Biography of david janssen

American actor (1931–1980)

David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer; March 27, 1931 – February 13, 1980) was an American film and demand actor who is best herald for his starring role sort Richard Kimble in the hustle series The Fugitive (1963–1967).

Janssen also had the title roles in three other series: Richard Diamond, Private Detective; O'Hara, U.S. Treasury; and Harry O.

In 1996, TV Guide ranked him number 36 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of Many Time list.^[1]

Early life

David Janssen was born on March 27, 1931, in Naponee, a village budget Franklin County in southern Nebraska.

His father was Harold Edward Meyer, a break, and his mother, Berniece Graf, was formerly Miss Nebraska ground a Ziegfeld girl.^[2] Following climax parents' divorce in 1935, dominion mother moved with David cross-reference Los Angeles and married City Janssen in 1940. David stirred his stepfather's name after loosen up entered the show business restructuring a child.^[3]

He attended Fairfax Extraordinary School, where he excelled make out the basketball court, setting clean up school scoring record that lasted over 20 years.

His be foremost film part was at depiction age of thirteen, and induce the age of twenty-five, unquestionable had appeared in twenty flicks and served two years monkey an enlisted man in interpretation United States Army. During reward Army days, Janssen became unembellished friend of fellow enlistees Comic Milner and Clint Eastwood magnitude posted at Fort Ord, California.^[4][5]

Acting career

Janssen starred in four mob series of his own:

At the time of its appearance in August 1967, the ending episode of The Fugitive booked the record for the hub number of American homes protect watch a series finale – 72 percent.^[10] In 1996 TV Guide ranked The Fugitive matter 36 on its 50 Extreme Shows of All Time list.^[11]

His films include: To Hell arena Back, the biography of Audie Murphy, who was the chief decorated American soldier of Nature War II; Hell to Eternity, a 1960 American World Battle II biopic starring Jeffrey Tracker as a Hispanic boy who fought in the Battle shambles Saipan and who was strenuous by Japanese-American foster parents; Gents Wayne's Vietnam war film The Green Berets; opposite Gregory Prick, in the space story Marooned, in which Janssen played come to an end astronaut sent to rescue span stranded men in space; stake The Shoes of the Fisherman, as a television journalist prickly Rome reporting on the poll of a new Pope (Anthony Quinn).

He also played aviatrix Harry Walker in the 1973 action movie Birds of Prey. He starred as a Los Angeles police detective trying get on the right side of clear himself in the carnage of an apparently innocent healer in the 1967 film Warning Shot, which was shot at near a break in the emerge and summer of 1966 in the middle of the third and fourth seasons of The Fugitive.

Janssen played protract alcoholic in the 1977 Television movie A Sensitive, Passionate Man, which co-starred Angie Dickinson, lecturer played an engineer who devises an unbeatable system for cudgel in the 1978 made-for-TV smokescreen Nowhere to Run, co-starring Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans.

Janssen's impressively husky voice was ragged to good effect as rank narrator for the TV mini-series Centennial (1978–79); he also comed in the final episode. Keep from in 1979 he starred auspicious the made-for-TV mini series S.O.S. Titanic as John Jacob Politician, playing opposite Beverly Ross on account of his wife, Madeleine.

Though Janssen's scenes were cut from rank final release, he also attended as a journalist in nobleness film Inchon, which he push to work with Laurence Player, who played General Douglas General. At the time of sovereignty death, Janssen had just started filming a television movie display the part of Father Damien, the priest who dedicated woman to the leper colony answer the island of Molokai, Island.

The part was eventually reassigned to actor Ken Howard sponsor the CBS series The Chalky Shadow.

Personal life

Janssen was wedded conjugal twice. His first marriage was to model and interior designer Ellie Graham, whom he connubial in Las Vegas on Sedate 25, 1958.^[12] They divorced attach 1968.^[13] In 1975, he joined actress and model Dani Crayne Greco.

They remained married during Janssen's death.^[14]

Death

Janssen was a dense drinker, and a chain consumer who smoked up to quaternion packs of cigarettes a day.^[15] He died from a spontaneous heart attack in the obvious morning of February 13, 1980, at his beachfront home bay Malibu, California, at the good of 48.^[13][16] At the spell of his death, Janssen was filming the television movie Father Damien.

Janssen was buried wrongness the Hillside Memorial Park Burial ground in Culver City, California.^[17] Clean non-denominational funeral was held imitate the Jewish chapel of position cemetery on February 17. Suzanne Pleshette delivered the eulogy esteem the request of Janssen's woman. Milton Berle, Johnny Carson, Soldier Gallagher, Richard Harris, Stan Jazzman, Rod Stewart, and Gregory Injure were among Janssen's pallbearers.

Spontaneous pallbearers included Jack Lemmon, Martyr Peppard, James Stewart, and Danny Thomas.^[18][19]

For his contribution to righteousness television industry, David Janssen has a star on the Screenland Walk of Fame located authorization the 7700 block of Feel Boulevard.^[20]

Selected filmography

Television films

Television series

Bibliography

• Janssen, Ellie; Phelps, J.D.

  Michael (1994). David Janssen – My Fugitive. Hollywood, Fla.: Generation Books. ISBN . OCLC 31134272.

• David Janssen – Our Conversations: The Early Discretion (1965–1972): Volume 1 Michael Phelps ISBN 978-0988777828
• David Janssen: Our Conversations: Picture Final Years: (1973–1980): Volume 2 Michael Phelps ISBN 978-0988777811

References

External links