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Dan Duryea

One of the best known and most effective movie villains of the postwar years, actor Dan Duryea specialized in truly unpleasant figures who lacked even a shred of moral decency in such popular screen efforts as "Ball of Fire" (1941), "Along Came Jones" (1945), "Winchester '73" (1950) and classic noir like "Criss Cross" (1949). A rare screen heel that could charm audiences despite his criminal acts, Duryea enlivened both minor and major features for over a decade, which later boosted him from character player to leading man in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with occasional forays into heroic roles, most notably in "Black Angel" (1946) and on the television series "China Smith" (syndicated, 1952-56). In the late 1950s, Duryea returned to character parts, playing more even-tempered if still deeply flawed men in "The Burglar" (1957) and "The Flight of the Phoenix" (1965) for Robert Aldrich, who cast Duryea in several of his feature efforts. Television became his primary outlet in the 1960s, where he essayed memorable turns on "The Twilight Zone" (CBS, 1959-1964), among countless other shows, while lending his Hollywood pedigree to low-budget efforts for international film producers. A versatile character actor for over 20 years, Dan Duryea proved that, at least in the film business, bad guys sometimes finished first.