John Russell
Birthday: 1921-01-03
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, USA
Synopsis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
John Lawrence Russell was an American actor, and World War II veteran, most noted for playing Marshal Dan Troop in the successful ABC western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962, and his lead role as international adventurer Tim Kelly in the syndicated TV series Soldiers of Fortune from 1955 to 1957.
Russell signed a contract with 20th Century Fox in 1945 and made his first film appearance as a guard in A Royal Scandal. He played several supporting parts while at Fox, acting the role of a junior law partner in the Clifton Webb comedy Sitting Pretty, as well as a navy pilot in Slattery's Hurricane. Later, however, he signed with Republic Pictures where he was cast in a starring role.
In 1955, Russell landed the lead role in a television drama series called Soldiers of Fortune. In 1958, Russell was cast in his best-known role: the stolid, taciturn Marshal Dan Troop, the lead character in Lawman, an ABC/Warners hit western series that ran for four years. Co-starring alongside Peter Brown, who played Deputy Johnny McKay, and Peggie Castle as Birdcage Saloon owner Lily Merrill, Russell portrayed a US frontier peace officer mentoring his younger compatriot. At the same time that Lawman premiered, Russell played an outlaw, along with Edd Byrnes and Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., in the 1958 season premiere episode of Sugarfoot, another ABC/WB hit western, with Will Hutchins in the title role.
Russell also appeared in other motion pictures for Warner Bros., notably as a Sioux chieftain in Yellowstone Kelly, as well as a rich corrupt cattle-rancher, Nathan Burdette, in the highly successful Howard Hawks western Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne.
Throughout the remainder of his movie career, he played secondary roles in more than 20 films, including several A.C. Lyles westerns and three films directed by his friend Clint Eastwood, most notably as Marshal Stockburn, the chief villain in Eastwood's 1985 film, Pale Rider.
Russell also appeared in the second season of the Filmation children's science-fiction series Jason of Star Command. He played Commander Stone, a blue-skinned alien from Alpha Centauri. He replaced James Doohan, who had played the commander in the previous season, but left to start working on Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Description above from the Wikipedia article John Russell (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting
Under the Gun
as Simon Stone
A St. Louis cop, Mike Braxton (Sam Jones), receives an urgent call for help from his brother Tony (Nick Cassavetes), a small time thief in Los Angeles. Mike rushes to LA and finds that his brother has been murdered and his brother Tony's girlfriend gunned down right in front of him. Mike quickly learns Tony was a courier for an arms smuggler, Simon Stone (John Russell). When Mike meets Stone's lawyer, Samantha Richardson (Vanessa Williams), the two team up to bring down Stone's arms smuggling empire. However, Mike's infatuation with Samantha keeps putting them in greater danger.
Pale Rider
as Stockburn
A mysterious preacher protects a humble prospector village from a greedy mining company trying to encroach on their land.
Blood Legacy
as Frank Mantee
In order to qualify to inherit the family fortune, the four heirs must spend the night in the family estate. However, during the night someone starts killing them off.
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Cannon for Cordoba
as General Pershing
In 1912, during the Mexican Revolution, the border between Texas and Mexico is on flames due to savage raids by Mexican bandits who call themselves freedom fighters, so the US government entrusts to General Pershing the capture of General Héctor Córdoba, the most notorious among them.
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Buckskin
as Patch
A Montana marshal fights a land baron out to parch homesteaders with a spite dam.
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If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
as Sheriff
James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Leslie Whitlock (Kevin McCarthy) offers James money to kill his wife, Ellen (Dana Wynter). He declines and tries to look up his old flame Lily (Barbara McNair), but discovers his own brother is now married to the sultry nightclub singer. James returns to Leslie, and the trio travel towards a mountain retreat. James and Ellen escape and try to find the murderer who had framed James years before. He experiences prejudices from police and civilian alike before the trail leads to the dead girl's stepfather.
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Hostile Guns
as Aaron Pleasant
US Marshal Gid McCool leads a wagon train of convicted felons to Huntsville prison. The only female among the crooks is the dancehall girl Laura Mannon, McCool's former flame. When McCool cannot be swayed from completing his lawful duty, Laura tries to endear herself to shotgun rider Mike Reno in hopes he will set her free.
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Apache Uprising
as Vance Buckner
Various stage coach passengers and outlaws travelling through Indian country are forced to join forces against the Apaches.
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Yellowstone Kelly
as Gall, Sioux Chief
A fur-trapper named Kelly, who once saved the life of a Sioux chief, is allowed to set his traps in Sioux territory during the late 1870s. Reluctantly he takes on a tenderfoot assistant named Anse and together they give shelter to a runaway Arapaho woman. Tensions develop when Anse falls in love with this woman and when the Sioux chief arrives with his warriors to re-claim her.
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Rio Bravo
as Nathan Burdette
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
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Lawman
as Marshal Dan Troop
Lawman is an American western television series originally telecast on ABC from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during 1879 and the 1880s. Warner Bros. already had several western series on the air at the time, having launched Cheyenne with Clint Walker as early as 1955. The studio continued the trend in 1957 with the additions of Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly, Colt .45 with Wayde Preston, and Sugarfoot with Will Hutchins. One year later, Warner Bros. added Lawman and Bronco with Ty Hardin.
Prior to the beginning of production, Russell and Brown and producer Jules Schermer made a pact to maintain the quality of the series so that it would not be seen as "just another western." At the start of season two, Russell and Brown were joined by Peggie Castle as Lily Merrill, the owner of the Birdcage Saloon, and a love interest for Dan.
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Fort Massacre
as Travis
New Mexico Territory, August 1879. The few surviving members of a cavalry column, which has been relentlessly decimated by the Apaches, attempt to reach Fort Crain. On their way through a hostile land, the obsessive and ruthless Sergeant Vinson takes to the limit the battered will of the troopers under his command.
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Hell Bound
as Jordan
After WW2, a Los Angeles crime ring uses a complex scheme, involving a freight ship, a junkie, and a corrupt health officer, to smuggle drugs into the USA.
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The Dalton Girls
as W.T. "Illinois" Grey
Female relatives of the infamous Dalton gang carry on the family tradition.
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The Last Command
as Lt. Dickinson
During the Texas War of Independence of 1836 American frontiersman and pioneer Jim Bowie pleads for caution with the rebellious Texicans. They don't heed his advice since he's a Mexican citizen, married to the daughter of the Mexican vice-governor of the province and a friend to General Santa Anna since the days they had fought together for Mexico's independence. After serving as president for 22 years, Santa Anna has become too powerful and arrogant. He rules Mexico with an iron fist and he would not allow Texas to self-govern. Bowie sides with the Texans in their bid for independence and urges a cautious strategy, given Santa Anna's power and cunning. Despite the disagreement between the Texicans and Bowie regarding the right strategy they ask Bowie to lead them in a last-ditch stand, at Alamo, against General Santa Anna's numerically superior forces.
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Jubilee Trail
as Oliver Hale
A wild-west trader and his New York wife head out for the California by wagon train. The trader is killed enroute, and his wife finds herself with child. She continues on hoping to find a man and a home.
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The Sun Shines Bright
as Ashby Corwin
With the election approaching, a judge in a Southern town at the turn of the 20th century is involved variously in revealing the real identity of a young woman, reliving his Civil War memories, and preventing the lynching of an African youth.
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Fair Wind to Java
as Flint
The Dutch East Indies, at the end of the nineteenth century. An adventurous captain of an American merchant vessel is looking for a sunken Dutch vessel containing 10,000 precious diamonds. Unfortunately, he's not the only one and then there's also that volcano on the nearby island of Krakatau, waiting to explode in its historical, disastrous eruption...
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Hoodlum Empire
as Joe Gray
It's a deadly play for power when a Mafia chieftain's top gun goes straight and threatens to testify against the big boss and his cruel, nationwide network of crime. The picture, which was shot in a semi-documentary style, was inspired by the Kefauver investigations of 1950-51.
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Fighting Coast Guard
as Barney Walker
Story of how the Coast Guard trained to help win World War II.
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The Fat Man
as Gene Gordon
A innocent dentist is murdered and the only apparent motive seems to be to steal a set of dental x-rays. To the police it looks like an accident, but private eye Brad Runyan thinks there's more to it.
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Man in the Saddle
as Hugh Clagg
A small rancher is being harassed by his mighty and powerful neighbor. When the neighbor even hires gunmen to intimidate him he has to defend himself and his property by means of violence.
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The Barefoot Mailman
as Theron
Sylvanus Hurley is a swindler who's been swindled: he's been given a deed to a large plot of mangrove swamp in the out-of-the-way community. So he decides to con the locals, some of whom are not as honest as he....
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Saddle Tramp
as Rocky
Carefree Chuck Connor is on his way west and stops off to see an old friend and his four lads. When his host is killed in a riding accident Chuck realises he must take care of the family. They hit the road and he takes a job on a ranch, but he has to keep the children hidden as his boss hates kids. There's also tension with the neighbouring ranch, and when a girl on the run from her nasty uncle joins the family unannounced Chuck wonders what he has done to deserve all this.
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The Story of Molly X
as Cash Brady
Molly's husband Rick was a gang leader somewhere in the middle west. When he's shot, the tough woman moves to S.F. with a couple of the gang to start anew. Disguised as a noble woman, she and her gang rob security transports. But when one day Rob confesses to her that he killed Rick out of jealousy, she shoots him down immediately. In lack of proof she can't be convicted for the murder, but she goes to jail for the robberies. It's a new and very open female prison, where she learns a profession for the first time in her life.
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Undertow
as Danny Morgan
Undertow stars Scott Brady as a gambler just out of wartime military service. No longer interested in wagers and speculations, Brady wants only to open up a mountain vacation lodge. Before this can take place, Brady is framed for murder, and forced to hide out in the home of Peggy Dow. With the help of Dow and a policeman friend, Brady searches for the real murderer. Watch carefully in Undertow and you'll spot new Universal contractee "Roc" Hudson as a plainclothes detective.
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The Gal Who Took the West
as Grant O'Hara
In order to gain passage to the West, a woman poses as an opera singer, and causes a feud between two cousins.
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Slattery's Hurricane
as Lt. F.A. 'Hobbie' Hobson
A pilot wants a life of ease, flying for drug smugglers and looking the other way until his conscience is tweaked by a woman he has misused. The story unfolds in flashbacks as the pilot battles the storm and recalls his failures, including a love affair with the wife of his best friend.
