Mort Mills
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Mort Mills
Biography
Best described as a young George Kennedy type (though he and Kennedy were contemporaries), American actor Mort Mills spent three decades playing omniprescent and menacing types. He started out in films in the early '50s, showing up briefly in such productions as Affair in Trinidad (1952) and Farmer Takes a Wife (1955). He also seemed to be lurking in the background, taking in the information at hand and waiting to saunter over and pounce upon someone smaller than himself (which was just about everyone). Mills' character straddled both sides of the law: He was a friendly frontier sheriff in the 1958 syndicated TV western Man without a Gun and a less friendly police lieutenant on the 1960 network adventure weekly Dante; conversely, he was vicious western gunslinger Trigger Mortis in the 1965 Three Stooges feature The Outlaws is Coming. Mort Mills' most indelible screen moments occured in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), wherein he portrayed the suspicious highway patrolman who almost catches embezzler Janet Leigh; had he succeeded, she would have spent the night in the pokey rather than the Bates Motel. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviFilmography:
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Mort Mills
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Mort Mills
| Mort Mills | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 11, 1919 New York City |
| Died | June 6, 1993 (aged 74) Ventura, California |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1952-1973 |
| Spouse | Betty (1956 - 1992; 1 child) Mary (? - ?) (divorced; 2 children) |
Mort Mills (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.
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Contents
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Biography
Though Mills did much television work, he also found regular work in motion pictures. He played the highway patrolman who pursues 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 (born 1928) 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 he 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".
His cousin, Mary Treen, was a film actress.
Acting roles
Starring in his own TV series
- Man Without a Gun (23 episodes, 1957–1959) Marshal Frank Tallman
Recurring role in a series
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Multiple appearances on a television series
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Single episode television appearances
- Biff Baker, U.S.A. - Crash Landing (1952)
- Gruen Guild Theater - Girl from Kansas (1952) Boxcar Johnson
- Family Theatre - A Star Shall Rise (1952)
- I Led Three Lives - The Spy (1953) Comrade Straight
- The Adventures of Kit Carson - Badman's Escape (1953)
- Hopalong Cassidy - Arizona Troubleshooters (1953) George Byers
- Rocky Jones, Space Ranger - Beyond the Curtain of Space (1954) Ophician Soldier
- Waterfront - Captain for a Day (1955) Darby
- Crusader - The Farm (1956) Heinrich
- The Man Behind the Badge - The Case of the Unwelcome Stranger (1955) Lloyd
- Treasury Men in Action - The Case of the Ready Guns (1955) Ben Adams
- Big Town - Shield of a Killer (1955)
- The Lone Ranger - Six-Gun Artist (1955) Lafe, Second Thug
- Cavalcade of America - The Doll Who Found a Mother (1956)
- You Are There - Decatur's Raid at Tripoli (February 16, 1804) (1956)
- Sheriff of Cochise - Fire on Chiricahua Mountains (1956) Barlett
- Crossroads - Boom Town Padre (1957) Luke Cassidy
- Panic! - The Subway (1957) Detective
- Casey Jones - Night Mail (1957) Mike Nelson
- Zorro - Garcia Stands Accused (1958) Lancer
- Have Gun–Will Travel - The Man Who Lost (1959) Ben Coey
- The Alaskans - Million Dollar Kid (1960) Wilkes
- Law of the Plainsman - The Gibbet (1959) Zeb Derkson
- The Man From Blackhawk - Station Six (1959)
- Bat Masterson - Who'll Bury My Violence? (1959) Barney Kaster
- Wichita Town - Man on the Hill (1959) Pete Bennett
- The David Niven Show - Sticks and Stones (1959) Police Lieutenant O'Brien
- The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor - The Scalpel (1960) Dr. Bruce
- The Aquanauts - Deep Escape (1960)
- Dante - Opening Night (1960) Lt. Robert Malone
- Markham - 13 Avenida Muerte (1960) Cal
- Tate - The Mary Hardin Story (1960) Tetlow
- The Texan - Thirty Hours to Kill (1960) Ben Dawson/Blackie Dawson
- Shotgun Slade - The Deadly Key (1960) Ben Wesley
- Men into Space - Shadows on the Moon (1960) Dr. George Coldwell
- Pony Express - Special Delivery (1960) Strobridge
- Johnny Ringo - Killer, Choose a Card (1960) Jed Matthews
- Lawman - Owny O'Reilly, Esq. (1961) Jack Saunders
- General Electric Theater - The Black-Robed Ghost (1963) Det. John Duncan
- The Wild Wild West - Night of the Casual Killer (1965) Chuck Harper
- My Favorite Martian - The Time Machine Is Waking Up That Old Gang of Mine (1965) Jesse James
- A Man Called Shenandoah - The Locket (1965) Sheriff
- Bewitched - Speak the Truth (1965) Traffic Policeman
- Death Valley Days - No Gun Behind His Badge (1965)
- The Green Hornet - Give 'Em Enough Rope (1966) Alex Colony
- Laredo - Finnegan (1966) Muldoon
- The Iron Horse - Explosion at Waycrossing (1966) Sheriff Harkness
- The Invaders - Condition: Red (1967) Mr. Arius
- Felony Squad - The Death Bag (1967) Louie Antonides
- Maya - The Legend of Whitney Markham (1968) Frank Sanders
- The Outcasts - They Shall Rise Up (1969) Tauber
- The Name of the Game - A Wrath of Angels (1969) Berg Jannsen
- Land of the Giants - Home Sweet Home (1969) Constable
- Lancer - The Rivals (1970) Kling
- Adam-12 (1971) Luke Nathan
- Alias Smith and Jones - McGuffin (1972) First Man
- The Mod Squad - Kill Gently, Sweet Jessie (1972)
- The Streets of San Francisco - Deathwatch (1973) Victor W. Snyder
Theatrical film
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References
- ^ Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo Press. p. 577. ISBN 978-0-306-80932-3.
- ^ Walker, Michael (2006). Hitchcock's Motifs. Amsterdam University Press. p. 455. ISBN 978-90-5356-772-2.
- ^ Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; Ursini, James; Porfirio, Robert (2010). The Film Noir Encyclopedia. Overlook Hardcover. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-59020-144-2.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
External links
- Mort Mills at the Internet Movie Database
- Mort Mills at TV.com
- Mort Mills at Find a Grave
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Mentioned in
The Man Who Lost: Have Gun, Will Travel (TV Episode)
(1959 Western TV Episode)
Mort Mills
(Actor, Western/Crime)
Song in the Dark: Bonanza (TV Episode)
(1963 Western TV Episode)
The Time Machine is Waking Up That Old Gang of Mine: My Favorite Martian (TV Episode)
(1965 Comedy TV Episode)
No Handcuffs: Gunsmoke (TV Episode)
(1956 TV Episode)
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