Kirby Grant

Kirby Grant, (born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr., in Butte, Montana, November 24, 1911 - October 30, 1985), was a long-time B movie and television actor. He is mostly remembered for playing the title role in the television series Sky King.

Grant, a child prodigy violinist, continued to pursue music and became a professional singer and bandleader. In 1939 the "Gateway to Hollywood" talent-search contest awarded him a movie contract. These "Gateway" contracts were already prepared with fictitious screen names (thus Josephine Cottle became "Gale Storm" and Ralph Bowman became "John Archer"; Grant won with Dorothy Howe, who became "Virginia Vale"). Grant's contract was made out to "Robert Stanton," and Grant used the pseudonym in his earliest films before adopting his first and middle names professionally. "Robert Stanton" and "Virginia Vale" were introduced in the RKO Radio Pictures feature Three Sons, with Edward Ellis and William Gargan. For the next few years Grant freelanced among various studios; his most familiar picture from this period (as Kirby Grant) is probably 1941's Blondie Goes Latin, with Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake.

In 1943, Grant signed with Universal Pictures, where he played romantic leads in B musicals, and in Abbott and Costello and Olsen and Johnson comedies. His smooth baritone voice got him teamed with Universal's singing star Gloria Jean for two features in 1944, and then Universal selected him to replace Rod Cameron (who had just been promoted to more important roles) as the studio's B-Western series star in 1945.

These seven westerns established Kirby Grant as an action star. In the late 1940s Monogram Pictures hired him for a series of mounted-police adventures, featuring "Chinook the Wonder Dog." Grant was working in this capacity when television beckoned in 1951, with an adventure series called Sky King.

Grant starred as Arizona rancher-pilot Schuyler "Sky" King, who fought bad guys and rescued people with his airplane. Production spanned much of the Cold War; early villains were bank robbers and kidnappers; some later foils were Russian spies and saboteurs. Sky's first airplane was a Cessna T-50 (known among pilots as the "Bamboo Bomber" because of its wooden wings), and later a much more modern Cessna 310B. Sky's airplanes were named "Songbird". Sky and his niece "Penny" lived on the "Flying Crown Ranch". A nephew named, "Clipper", played by Ron Hagerthy, appeared only in the first season. His absence was explained as having joined the military. The series called for Grant to wear the same outfit on every show. That prompted many fans to wonder if the character owned any other clothes. Actually, this was a common practice in the early days of TV production: the series regulars in Adventures of Superman and Dragnet, for example, always wore the same outfits so different episodes could be filmed at the same time, and file footage could be added to new footage without anyone noticing.

Grant did little acting after the show ended although he and co-star Gloria Winters were in demand for personal appearances at fairs and aviation events. He traveled with the Carson and Barnes Circus from 1967 to 1970. Grant retired that year. Sky King continued to play in reruns, but Grant received no residuals.

Grant and his wife, Carolyn, had three children. In the early 1970s, they moved from California to Florida.

The couple founded the nonprofit Sky King Youth Ranches of America, which provided homes for abandoned or orphaned children. He had plans to resurrect the Sky King series with the Flying Crown Ranch becoming a home for such kids, and publicizing their stories, but it never materialized.

Grant was killed at the age of seventy-three in a car accident near Titusville, Florida. He was on his way to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral, where he was also to be honored by the astronauts for encouraging aviation and space flight. Grant was not wearing his seatbelt. He is interred in Missoula, Montana.

Recording career

Kirby SKY King Grant is listed as the recording artist on Wizard Records of Nashville Tn #245-A "Loving Time" and 245-B "Letter from Tina" circa 1970. A Country music supergroup in the 1990s was named The Sky Kings.

Grant's Pilot Status

According to Grant's son, Kirby Grant III, his father was a pilot and he flew with him many times.He was turned down for pilot training during World War II because of color blindness. In the article "310 B Goes To Hollywood," Bill Fergusson, the show's usual stunt pilot on loan from the Cessna Corp. recalled how Grant flew the 310B like a professional. According to Gloria Winters, Grant was a pilot, and started his flying career in a 1929 Waco.

As in his television series, Grant was a rancher and flier and his ranch was in Valley Center, CA. His home was on Valley Center Road at the end of his private airstrip.(4)

It has been reported that Kirby Grant's pilot's license was issued in 1929 and expired in 1978 for medical reasons. There are many anecdotal reports of Grant flying airplanes at air shows.

References

(2)References: Airport Journals Jan. 2006 interview with Gloria Winters. Winters stated Grant and her late husband were both pilots. She stated twice in the interview that Kirby Grant was a pilot, and her late husband(Dean Vernon)was a crop duster, and was the sound engineer on Sky King. In the 1970s Kirby Grant was an honorary member of the Army Aviation Association of America "Quad-A" at the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Chapter. During meetings he often told stories related to his early movies. (3)Missoula city website http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/index.aspx?NID=175 This government website has posted Kirby Grant's resume, which states he was a pilot.

(4) http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060611/news_m1m11history.html

External References

Kirby Grant at Find-a-Grave