S2000 posted while I was putting my last post together. Great stab but not Reagan.

Chuck Conners

Another great stab (!), but my beloved Rifleman is not the one I am thinking of.

I made my television debut in 1955 as Abraham Lincoln in the Screen Director's Playhouse adaptation "Lincoln's Doctor's Dog." As I explained to reporters, despite financial considerations, I preferred to steer clear of any commitment to a TV series:

"The only money in TV is in the series, and I want to stay out of those. Sure, I might make a million or so in a series, but I'd wind up being 'Sidewinder Sam' for the rest of my life."

I remained true to these convictions, appearing in many television series, but always as a guest star.

I never appeared in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, but was considered for the role of Commodore Matt Decker in the 1967 episode "The Doomsday Machine". The episode had been written with me in mind to play Decker, but I had prior commitments. That role went to William Windom (editor's note: would have loved to have seen him in this role, but Windom did a marvelous job).

Hal Holbrook

Not Hal.

I told Lee Marvin's character I thought he was an disorganized, undisciplined clown, and that I was going to make it my business run him right out of this army.

Walter Winchel

I'm runnin' outta alliterations here.

Army Archer

Dan Duryea

Lorenzo Lamas

Monte Markham

Richard Roundtree

Sam Shepard

You're 'red hot' (name alliteration-wise) with Richard Roundtree.

My wife and I lived in The Dakota at 72nd and Central Park West in Manhattan and eventually sub-let the apartment to John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

I played Lee Marvin's antagonist in "The Dirty Dozen" (not one of the 'dozen'). I was also in

Bad Day at Black Rock - 1955
King of Kings - 1961
The Longest Day - 1962
Billy Budd - 1962
Battle of the Bulge - 1965
The Professionals - 1966
The Wild Bunch - 1969
The Iceman Cometh - 1973 my last film role.

I died of cancer in 1973, age 63.

Right before passing I said, "I've been lucky as hell with my career and my family."

From a profile written after my death:

"Born to play beautifully tortured, angry souls... He was a familiar movie face for more than two decades in Hollywood's classical years, his studio ups and downs, independent detours and outlier adventures paralleling the arc of American cinema as it went from a national pastime to near collapse. A little prettier and he might have been one of the golden boys of the golden age. But there could be something a touch menacing about his face (something open and sweet too), which bunched as tight as a fist, and his towering height (he stood 6 foot 4) at times loomed like a threat. The rage boiled up in him so quickly. It made him seem dangerous. He was known for his villains, and it was the complexity of these characters, their emotional and psychological kinks, that elevated even his lesser roles. He never achieved the supernova stardom of a Gable or Bogart, and these days Ryan's glower may be more familiar than his name. Yet he was the type of next-level star and B-movie stalwart that helped make old Hollywood great."

I'll give up the name of the mystery man, next, as there's not much more to say. He was someone whom everyone knew when he was alive and making pictures, but the memory of his name did not seem to last commensurate with his career, imho.

I assume with Ronald Reagan as well.

I thought of two whom I'd missed: Alan Arkin and Sylvester Stallone.

Oh, and Adam Arkin, of course.

None of whom are old enough to be correct.

Well, my wife looked up the cast of The Dirty Dozen and told me the answer. I never would have gotten it.

She said that she remembers him.

Robert Ryan was a big, known name in his day, but for whatever reason his star and memory faded rather quickly after he passed. Perhaps it is because of his thinking on not getting involved in a TV series. A TV series would have put him before the country on a weekly basis, perhaps for many years - even today via reruns. Not to mention, in many of the biggest films he appeared in, though his name was always near the top of the cast list, he was not the main character (Spencer Tracy was the main character in "Bad Day at Black Rock", for example...if you haven't seen that, HIGHLY recommended!).

Great, great actor. I counted 76 feature films between 1940 - 1973. Reading about him, I wasn't aware that he had done as much live theatre as he had.

Guess it's open season for whoever wants to go next.

I lost a turn a while ago, so I'll jump in.

1. I was born in Los Angeles, CA.

2. My parents were both elders in the Presbyterian church.

3. I was at one point a nationally ranked tennis player.

Robert Culp.

Not Robert.

4. I attended Swarthmore College, UCLA, and Stanford.

Richard Mulligan?

Richard Bradley aka Renee Richards

Nope: not Richard/Renee.

5. I held Bachelor's degrees in English and Physics, a Master's degree in Physics, and a PhD in Physics.

Nothing but crickets, S2000 ... what's your next clue?

6. I was mentioned in a well-known Billy Joel song.