John Russell (actor)
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John Russell (January 3, 1921 – January 19, 1991) was an American actor most noted for playing Marshal Dan Troop in the western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962.
Born John Lawrence Russell in Los Angeles, California, he fit the Hollywood image of tall, dark, and handsome. He attended the University of California as a student athlete. Following the outbreak of World War II, he joined the United States Marines, received a battlefield commission as lieutenant at Guadalcanal, and returned home after the war, a highly decorated veteran.
He was discovered by a talent agent while in a Beverly Hills restaurant and made his film debut in 1945. Russell was contracted to 20th Century Fox in several supporting roles, and later was signed with Republic Pictures. He primarily played secondary roles, often in western films, but in 1952 starred opposite Judy Canova in Oklahoma Annie. In 1955 Russell was given the lead role in a television drama called "Soldiers of Fortune." The half-hour adventure show placed him and his sidekick, played by Chick Chandler, in a dangerous jungle setting. While the show proved popular with young boys, it did not draw enough adult viewers to its prime slot and was canceled in 1957.
A year later, Russell was cast in his most memorable role as Marshal Dan Troop, the lead character in Lawman, an ABC western series that ran for five years. Co-starring with Peter Brown, who played Deputy Johnny McKay, Russell played a U.S. frontier peace officer mentoring his younger compatriot.
Russell appeared in other motion pictures, notably as a supporting player in the Howard Hawks 1959 western, Rio Bravo, which starred John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Walter Brennan. Through the 1960s to the 1980s, he returned to secondary roles, appearing in more than twenty films including three directed by his friend Clint Eastwood.
Russell appeared in the second season of the Filmation children's science fiction series Jason of Star Command. He played the role of Commander Stone, a blue skinned alien from Alpha Centauri. He replaced James Doohan who played the Commander in the previous season but left to start working on Star Trek The Motion Picture.
John Russell died from emphysema in 1991 and was interred in the Los Angeles National Cemetery, a former U.S. Veterans Administration cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
