Jump to content

Mort Mills

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 201.37.161.197 (talk) at 23:26, 30 October 2016 (→Acting roles). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mort Mills
Born
Mortimer Morris Kaplan

(1919-01-11)January 11, 1919
New York City, U.S.
DiedJune 6, 1993(1993-06-06) (aged 74)
Ventura, California, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1952–1973
Spouse(s)Betty (1956–1992; 1 child)
Mary (?–?) (divorced; 2 children)

Mort Mills (born Mortimer Morris Kaplan; January 11, 1919 – June 6, 1993) was an American film and television actor who had roles in over 200 movies and television episodes. He was often the town lawman or the local bad guy in many popular westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. From 1957-1959 he had a recurring co-starring role as Marshal Frank Tallman in Man Without a Gun. Other recurring roles were as Sergeant Ben Landro in the Perry Mason series and Sheriff Fred Madden in The Big Valley. In 1958, he guest starred as a particularly greedy bounty hunter who clashes with Steve McQueen's character of Josh Randall in the CBS western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Biography

Though Mills did much television work, he also found regular work in motion pictures. He played the suspicious highway patrolman who follows Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Psycho (1960). A few years later, he worked again with Hitchcock, playing a spy in East Germany under the cover of being a farmer in Torn Curtain (1966).[1][2] Mills also appeared with Charlton Heston in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958).[3]

In 1955, he appeared as Samuel Mason on ABC's Disneyland miniseries Davy Crockett, starring Fess Parker. From 1957-1959, Mills co-starred with Rex Reason in the syndicated western series Man Without a Gun.[4] He portrayed Marshal Frank Tillman. Reason played his friend, Adam MacLean, editor of the Yellowstone Sentinel newspaper. In the 1965 Three Stooges film, The Outlaws Is Coming, Mills played Trigger Mortis.[5]

Mills was a regular as police Lieutenant Bob Malone in Howard Duff's NBC-Four Star Television series, Dante (1960–1961), set at a San Francisco, California, nightclub called "Dante's Inferno". He appeared in eight episodes of Perry Mason, seven of them as Police Sgt. Ben Landro between 1961 and 1965.

His cousin, Mary Treen, was a film actress.

Acting roles

Starring in his own TV series

Recurring role in a series

Multiple appearances on a television series

Single episode television appearances

Theatrical film

References

  1. ^ Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo Press. p. 577. ISBN 978-0-306-80932-3.
  2. ^ Walker, Michael (2006). Hitchcock's Motifs. Amsterdam University Press. p. 455. ISBN 978-90-5356-772-2.
  3. ^ Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; Ursini, James; Porfirio, Robert (2010). The Film Noir Encyclopedia. Overlook Hardcover. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-59020-144-2.
  4. ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. p. 733. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
  5. ^ Cox, Stephen; Terry, Jim (2006). One Fine Stooge: Larry Fine's Frizzy Life In Pictures. Cumberland House Publishing. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-58182-363-9.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mort_Mills&oldid=747014737"