Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown Durgin on August 8, 1922 - April 28, 1999) was born in Los Angeles, California. As an actor he starred in more than eighty motion pictures and a large number of television episodes.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Calhoun has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7007 Hollywood Blvd. and a second star at 1750 Vine Street for his work in television.
Starlet Lana Turner attended a film premiere with Calhoun very early in his career. Calhoun's agent, Henry Willson, suggested that Turner wear white fur, "to play up the contrast between the actress' blondness and Calhoun's wolfish, black-Irish good looks and dark suit".1 After that, the photos of Calhoun and Turner caused a sensation.
In 1955, Willson gave Confidential magazine, a scurrilous scandal sheet, information on the criminal past of Calhoun in exchange for burying a story about the homosexuality of Rock Hudson, a more successful Willson client. The story in Confidential did not harm Calhoun's bad boy image or his career.
Calhoun also became a pop-culture phenomenon in the 1990's after being mentioned in passing by villain Montgomery Burns on The Simpsons episode titled Two Dozen and One Greyhounds.
Red River (1948)
