Myron Healey; character actor (Independent obituary)
Hyfler/Rosner
April 3, 2006 Monday
Tom Vallance
OBITUARIES: MYRON HEALEY;
Wonderfully nasty' character actor
Many character actors are known by name only to enthusiasts,
but Myron Healey (whose death in December has just been made
public) was so prolific that it is particularly surprising
that he falls into that category - he is estimated to have
appeared in over 160 feature films and twice that many
television shows. With his deep voice and wily smile, he was
often cast as the villain, particularly in westerns.
Born in Petaluma, California, in 1923, he appeared in
high-school plays and sang on local radio as a teenager. He
moved in the early Forties to Hollywood, where he studied
acting and appeared in musicals for the Armed Forced Victory
Committee.
Given a contract by MGM in 1942, he made his screen dZbut
with an unbilled bit part in the MGM musical Thousands Cheer
(1943). In this all-star patriotic movie, he was featured in
a station sequence near the start kissing his sweetheart
goodbye in a way that prompts a solitary soldier (Gene
Kelly) to kiss a girl he has never met before (Kathryn
Grayson), launching the film's romantic plot.
Healey himself served in the Second World War from 1943 as
an Air Corps navigator and bombardier. (After the war he
continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve, retiring in the
early 1960s as a captain.) Returning to Hollywood in 1945,
he had difficulty finding work until signed by Monogram to
appear in the string of westerns they were producing,
starring Johnny Mack Brown, Jimmy Wakely and Whip Wilson.
His first film for Monogram was also his first as a villain,
opposite Brown in Hidden Danger (1948). Healey's cads were
notable for being clean-cut and shaven, sleeker and slicker
than the average western bad guy.
He also worked as a writer and dialogue director, and wrote
the script (including a juicy role for himself) for the
Johnny Mack Brown film Colorado Ambush (1951), in which the
star played a federal agent tracking down a gang who rob
payroll stages. As the leader of the gang, Healey was
described by one critic as "wonderfully nasty". Healey also
provided the story for another Brown vehicle, Texas Lawmen
(1951).
The demise of the "B" western in the Fifties led to more
diverse acting roles in crime, war and science-fiction
films. He was a post office clerk in Nicholas Ray's masterly
thriller In a Lonely Place (1950), and a thug in Allan
Dwan's film noir(in colour), Slightly Scarlet (1956). He had
a notable "good guy" role (and co-star billing) in one of
Republic Studio's last cliff-hanging serials, Panther Girl
of the Kongo (1955), helping the heroine Phyllis Coates
combat giant claw monsters (actually crayfish in miniature
sets with a giant claw for an occasional close-up).
By this time Healey had become established as a regular
performer on television, having made his small screen dZbut
in the series The Lone Ranger (1949-57). His numerous
credits included such westerns as The Gene Autry Show,
Cheyenne, Wagon Train, Gun-smoke and Bonanza, plus other
shows such as Perry Mason, Sea Hunt and The Incredible Hulk.
He is particularly remembered for two roles in western
shows - his taking over from Douglas Fowley as "Doc"
Holliday in the popular series starring Hugh O'Brian, The
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1958-59), and his portrayal
of a sadistic sergeant who gives Robert Horton 20 lashes
with a bull-whip in an episode of Wagon Train titled "The
Traitors" (1961).
During his big-screen career he appeared with many of
Hollywood's principal western stars, including Randolph
Scottin Shoot-out at Medicine Bend (1957), Barbara Stanwyck
in Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), and John Wayne in both
Rio Bravo (1959) and True Grit (1969).
He had a rare leading role in the monster movie Varan the
Unbelievable (1962). In this production, which combined
sequences from a Japanese movie, Daikaiju Baran, with new
American scenes, Healey was a naval commander who goes to
Japan to conduct scientific experiments in the ocean,
awakening a prehistoric monster which sinks a ship and
smashes a plane, and is heading for Tokyo when Healey
devises a concoction of chemicals that kill the monster when
shot into it.
Healey retired in 1988, but returned to acting to play a
doctor in Little Giants (1994), a family film about a group
of misfits who form a football team. Recently he had been
appearing at film conventions and festivals to talk to fans,
and stated that he enjoyed playing villains:
It's just plain interesting, the fact that you're not a nice
guy. I enjoyed that much more than playing a hero.
Tom Vallance
Myron Healey, actor: born Petaluma, California 8 June 1923'
four times married (two daughters)' died Burbank, California
21 December 2005.