Will Hutchins

Will Hutchins

Hutchins as Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster, 1958
Born Marshall Lowell Hutchason
(1930-05-05) May 5, 1930
Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse(s) Chrissie Burnett (1965-1969) (divorced) 1 child
Barbara Torres (1988-present)
Awards Golden Boot Awards (2002)[1]
Stone-Waterman Award (2004) - Cincinnati Old Time Radio Convention

Will Hutchins (born May 5, 1930) is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer from the Oklahoma Territory, Tom Brewster, in the Warner Brothers Western television series Sugarfoot, which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961. (The Encyclopedia of Television Shows says that Sugarfoot was on 1957-1963.)[2]

Biography

Hutchins was born in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. As a child he visited the location filming of Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and made his first appearance as an extra in a crowd.[3]

He attended Pomona College in Claremont, where he majored in Greek drama. He also studied at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he enrolled in cinema classes. During the Korean War he served for two years in the United States Army as a cryptographer in Paris, France serving with SHAPE.

Acting career

Hutchins was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros. who changed his name from Marshall Lowell Hutchason to "Will Hutchins". The young actor's easy going manner was compared to Will Rogers, the Oklahoma humorist.[4] His contract led him to guest appearances in Warner Bros. Television programs, such as Conflict, in which he appeared in three hour-long episodes, including his screen debut as Ed Masters in "The Magic Brew" on October 16, 1956. Hutchins was also cast as a guest star on Cheyenne, Bronco, and Maverick, as well as his own Sugarfoot series. He was released from his contract with Warners in 1961 after co-starring with Jeff Chandler in Merrill's Marauders, a picture filmed in the Philippine Islands and Chandler's last acting role.

While appearing in a play in Chicago in late 1963, he was flown to Los Angeles to shoot a television pilot for MGM, Bert I. Gordon's Take Me to Your Leader, in which Hutchins played a Martian salesman who came to Earth. Though the pilot was not picked up, it led MGM to sign him for Spinout, in which he co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards ("Dick Tracy" backwards) alongside Elvis Presley with whom he later appeared in Clambake. In 1965, Hutchins co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates in Monte Hellman's The Shooting. In 1966, he made a guest appearance on the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason as murderer Don Hobart in "The Case of the Scarlet Scandal".

In 1966-1967, he costarred with Sandy Baron in Hey, Landlord, set in a New York City apartment building.[2]:456 The program followed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, but it failed to attract a sustaining audience against CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show and ABC's The F.B.I. with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., his former Warner Brothers colleague. Following that he appeared as Patches the Clown in Ashton's Circus in Australia. In 1968-69, Hutchins starred as Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip Blondie.[2]:115

Personal life

Hutchins was married to Chris Burnett, sister of Carol Burnett, with whom he had a daughter.[5]

Major appearances

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ "Past Golden Boot Award Winners". List. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  2. 1 2 3 Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7. P. 1034.
  3. ↑ Magers, Donna. "Will Hutchins on Grady Sutton, W. C. Fields.".
  4. ↑ Magers, Donna. "Will Hutchins on Warner Bros.".
  5. ↑ "TV Star Proves Capable, Popular, Sincere, Hokey". The Argus. California, Fremont. October 17, 1966. p. 20. Retrieved July 15, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ The Shooting at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ Spinout at the Internet Movie Database
  8. ↑ Clambake at the Internet Movie Database
  9. ↑ Shangani Patrol at the Internet Movie Database
  10. ↑ Gunfighter at the Internet Movie Database
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.