Ty Hardin(1930-2017)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Though born in New York City, Ty was raised in Texas and, after
military service during the Korean War, took some classes at Texas A&M.
He then moved west to California and won some minor roles in B movies.
When TV's Clint Walker insisted on improvements in his Cheyenne (1955) contract,
Warner Brothers countered by bringing in Ty as a possible replacement.
Soon, Ty had his own show, Bronco (1958), which ran from 1958 to 1962. From
here, he moved into a brief flurry of film activity: Merrill's Marauders (1962) and
The Chapman Report (1962) in 1962, PT 109 (1963), Wall of Noise (1963), and Palm Springs Weekend (1963) in 1963, and Battle of the Bulge (1965) in
1966. After this, Ty's career drifted off into a series of forgettable
movies made in Europe and, later, he worked in Prescott, Arizona, as an
evangelistic preacher. Though often dismissed as just a hunk of
"beefcake" -- he did a lot of bare-chest scenes -- Ty displayed a flair
for light comedy in The Chapman Report (1962) and showed dramatic potential in the
underrated Wall of Noise (1963).
