949|page=46}}

McCormick was prominent as the put-upon Sergeant King in No Time for Sergeants, a military comedy that ran on Broadway from 1955 to 1957. He repeated his role for the 1958 film version starring Andy Griffith.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bv9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VFUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7406%2C407322&q=Myron+McCormick |author=Bob Thomas |title='Sergeants' Film Seen Of Oscar Caliber |page=12-B |newspaper=The St. Petersburg Independent |date=1958-07-03 |access-date=2025-02-02}}

McCormick's other Broadway credits include 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1954), Joy to the World (1947), Soldier's Wife (1944), Storm Operation (1943), The Damask Cheek (1942), Lily of the Valley (1941), Thunder Rock (1939), In Clover (1937), The Wingless Victory (1936), Hell Freezes Over (1935), How Beautiful with Shoes (1935), Substitute for Murder (1935), Paths of Glory (1935), and Carry Nation (1932).{{cite web|title=("Myron McCormick" search results)|url=http://www.playbill.com/searchpage/search?q=Myron%20McCormick&shows=on&qasset=00000150-ac86-d16d-a550-ecbe77940003&|website=Playbill Vault|access-date=29 September 2016}}

His screen debut came in the 1936 film Winterset.{{cite news|title=Noted Actor McCormick Dies At 54|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6828095/tucson_daily_citizen/|work=Tucson Daily Citizen|agency=Associated Press|date=July 31, 1962|location=Arizona, Tucson|page=32|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = September 28, 2016}} {{Open access}} He made only occasional films through the 1940s, his most prominent credit being the huge hit Jolson Sings Again (1949), featuring Myron McCormick as the man who revives Al Jolson's show business career. McCormick also appeared in Jigsaw (1949) and The Man Who Understood Women (1959). He portrayed Charlie, the partner of pool shark "Fast Eddie" Felson (Paul Newman) in The Hustler (1961).

McCormick became a featured performer in the soap opera Buck Private and His Girl{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwtRbXNca0oC&dq=%22Buck+Private+and+His+Girl,+soap+opera%22&pg=PA122 |last=Dunning |first=John |author-link=John Dunning (detective fiction author) |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |section=Buck Private and His Girl |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |page=122 |edition=Revised |access-date=2019-09-13}} and in many popular radio dramas of the 1940s. He also made guest appearances on numerous television programs of the 1950s/early 1960s, including The Untouchables, Naked City, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Donna Reed Show, Way Out and The Iceman Cometh (1960 TV production). In 1959, he played Joe Saul in Steinbeck's Burning Bright on The Play of the Week television series.

McCormick was married to actress Martha Hodge and to Barbara MacKenzie.{{cite news|title=Myron McCormick, Actor, Dies of Cancer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6827642/the_terre_haute_star/|work=The Terre Haute Star|agency=Associated Press|date=July 31, 1962|location=Indiana, Terre Haute|page=8|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = September 28, 2016}} {{Open access}}

McCormick died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on July 30, 1962, from cancer, aged 54. He was survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter.

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• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|566584}}
• [http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=all&CISOBOX1=myron+mccormick&CISOROOT=%2Fsayre&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL Myron McCormick] in the 1942 play Lily of the Valley with Katharine Bard

{{TonyAward MusicalFeaturedActor 1947-1975}}

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Category:1908 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:Male actors from Indiana

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American male radio actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state)

Category:Donaldson Award winners

Category:Tony Award winners

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:People from Albany, Indiana

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:Male actors from New York City