John Saxon, an actor with over 200 credits in television and motion pictures, passed away on Saturday, July 25. He passed away at his Murfreesboro, Tennessee, home from pneumonia, according to his wife Gloria Martel. And Saxon was eighty-three.
In Brooklyn, New York, on August 5, 1936, Carmine Orrico gave birth to Saxon. He trained with renowned acting coach Stella Adler following his graduation from New Utrecht High School. After doing some modeling earlier in his career, talent agent Henry Willson discovered him on the cover of a magazine and took him to California. Universal Studios quickly signed him to a contract, and he changed his name to John Saxon.
1955 saw him make his television debut on Medic. That same year, he landed his first significant part as a juvenile delinquent in Running Wild.
He went on to play a teenage idol in several movies, including This Happy Feeling, Summer Love, and The Reluctant Debutante.
His reputation was further cemented when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer Male in 1958. He starred as a Mexican bandito and the guy who took Marlon Brando’s character’s horse in the 1966 film The Appaloosa. For the role, he was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
In the television series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, he played the astute surgeon Theodore Stuart from 1969 to 1972. His other notable television roles were as Tony Cumson on Falcon Crest from 1984 to 1988 and as Rashid Ahmed on Dynasty from 1982 to 1984. He played Henry Waxman on Melrose Place from 1994 to 1995.
However,
The role of Frank in the upcoming science fiction thriller After the Thunderstorm was his last motion picture effort.