Kirby Grant

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Kirby Grant, (November 24, 1911 - October 30, 1985), was a long-time B-movie and television actor. He is remembered mostly for playing the title role in the television series Sky King.

Born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr. in Butte, Montana, Grant was a child prodigy violinist, a singer and one time led a dance band ([1]).

He began playing cowboys and mounties in mostly forgettable films starting in the 1930s - over 50 in all. His second movie was Red River Range with John Wayne and Ray "Crash" Corrigan.

Until 1945 he used the name "Robert Stanton"; that name was also used by actor Robert "Bob" Haymes.

In 1951, Grant began playing Arizona rancher-pilot "Sky King", who fought bad guys and rescued people in trouble using his airplane. Production spanned much of the Cold War; early villains were bank robbers and kidnappers; some later foils were Russian spies and saboteurs. Sky's first airplane was a Cessna T-50 (known among pilots as the "Bamboo Bomber" because of its wooden wings), and later a much more modern Cessna 310B.

Grant, an accomplished pilot in real life, owned both planes and flew them in the show. Whichever plane Sky owned at the time was known as the "Songbird". Sky and his niece "Penny" lived on the "Flying Crown Ranch". Occasionally a nephew, "Clipper", would appear on the show.

Grant did little acting after the show ended although he and co-star Gloria Winters were in demand for personal appearances at fairs and aviation events. He traveled with the Carson and Barnes Circus from 1967 - 1970. Grant retired that year. Sky King continued to show in reruns, but it was produced before the days of residuals, so Grant received no additional payments.

Grant and his wife, Carolyn, had three children. In the early 1970s they moved to Florida from California.

The couple founded the nonprofit Sky King Youth Ranches of America, which provided homes for throwaway kids. He had plans to resurrect the Sky King series with the Flying Crown Ranch becoming a home for throwaway kids and telling their stories, but it never materialized.

Grant was killed at the age of 73, in a car accident on October 30, 1985, near Titusville, Florida. He was on his way to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral, where he was also to be honored by the astronauts for encouraging aviation and space flight. Grant was not wearing his seatbelt. He is interred in Missoula, Montana.