Allen Case

Case as Deputy Clay McCord, at the age of twenty-five, on the set of NBC's The Deputy with guest star Vivian Vance (1959)

Allen Case (October 8, 1934 – August 25, 1986) was an American television actor most noted for the lead role of Deputy Clay McCord in NBC's The Deputy (1959–1961) opposite series regular Henry Fonda, who received top billing but appeared far less frequently than Case.

Case grew up in Dallas, Texas. He attended Southern Methodist University but left in his junior year to audition for the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show in New York. In 1955, Columbia Records signed him to a contract and he starred in his first Broadway show, "Reuben, Reuben." He toured with such musicals as "South Pacific," "Damn Yankees" and "My Fair Lady,".

Case made more than thirty television appearances between 1958 and 1982, often in cowboy roles, such as on the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston.[1]

On September 30, 1958, a year before The Deputy debuted, Case played a hot-headed young deputy, Bud Wilkins, in the episode "Brink of Fear", of the ABC/WB western series, Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins. The episode is a lesson about the line of good and evil in the human heart. Tom Brewster as Sugarfoot attempts without success to help his boyhood friend Cully Abbott (Jerry Paris) put aside a lawless past after Abbott is paroled from prison. Other appearing in the episode are Venetia Stevenson, Harry Antrim, and Don Gordon.[2]

On December 3, 1959, Case appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, a variety program with a Country and Western theme.[3]

Case made three guest appearances on the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason including the role of defendant Adam Conrad in the 1964 episode, "The Case of the Ruinous Road."

In the 1965-1966 season, Case co-starred as Frank James with Christopher Jones in the ABC Western series The Legend of Jesse James.

Buoyed by his role on The Deputy, Case made personal appearances. In 1961, he came to Shreveport, Louisiana, to appear on KWKH radio and at the rodeo, at which he played Johnny Horton's guitar.[4]

While on vacation he died in Truckee, California, at the age of 51.

References

  1. ↑ "Colt .45". ctva.biz. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  2. ↑ ""Brink of Fear", September 30, 1958". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  3. ↑ "The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford". ctva.biz. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved November 25, 2010.
  4. ↑ Shreveport Times, April 4, 5, and 7, 1961

External links