John Saxon
John Saxon was an American actor and martial artist who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Westerns and horror films, often playing police officers and detectives.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Saxon studied acting with Stella Adler before beginning his career as a contract actor for Universal Pictures, appearing in such films as Rock, Pretty Baby and Portrait in Black, which earned him a reputation as a teen idol and won him a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor. During the 1970s and 1980s, he established himself as a character actor, frequently portraying law-enforcement officials in horror films such as Black Christmas and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Saxon appeared in numerous Italian films from the early 1960s. In a 2002 interview, he said of this period: "At the time, Hollywood was going through a crisis, but England and Italy were making a great many films. Besides, I thought the European films were of a much more mature quality than most of what Hollywood was making at the time." Saxon appeared in Italian productions all through the 1970s and 1980s, until 1994, when he made Jonathan of the Bears.
In addition to his roles in horror films, Saxon co-starred with Bruce Lee in the martial arts film Enter the Dragon, and he had supporting roles in the Westerns The Appaloosa, Death of a Gunfighter, and Joe Kidd, as well as the made-for-television thriller Raid on Entebbe. In the 1990s, Saxon occasionally appeared in films, with small roles in Wes Craven's New Nightmare and From Dusk till Dawn.
Early life
Of Italian descent, Saxon was born Carmine Orrico in Brooklyn, New York in 1936. His father, Antonio Orrico, was a New York-born dock worker, and his mother Anna was an immigrant from Calabria. Italian was the primary language spoken at home, though Saxon also spoke some Spanish. He attended New Utrecht High School and studied acting with famous acting coach Stella Adler. He entered show business as a teenager, when he was spotted by a modeling scout at a movie theatre.According to Robert Hofler's 2005 biography, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson, agent Henry Willson saw Saxon's picture on the cover of a detective magazine, where Saxon posed as "a Puerto Rican guy" who gets shot and falls over a garbage can while his girlfriend looks on. Willson immediately contacted the boy's family in Brooklyn. With his parents' permission, the 17-year-old Orrico contracted with Willson, and he was given the stage name John Saxon. He contracted with Universal Studios in April 1954 at $150 a week.
Career
Universal Pictures
Saxon spent 18 months at Universal before the studio first used him in a film. His first significant role was a juvenile delinquent in Running Wild, co-starring Mamie Van Doren. According to Filmink, "young Saxon had a scowling, broody teen quality that was in fashion in mid-'50s Hollywood."He was then given a good role in The Unguarded Moment, playing a youth who seemingly stalks Esther Williams. During February 1956, Universal exercised its option on Saxon and he was paid $225 a week.
Teen idol
Saxon had the lead in a low-budget teen film, Rock, Pretty Baby, which became an unexpected success and established Saxon as a teen idol. Universal executives were pleased, and Ross Hunter announced he would be in Teach Me How To Cry. Saxon quickly reprised his Rock, Pretty Baby role in a sequel, Summer Love. By this time, he was getting about 3,000 fan letters a week. He then made Teach Me How to Cry with Sandra Dee, which was retitled The Restless Years.File:Saxon Summer Love.jpg|thumb|left|John Saxon, Shelley Fabares, John Wilder and Jill St. John in Summer Love
Universal put him in an "A" film, This Happy Feeling, directed by Blake Edwards, where Saxon romanced Debbie Reynolds in support of Curt Jurgens. MGM borrowed him to appear opposite Sandra Dee in The Reluctant Debutante, for director Vincente Minnelli, which was widely seen. Saxon was billed third, beneath Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall. He had a support role in a large-budget Biblical drama about Simon Peter, The Big Fisherman for director Frank Borzage, starring Howard Keel. Released by Buena Vista instead of Universal-International, it was a financial disappointment.
In August 1958, Saxon signed a three-picture deal with Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, the first of which was to be the main role in Cry Tough, a film about juvenile delinquents. He was meant to follow it with The Ballad of Cat Ballou. Instead, for HHL, he worked with another major director, John Huston, in the Western The Unforgiven, playing an Indian in support of Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn. Back at Universal, he remained in a supporting role for Portrait in Black, reunited with Dee, with Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn.
He appeared in the Western Posse from Hell with Audie Murphy and guest-starred in television series, including General Electric Theater and The Dick Powell Theatre. "I want to do all sorts of character parts," he said in 1960.
Saxon played a serial-killer soldier in War Hunt and had a small role in the comedy success Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.
Europe
Saxon traveled to Italy to make Agostino.In 1963, Saxon co-starred with Letícia Román in Mario Bava's Italian giallo film The Girl Who Knew Too Much.
He returned to Hollywood to perform in Otto Preminger's The Cardinal and an episode of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, then was back to Europe for The Cavern.
The Ravagers was shot in the Philippines; Night Caller from Outer Space was a science-fiction film shot in Britain.
In 1966, he starred in Curtis Harrington's science-fiction/horror classic Queen of Blood with Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper, then appeared opposite Marlon Brando in The Appaloosa, winning a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of a Mexican bandit. Saxon recalls, "This was to me a terrific role and something I was ready for, but he was despondent. He said he had lent a whole bunch of money to his father, and what he was saying to me was that his father ruined his life by losing all of his money. He was kind of bored in the picture."
The Doomsday Flight was a made-for-television film. In an interview in 1966, he said, "I never felt comfortable being a teenage dreamboat... I regard myself as a craftsman."
He portrayed Marco Polo in episode 26 of The Time Tunnel, originally broadcast on March 10, 1967, and was a guest actor on Bonanza in 1967. In episode 19, season 5 of The Virginian Saxon appeared in the title role alongside Harrison Ford, who was appearing in one of his first speaking roles. And in 1969 he appeared in Bonanza again.
Saxon was in a sex comedy for Sam Katzman, For Singles Only, and appeared in some Westerns, One Dollar Too Many, Death of a Gunfighter, The Men from Shiloh, and Joe Kidd . I Kiss the Hand was a thriller made in Italy.
He spent three years playing Dr. Theodore Stuart for the television series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors.
''Enter the Dragon'' and 1970s
Saxon, who had done martial arts since 1957, appeared as the martial artist Roper in 1973's Enter the Dragon. It was Bruce Lee's first major role in a Hollywood feature. He almost backed out of Enter the Dragon, on account of the script being too light. "It was a 60-page treatment", said Saxon in a 2002 interview. "I thought: there's not enough to act here. A stunt man could play it. But they talked me into it, saying they would work in my suggestions. Some things they shot and kept in the film, but most of it they discarded." After Enter the Dragon, Saxon had no further interest in appearing in martial-arts films.He was in such action films as Mitchell, The Swiss Conspiracy, Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, Violent Naples, Mark Strikes Again, A Special Cop in Action, Cross Shot, and The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist.
In 1974, he appeared as police Lieutenant Fuller in the slasher horror film Black Christmas. From 1974 to 1976, he appeared in The Six Million Dollar Man, first as Major Frederick Sloan and then as Nedlick. This role also extended into The Bionic Woman. The actor's likeness was later used for the Kenner action-figure doll called "Maskatron" that was based on the series.
Saxon starred as Dylan Hunt in the 1974 Gene Roddenberry television pilot Planet Earth, replacing Alex Cord from Genesis II. A 20th-century scientist unfrozen in the postnuclear world of 2133, he leads a team of explorers and encounters a matriarchal society. Although ABC declined the series, Saxon played a nearly identical character in the 1975 television film Strange New World.
In 1976, Saxon portrayed a homicidal vampire-like strangler in the season-two Starsky & Hutch episode "Vampire". He played Captain Radl in the two-part Wonder Woman episode "The Feminum Mystique". Also in 1976, he appeared in an episode of The Rockford Files titled "A Portrait of Elizabeth", in which he played a crooked corporate lawyer and painter named Dave Delaroux, who was involved in a securities rip-off and with whom Rockford's attorney Beth Davenport was smitten. In this episode, Saxon was able to display his considerable martial-arts abilities in two fight scenes. Raid on Entebbe was a prestige television movie for him. Moonshine County Express was a big success for Roger Corman's New World Pictures; Saxon made another film for that company, The Bees. He appeared in a Bollywood movie, Shalimar, then it was back to exploitation: Fast Company and The Glove.
Saxon played Hunt Sears, chief of a breakfast-cereal conglomerate, opposite Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in the 1979, Oscar-nominated film The Electric Horseman.