System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Dan Duryea, Actor
January 23, 1907 - June 07, 1968
Born in White Plains, New York, on January 23, 1907, Dan Duryea attended Cornell University before getting his start in the working world in advertising. 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. Duryea returned to acting in summer stock. His Broadway debut came in the play Dead End, and he went on to receive accolades for his role as “Leo Hubbard” in the 1939 Broadway production of The Little Foxes. He reprised his role in the 1941 film version, and the same year played “Duke Pastrami” in Ball of Fire, starring Barbara Stanwyck. 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. Thereafter, Duryea was given star billing and left many gems among performances in over 70 films spanning 47 years. Duryea kept busy through the ‘40s with some of his best work as the bad guy, but he was never dull, even when called on to be friendly. Universal’s The Black Angel (1946) was a breakthrough for Duryea as he is allowed to play a character with a romantic side. Duryea opened 1950 with a non-bad guy part with United Artist’s The Underworld Story, featuring Michael O’Shea and Gale Storm. Outside of crime films, Duryea was a superb western bad. He enlivened such westerns as Along Came Jones, Winchester ‘73, Six Black Horses, and the excellent Black Bart (1948).
Dan Duryea took a break from movies in 1952 when he made a successful syndicated television series titled China Smith, playing an easygoing soldier of fortune who fought injustice in the East. This series ran on TV from 1952 to 1955, and even as late as the ‘70s his estate got residuals from this series on re-runs throughout the world. He also made guest appearances on The Twilight Zone, Rawhide, and Wagon Train. One of the actor's last roles in a big-budget picture was as a stuffy accountant who discovers within himself inner reserves of courage in Flight of the Phoenix (1965), directed by his friend Robert Aldrich. Duryea closed out his career playing Eddie Jacks on TV’s Peyton Place in the 1967-8 season.
Duryea’s personal life provided little grist for the gossip mills. He married Helen Bryan on April 15, 1932. The couple had two sons: Peter (1939), an actor, and Richard (1942). The Duryeas were married 35 years before Helen died from a heart ailment on January 21, 1967. On June 7, 1968, Dan Duryea died of cancer in Hollywood, little more than a year after his wife’s passing. He was 60 years old.
