Scott Marlowe

Scott Marlowe
Marlowe in an episode of One Step Beyond (1961)
Born	Ronald Richard DeLeo (1932-06-24)June 24, 1932
Died	January 6, 2001(2001-01-06) (aged 68) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1951–1998

Scott Marlowe (born Ronald Richard DeLeo; June 24, 1932 – January 6, 2001)^[1] was an American actor. He had starring roles in the teen exploitation film The Cool and the Crazy (1958, alongside Dick Bakalyan) and the May-December independent film, A Cold Wind in August (1961, opposite Lola Albright). He was a founding member of Theatre West.^[2]

Marlowe, born Ronald Richard DeLeo, the son of Emile and Concetta DeLeo,^{[citation needed]} made his film debut with an uncredited role in Attila (1955). Over the next few years, he began accruing supporting parts in several films, co-starring opposite Leslie Caron in Gaby (1956); in the Michael Curtiz-directed film noir, The Scarlet Hour (1956); with Russ Tamblyn in The Young Guns (1956); opposite the Robert Ryan-led ensemble cast of Men in War (1957); and a young Anne Bancroft in The Restless Breed (1957).

However, in 1958, he garnered a pair of lead roles in teen exploitation films dealing with juvenile delinquency: Young and Wild and The Cool and the Crazy — the latter of which not only co-starred another rising star in the subgenre, Richard Bakalyan, but proved to be Marlowe's breakthrough role. He followed this up with Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959) and The Subterraneans (1960). The latter featured an all-star cast and was adapted from Jack Kerouac's titular novel, albeit severely diluted from its original beatnik content.

In 1961, he starred opposite Lola Albright in the May-December independent romantic drama, A Cold Wind in August. Despite only being eight years younger than her, Marlowe portrayed a character half of Albright's age who was seduced and fell in love, but complications arose when her burlesque stripper past interfered with his idealized perception. Subsequently, concentrating on television, his film roles dissipated after that. After Lonnie (1963), Marlowe would not appear in another feature film until Journey into Fear (1975), followed by Circle of Power (1981). In the 1990s, he had roles in one more theatrical film, Chasers (1994). The last two, Lightning in a Bottle (1998) and Counter Measures (1999), both went direct-to-video on VHS.

Scott Marlowe appeared in over 100 credited acting roles during his career of 44 years on American television. He was frequently billed a guest star, and appeared on many popular drama, action, sci-fi and fantasy TV shows, including: Route 66, The Wild Wild West, The Time Tunnel, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Mission: Impossible, Marcus Welby, M.D., Wonder Woman, The Rockford Files, Fame, Beauty and the Beast, thirtysomething and Matlock.

In 1951 he was first cast in the Pulitzer Prize Playhouse episode "Hostage". This was the start of several roles he would take in various anthology series on television, primarily in 50’s and early 60’s, and occasionally thereafter into the 80's. In 1955, he appeared on Star Tonight which showcased young actors in adapted contemporary literary works. The next year in the episode "In Summer Promise" on General Electric Theater, he starred with Joan Fontaine as a young man who charms an older woman into love who doesn’t know he is to marry his childhood sweetheart. On Zane Grey Theatre, he starred with Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the 1961 episode "The Long Shadow".^[3] He would go on to star in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, One Step Beyond, Thriller, Kraft Suspense Theatre, Police Story and Freddy's Nightmares.

As his recognition from feature film roles grew, his television career took off and Marlowe began starring in Westerns. He excelled in playing the hotheaded, mean-spirited or misguided youth with little regard for custom or law. He would star in 18 episodes on Western themed shows from 1958 to 1966, making a significant contribution to the genre as he solidified his position into a prominent television actor.

In 1958, he played the son of the title character (played by James Whitmore) in the Wagon Train episode "The Gabe Carswell Story". In 1960, he starred opposite Clint Walker playing a white man raised by Apaches, married to a once-captive Mexican woman (Lisa Montell) reintegrating into his home town in the Cheyenne episode "Apache Blood".^[4] Also in 1960, he played a young man masquerading as Billy the Kid in "The Show Off" on Law of the Plainsman. In 1962, he guest-starred on Stoney Burke in "Point of Honor" as a troubled, would-be bull rider.^[5] The following year, he starred in "Legends Don't Sleep" as an aimless youth who venerates a newly released older ex-con (William Talman) who was once an infamous outlaw,^[6] in one of his four appearances on Gunsmoke. Marlowe had three notably sympathetic roles in Have Gun – Will Travel: as an innocent man about to be hanged in "The Hanging of Roy Carter" (1958),^[7] as an earnest and seemingly naive Native American appointed sheriff in "Charley Red Dog" (1959)^[8] and as an Austrian prince deceived by his advisor (Eduard Franz) in "Duke of Texas" (1961).^[9] In 1964, he was a special guest star playing an outlaw whose gang robs the Cartwrights with the sham help of Will Cartwright (Guy Madison) in "The Roper" on Bonanza.

With his future in theatrical films mothballed in 1963 after the release of Lonnie, and with perhaps an eye wary to a future typecasted in the action-oriented Westerns, he successfully dismounted his saddled bad-boy image by seeking roles in other genres of television drama. His youthful good looks and cultivated media persona as a reckless rebel hardened into a smoldering, black-hearted villain as he transitioned in the mid-60's to playing the heavy in legal, police, medical, and mystery episodic dramas. This resonated with his audience and he became a mainstay guest star across the TV dial, regularly winning starring roles in primetime TV shows as a maturing performer well the 1990’s.

In these dramas he was typically cast as the antagonist (usually a criminal or other unsavory character), such as: a developmentally disabled skiing murderer on Route 66 in the 1961 episode "Effigy in Snow"; on Kraft Suspense Theater in 1964 as a convicted-then-commuted murderer who kidnaps and intends to kill the judge (Ronald Reagan) who sent him to the gas chamber in "A Cruel and Unusual Night";^[10] in 1972 as a songwriter wrongfully suing a singer (Peggy Lee) for plagiarism on Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law in "Smiles from Yesterday" (featuring a young Mark Hamill); a counterfeiter in 1974 on Mannix in "The Green Man" and, on T.J. Hooker as the disgraced ex-partner of Hooker (William Shatner) who kidnaps his daughter in "The Ransom” (1985).^[11]

Marlowe appeared twice in the original The Outer Limits. As the starring lead in the 1963 episode "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork", he played a worried brother searching for a missing-then-dead scientist played by Michael Forest, with BarBara Luna as his girlfriend and Ed Asner as the investigating police detective.^[12] In the 1964 episode "The Forms of Things Unknown" he co-starred with Vera Miles, David McCallum, and Cedric Hardwicke playing a smarmy, blackmailing playboy who won’t stay dead.^[13] Much of the footage for this latter episode served as the basis of a reworked plot (using additionally filmed scenes and a different ending) of a pilot created for an unsold horror anthology series called The Unknown.^[14]

Between 1966 and 1973 he appeared ten times on The F.B.I. taking on nine different characters in the episodes: "The Price of Death" (1966) as a murderous kidnapper teamed with his brother (Robert Blake), whose comatose victim may die without insulin;^[15] "Overload" (1967) as a newly-released ex-con with a feline companion, intend on killing the woman (Diana Hyland) he assaulted, while eluding the FBI during a power blackout;^[16] "The Tunnel" (1968); "The Young Warriors" (1969); "Blood Tie" (1969); "The Fatal Connection" (1971); "The Mastermind: Parts 1 & 2" (1971); "The Rap Taker" (1973); and "The Exchange" (1973).

Beginning in the 1970’s Marlowe played in several made-for-television films starting with the Ted Post-directed sci-fi horror Night Slaves (1970), followed by Travis Logan, D.A. (1971), The Critical List (1978), Thou Shalt Not Kill (1982), the Lee Grant-directed drama No Place Like Home (1989), Seasons of the Heart (1994, starring Carol Burnett), and Following Her Heart (1994, starring Ann-Margret).

Later in his career he had recurring roles on four broadcast TV series: the early-cancelled Andy Griffith police drama Adams of Eagle Lake (1975); the short-lived nighttime soap Executive Suite (1976); and, on the daytime soaps Another World (1979) and Days of Our Lives (1984). He took a turn at comedy in 1990 as a guest star with a two-episode character arc playing a gangster kingpin in the sitcom Perfect Strangers.^[17] In 1991, Marlowe starred as the Bajoran refugee leader in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Ensign Ro". In the 1990’s syndicated series Valley of the Dolls, he played the character "Michael Burke" in the principal cast, which ran for 65 episodes. Marlowe’s last known television appearance was in the 1995 episode "School for Murder" on Murder, She Wrote.

Marlowe died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on January 6, 2001, at age 68.^[18]

• "Today's Stars Are Mean People". Fort Lauderdale News. April 5, 1964. p. 17E.
• Wedman, Les (August 1, 1974). "Eluding Stardom With Mr. Marlowe". The Vancouver Sun. p. 33.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scott Marlowe.

• Scott Marlowe at IMDb