Mort Mills
Mort Mills 1966
Mills in Torn Curtain (1966)
Born
Mortimer Morris Kaplan

(1919-01-11)January 11, 1919
DiedJune 6, 1993(1993-06-06) (aged 74)
OccupationActor
Years active1952–1973
RelativesMary Treen (cousin)

Mort Mills (born Mortimer Morris Kaplan; January 11, 1919 – June 6, 1993) was an American film and television actor who had roles in over 150 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. He portrayed supporting roles in the Alfred Hitchcock films Psycho (1960) and Torn Curtain (1966), and in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

Biography

During World War II Mills served in the 3rd Marine Parachute Battalion in the Pacific.[1]

Though Mills did much television work, he also found regular work in motion pictures. He is probably best known as the suspicious highway patrolman who follows 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 Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966) starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews.[2][3] Mills also appeared with Charlton Heston in Orson Welles's suspense classic Touch of Evil (1958).[4]

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 in the syndicated western series Man Without a Gun.[5] He portrayed Marshal Frank Tallman. Reason played his friend, Adam MacLean, editor of the Yellowstone Sentinel newspaper. He appeared as villains twice in Maverick, first in 1957 with James Garner as Bret Maverick ("Day of Reckoning") and second in 1961 with Robert Colbert as Bret's brother Brent Maverick ("Benefit of Doubt"). In 1958, he guest starred as a particularly greedy bounty hunter who clashes with Steve McQueen's character Josh Randall in the CBS western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive. In 1961 he appeared as Jack Saunders in the TV western Lawman in the episode titled "Owny O'Reilly." In the 1965 Three Stooges film, The Outlaws Is Coming, Mills played Trigger Mortis.[6]

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". He appeared in eight episodes of Perry Mason, seven of them as Police Sgt. Ben Landro between 1961 and 1965.

His cousin, Mary Treen, was a film actress.

He died June 6, 1993. Per bio in IMDB, it was first reported he had been smoking in bed, and died in the fire. After the autopsy, it was determined he had died of a heart attack, and the fire was subsequent to his death.

Acting roles

Starring in his own TV series

Recurring role in a series

Multiple appearances on a television series

Single episode television appearances

Theatrical films

References

  1. ↑ Wheeler, Richard A Special Valor: The U.S. Marines and the Pacific War Naval Institute Press, 15 Nov 2013
  2. ↑ Spoto, Donald (1999). The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo Press. p. 577. ISBN 978-0-306-80932-3.
  3. ↑ Walker, Michael (2006). Hitchcock's Motifs. Amsterdam University Press. p. 455. ISBN 978-90-5356-772-2.
  4. ↑ Silver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; Ursini, James; Porfirio, Robert (2010). The Film Noir Encyclopedia. Overlook Hardcover. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-59020-144-2.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ 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.
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