Leif Erickson
Birth : 1911-10-27, Alameda, California, USA
Death : 1986-01-29
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leif Erickson (born William Wycliffe Anderson) was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Erickson was born in Alameda, California, near San Francisco. He worked as a soloist in a band as vocalist and trombone player, performed in Max Reinhardt's productions, and then gained a small amount of stage experience in a comedy vaudeville act. Initially billed by Paramount Pictures as Glenn Erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in Westerns.
Erickson enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II. Rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, he served as a military photographer, shooting film in combat zones, and as an instructor. He was shot down twice in the Pacific as well as receiving two Purple Hearts. Erickson was in the unit that filmed and photographed the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Over four years service, he shot more than 200,000 feet of film for the Navy.
Erickson's first films were two 1933 band films with Betty Grable before starting a string of Buster Crabbe Western films based on Zane Grey novels. He would go on to appears in films such as The Snake Pit, Sorry, Wrong Number, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd, Invaders from Mars, On the Waterfront, A Gathering of Eagles, Roustabout, The Carpetbaggers and Mirage.
One of his more notable roles was as Deborah Kerr's macho husband in the stage and film versions of Tea and Sympathy. He appeared with Greta Garbo, as her brother in Conquest (1937). He played the role of Pete, the vindictive boat engineer, in the 1951 remake of the famed musical Show Boat. His final appearance in a feature film was in Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977).
Erickson appeared frequently on television; he was cast as Dr. Hillyer in "Consider Her Ways" (1964) and as Paul White in "The Monkey's Paw—A Retelling" (1965) on CBS's The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. However, he is probably best known for The High Chaparral, which aired on NBC from 1967 until 1971. He portrayed a rancher, Big John Cannon, determined to establish a cattle empire in the Arizona Territory while keeping peace with the Apache. Erickson guest-starred in several television series, including Rawhide, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., Medical Center, Cannon, The Rifleman, The Rockford Files, and the 1977 series Hunter. His final role was in an episode of Fantasy Island in 1984.
Erickson was married to actress Frances Farmer from 1936 until 1942. The same day that his divorce from Farmer was finalized, June 12, 1942, he married actress Margaret Hayes. They divorced a month later. He married Ann Diamond in 1945. They had two children, William Leif Erickson (born 1946 - died 1971 in a car accident) and Susan Irene Erickson (born 1950).
Erickson died of cancer in Pensacola, Florida, on January 29, 1986, aged 74 CLR
Ralph Whittaker - CIA Director
A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 unless the President reveals details of a secret meeting held just after the start of the Vietnam War between Dell and the then President's most trusted advisors.
Guthrie
Smallpox plagues Chief Winterhawk's tribe. He seeks cure from the white men, who in turn, in fear of getting the smallpox, kill two of his companions. Winterhawk comes back to kidnap a girl and her brother from the white men's settlement, and thus begins the chase...
Prescott
The daughter of wealthy businessman is taken hostage by a gang of radical black revolutionaries. While she fears for her life at first, she gradually starts to become sympathetic to her kidnappers' cause, and begins to consider herself to be one of them.
Cal Newkirk
William Henry Cameron
A criminal organization known as OSO specializes in kidnapping high ranking U.S. representatives. Although Steve Austin has already thwarted one of their kidnappings, he is unable to stop them from grabbing William Henry Cameron right from under OSI's nose. OSO demands one million dollars in gold and Oscar Goldman takes the opportunity to try and lure them out into the open. Meanwhile, Steve accompanies Dr. Erica Bergner, who is testing a new method of brain transferal in order to find out where Cameron is being kept.
Mike Lamont
A Mafia chief is torn between his brother, who has defected from the family, and his loyalty to the organization.
Amos Wetherall
Due to a home-steading law, a fur trapper schemes to keep his land by hiring a hooker, a pickpocket and a thief to pose as his family.
Dr. Harold Malcolm
A scientist keeps having dreams that he is marked for murder by a mysterious tribunal for something that he's not aware that he's done, and that his wife and his friends are part of the conspiracy. Soon he's not sure which is the dream and which is reality.
Marty Treleavan
On a transcontinental flight, the flight crew suffer from food poisoning and become incapacitated. Now it's up to one of the passengers to safely land the plane.
Sheriff Mossman
At the beginning of the 19th century a man and his son settle in Arizona which used to be a frontier state and full of criminals at that time.
The Major
New York City. David Stillwell struggles to recover his memory before the people who are trying to kill him succeed. Who is he, who are they, and why is he surrounded by murder?
Dave Mannering
Teenage friends Kit and Libby make prank phone calls for fun but then find themselves involved in a brutal double murder committed by one of their targets.
Joe Lean
After a singer loses his job at a coffee shop, he finds employment at a struggling carnival, but his attempted romance with a teenager leads to friction with her father.
Jonas Cord Senior
When playboy Jonas inherits his father's industrial empire, he expands it by acquiring an aircraft factory and movie studio. His rise to power is ruthless. He marries and then quickly abandons sweet, bubbly Monica, turns his young, attractive stepmother Rina into a self-destructive actress and manages to disappoint even his closest friend, cowboy movie star Nevada. Is Jonas beyond redemption?
Bill Cutler
After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior.
Gen. Hewitt
Rock Hudson plays an Air Force Colonel who has just been re-assigned as a cold war B-52 commander who must shape up his men to pass a grueling inspection that the previous commander had failed, and had been fired for. He is also recently married, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape his men up, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before.
Sam Barbee
A man has his eyes set on controlling the Big Sag territory in Montana and hopes to achieve his goal by forcing a newly-arrived family from Texas from their land. Hoping to convince the local saloonkeeper to help him, the man sends his daughter into town with instructions for his potential partner. A storm waylays the daughter during her trip to town and she is forced to stay at the home of her father's intended victims, leading to an interesting turn or two.
Granville 'Granny' Dix
Having gained a measure of TV fame by 1958, the nightclub comedy duo of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin decided to give movies a try with Once Upon a Horse. Dan and Dick play Dan Casey and Doc Logan, a pair of nitwitted cowboys who turn to outlawry because they can't make a go at any honest profession. Stealing a valuable herd of cattle, the boys' dreams of financial security are dashed when they're forced to raise money to feed their stolen bovines. Martha Hyer costars as Miss Amity Babb, a resourceful saloon hall owner who applies 20th century business methods to her 19th century operation.
Harry Hutton
An alcoholic captain sails a two-master through danger with a call girl and others on board.
Eddie Turnbill
Three navy war heroes are booked on a morale-building "vacation" in San Francisco. Once they manage to elude their ulcerated public relations officer, the trio throw a wild party with plenty of pretty girls.
Louis Morel
A young Italian fugitive and his older protective brother hide among the grape pickers at a vineyard in Provence.
Charlie Boyle
A suspected diamond smuggler returns to Istanbul and finds the lady love he thought was dead...or does he?
Bill Reynolds
Tom Lee is more interested in the arts than in sports, something that sits uneasily with both his father and his classmates. Tom's school housemaster Bill Reynolds even gives him a hard time for his "effeminate" interests. However, Bill's wife Laura sympathizes with Tom and tries to help him with her own overtures.
Lou Glover
Whenever it becomes known how good he is with guns, ex-gunman George and his wife Dora have to flee the town, in fear of all the gunmen who might want to challenge him. Unfortunately he again spills his secret when he's drunk. All citizens swear to keep his secret and support him to give up his guns forever -- but a boy tells the story to a gang of wanted criminals. Their leader threatens to burn down the whole town, if he doesn't duel him.
George Ballard
The sheriff of Gunlock is planning to hang Sam Hall, who shot three farmers found on cattle land, at sundown. At the casino, betting is 8 to 3 he won't make it. The cattlemen are set to rescue Sam; the farmers hope to lynch him before he can be rescued; and Hall schemes for escape with his girl Nellie. But Sheriff Jorden is most concerned with finding out who hired Hall: a leading suspect is the sheriff's future brother-in-law.
Glover
Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize fighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny's thugs, and later meets the dead man's sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.
Edgar Blevins
A new dress plays a key role in the lives of four women who are not acquainted with each other.
Sam (as Lief Erickson)
A group of communist spies plan to blow up an essential commercial artery, the Panama Canal. To this end, they have kidnapped a nuclear scientist and are traveling by steamship to the coast of South America. Luckily for western civilization, the hard-nosed ship's captain, played by Barton MacLane, has other ideas.
Kalmani
In northwest Africa, a tribal leader tries to stir up a rebellion against the ruling powers.
Mr. George MacLean
In the early hours of the night, young David Maclean sees a flying saucer land and disappear into the sand dunes just beyond his house. Slowly, all of the adults, including his once loving parents, begin to act strangely.
Richards
A ship of women embarks on a voyage to California. Director R. G. Springsteen's 1953 adventure drama stars Vera Ralston, David Brian, Virginia Grey, Charles Winninger, Veda Ann Borg and Hope Emerson.
Father Provincial aka Ed
Struggling to retain custody of his daughter following his divorce, football coach Steve Williams finds himself embroiled in a recruiting scandal at the tiny Catholic college he is trying to bring back to football respectability.
Bob Marshall
A naïve, recently-orphaned young man discovers he's being used as a pawn in a crooked gambler's plan to rig a July 4 horserace. Western.
Sgt. Norbert 'Noisy' Jackson
A divorced socialite decides to join the Army because she hopes it will enable her to see more of her boyfriend, a Colonel. She soon encounters many difficulties with the Army lifestyle. Moreover, her ex-husband is working as a consultant with the Army, and he uses his position to disrupt her romantic plans by making her join a group of WACs who are testing new equipment.
Morgan
Two hapless waiters in a tavern on the Spanish Main play cupid between aristocratic Lady Jane and tavern co-worker Bruce Martindale, but the two bumpkins mix-up a love letter with Captain Kidd's treasure map of Skull Island, leading to them being kidnapped and taken off to the notorious pirate's island.
Nicholas Reed
When a man confesses to his wife that he has been unfaithful, she imagines all the different ways that historical figures such as Cleopatra and Joan of Arc might handle the situation.
Feder
David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.
General aboard plane
Jane Froman (Susan Hayward), an aspiring songstress, lands a job in radio with help from pianist Don Ross (David Wayne), whom she later marries. Jane's popularity soars, and she leaves on a European tour... but her plane crashes in Lisbon, and she is partially crippled. Unable to walk without crutches, Jane nevertheless goes on to entertain the Allied troops in World War II.
Commander Lane
Meeting in a navy recruiting line, Al Crowthers and Melvin Jones become friends. Al has tried to enlist before, but was always rejected. He keeps trying so that he can impress women. Melvin, is allergic to women's cosmetics and his doctor prescribed ocean travel, so he decided to join the navy.
Marshal John Sutton
Audie Murphy comes into his own as a Western star in this story. Wrongly accused by crooked railroad officials of aiding a train heist by his old friends the Daltons, he joins their gang and becomes an active participant in other robberies. Betrayed by a fellow gang member, Murphy becomes a fugitive in the end. Seeking refuge at the ranch of a reformed gang member, he hopes to flee with the man's daughter to South America, but he's captured in the end and led off to jail. The girl promises to wait.
B. Frederick Linaker
A little girl enlists the aid of an attorney to obtain a divorce from her parents. Breezy B comedy was loosely remade as Irreconcilable Differences.
Stranger
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.
Pete
A dashing Mississippi river gambler wins the affections of the daughter of the owner of the Show Boat.
Bit Part (uncredited)
A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of it.
Pilate
The story of the Crucifixion, set within the context of the Korean War.
U.S. Marshal Martin Weatherby
After the Civil War, Confederate soldier Blayde Hollister travels to Dallas to avenge the savage murder of his family. Discovering his enemy is now an esteemed citizen, Hollister plots to expose the outlaw and his syndicate.
Bill Chase
A five-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a devastating plane crash in the mountains of California. When the newspapers reveal the boy was adopted and that the crash occurred on his birthday, three women begin to ponder if it's the son each gave up for adoption. As the three await news of his rescue at a mountain cabin, they recall incidents from five years earlier and why they were forced to give up their son.
Big Mart
Shadrach Jones, ex-Texas State Policeman, has the ruthless determination to find and kill the man who shot his brother in the back and stole the money with which he was to buy a ranch for the two of them. At the saloon-hotel run by Adelaide, Shadrach is convinced that one of the cowhands on the Captain McKellar cattle drive to Montana is his man. He takes the job of trail-herd boss to find the killer. McKellar preaches to Jones that he should forget revenge and let the law of retribution take care of the killer. Shadrach's hard driving of the men and his hunt for the killer makes him bitterly hated, and his retribution quest ends in a manner he did not anticipated.
Fred Anderson Jr.
Screwball black comedy about a wacky family that forgets where they've buried a corpse.
Dr. Bruce Gordon
Jane Morgan (Dorothy McGuire) marries handsome doctor William Wright (William Lundigan), despite warnings from a host of other doctor's wives that she will be neglected and lonely, thanks to his career. Based on the novel The Doctor Has Three Faces by Mary Bard and billed as a movie with "all the answers" for new wives, this dated little film follows Jane's struggles to adapt her life to better suit her husband's needs.
Tony
When Joan Boothe accompanies husband-reporter David to Las Vegas, she begins gambling to pass the time while he is doing a story. Encouraged by the casino manager, she gets hooked on gambling, to the point where she "borrows" David's expense money to pursue her addiction. This finally breaks up their marriage, but David continues trying to help her.
Pringle
A federal agent infiltrates a crime syndicate.
Dunois, Bastard of Orleans
In the 15th Century, France is a defeated and ruined nation after the One Hundred Years War against England. The fourteen-year-old farm girl Joan of Arc claims to hear voices from Heaven asking her to lead God's Army against Orleans and crowning the weak Dauphin Charles VII as King of France. Joan gathers the people with her faith, forms an army, and conquers Orleans.
Dr. Mason
After the accidental death of an idiot heir, a stunt man is hired to impersonate him while the family gathers to determine the dispersment of the estate of Miss Tatlock's millions.
Gordon
Virginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.
Fred Lord
Leona Stevenson is confined to bed and uses her telephone to keep in contact with the outside world. One day she overhears a murder plot on the telephone and is desperate to find out who is the intended victim.
Dr. Harold Matson
Psychiatrists move in with bickering stage spouses and start bickering too.
Beaumont
Based on the novel Low Company. One of the most peculiar film noirs of the 1940s stars Barry Sullivan as a small-time hood who suffers a mental breakdown as his big plans begin to crumble. Beautiful Belita is the slumming society girlfriend who only fuels his paranoia.
Steve Blake
An expedition into the deep jungle discovers a native tribe led by a tall white blonde woman.
Kamar (as Leif Erikson)
Two half brothers battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of sensual, gorgeous dancing girl Scheherazade.
Laurie
Kurt Ingston, a rich recluse, invites the doctors who left him a hopeless cripple to his desolate mansion in the swamps as one by one they meet horrible deaths.
Whaba
A pair of bus drivers accidentally steal their own bus. With the company issuing a warrant for their arrest, they tag along with a playboy on a boat trip that finds them on a tropical island, where a jewel thief has sinister plans for them.
Johnny M. Coe
An American joins the British Royal Air Force just before Pearl Harbor is attacked, and falls in love with a beautiful English girl.
Bill Stone
George and Mary Elizabeth Cugat are about to celebrate their second wedding anniversary and dream of having a child. Although they live comfortably on George's earnings as a bank official, Liz's scatterbrained handling of their finances constantly puts them in jeopardy. Liz becomes jealous when George's former girl friend, Myra Ponsonby, comes for a visit with his party-loving friends Bill Stone, Cory Cartwright and Chuck, an artist, after which George spends the entire evening dancing at a nightclub with Myra.
Jake
Shy sailor Casey Kirby suddenly becomes known as a sea wolf when his picture is taken with a famous actress. Things get complicated when bets are placed on his prowess with the ladies.
Rodney 'Bo-Jo' Brown
A man who lived his life as he was told he should, not as he would have chosen to, is brought out of his shell by a beautiful young woman.
Terry Prescott
Fortune hunter Mary Brooks, posing as a missionary's daughter, strives to beat a couple of pilots, Terry Prescott and "Waffles" Billings, (who have turned pearl divers in order to buy a plane and join the Royal Air Force), out of their pearls, while also beating off the advances of Prince Sali who wants to add her to his harem.
Tommy Van Dusen
Gwen Saunders teams up with her uncle's employee, Steve Bennett, in an attempt to double her $10,000 investment in the family firm. If she can reach the $20,000 mark, her uncle T.T. Ralston will match the figure. Steve bets that if he can spend an entire day without telling a lie, Ralston and his business partners must double Gwen's money. Bennett then earns the enmity of everyone involved in his attempt to win the bet.
Narrator (voice)
A documentary about the conquest of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis just prior to World War 2.
Peter Cortlant
The negligent owner of a tenement slum becomes romantically involved with one of the building's residents.
Johnny Simpkins
The son of a cattle-rustling Cossack immigrant must choose between following the straight path and helping his father escape from prison.
Bob Hayes
The Bellows family causes comic confusion on an ocean liner, with time out for radio-style musical acts.
Howard Nelson
"Howdy" Nelson believes there is no such think as real love and that romance can be cooked up between any eligible persons (of the opposite sex.) He is so imbued with the idea that he has established a summer camp for that reason,and has written a play on the subject. The Yacht Club Boys visit the camp, misrepresenting themselves as Broadway producers, and the talented guest of the camp put on Nelson's play...which all ends up with a lot of marriage mating; Judy and Skipper, Betty Jane and Stanley and...Gwen and "Howdy,' the guy who was positive there was no such thing as true love.
Paul Lachinski
A polish countess dispatched by her country to become Napoleon Bonaparte's mistress at the urging of Polish leaders, who feel she might influence him to make Poland independent.
Dr. Victor Quimby
Tony Marvin is a laid back but incredibly successful promoter and fair-haired boy for J. P. Todhunter's pineapple company located in beautiful Hawaii. He gets the company to sponsor a contest in which the winner gets a Hawaiian vacation and is obligated to write articles on the islands which, when published, will constitute a publicity coup for the company. Unfortunately, Georgia Smith, the winner, feels lonely and isolated in the Islands and wants to return to the States. With help from buddy Shad Buggle Tony tries to romantically divert Georgia without letting her know his true motivation.
Dick Winters
College students rally to save a struggling hotel from closing. Comedy.
Tom Bolton
A sweet little country girl has issues with school. Her mother is ill. The school threatens to send her to an orphanage.
Glenn Kasedon
Chet Kasedon is after the Indians hidden gold mine but Chief Moya will not reveal it's location. He has also hired mining engineers Gale and Mortimer to locate the mine. When Gale sees Kasedon's cruelty to Moya, he switches sides.
Curley Prentice (as Glenn Erikson)
Although Larry "Buster" Crabbe earns top billing, the hero of Drift Fence is former Western star Tom Keene as Jim Travis, who, at a rodeo, meets city dweller Jim Traft (Benny Baker), who has come west to erect a fence that will prevent Clay Jackson (Stanley Andrews) from continuing his cattle rustling business. A tough Western type, Travis suggests that he impersonate Traft and the building of the fence soon begins. But Travis is opposed by Slinger Dunn (Crabbe) and his family, whose small ranch will suffer from the division of the land. A romance between Travis and Slinger's sister, Paula (Katherine DeMille), paves the way for a meeting of the minds, however, and Slinger switches sides completely upon learning that Travis is a Texas Ranger in disguise. An in-house production (as opposed to Harry Sherman's Hopalong Cassidy Westerns), Drift Fence was the closest Paramount came to a B-Western in the mid-'30s. Zane Grey's original novel was published in 1932.
Bill Ide (as Glen Erickson)
A gambler (Larry "Buster" Crabbe) wins a ranch in a round of poker, then joins his neighbors on a rustler-ridden cattle drive to Texas.
Lawrence (as Glenn Erickson)
Adam Larey becomes a fugitive from justice when he escapes after being blamed for a crime he did not commit. He wanders into the desert wastelands and joins an outlaw gang who prey on gold prospectors. Years later, he meets his wife and her gold-prospecting father as they have come there seeking their fortune, and not knowing the danger of the treacherous desert wastes, the poisoned-water holes and the outlaw bands of marauders who roam the desert in search of the gold found by others. He comes to their aid and, eventually, manges to clear his name of the false charge against him.
