- Name: Bradford Dillman
- Date of Birth: April 14, 1930
- Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, USA
Mini-bio:
The dark-haired, Ivy League-looking Bradford Dillman, whose white-collar
career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charming and confidant good
looks that were slightly tainted by his bent smile,...( read more)
career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charming and confidant good
looks that were slightly tainted by his bent smile,...( read more)
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Bradford Dillman mini-bio: The dark-haired, Ivy League-looking Bradford Dillman, whose white-collar
career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charming and confidant good
looks that were slightly tainted by his bent smile, darting glance and edgy
countenance that often provoked suspicion. Sure enough, the camera picked up
on this and he played highly suspect characters throughout most his career.
Born in San Francisco on April 14, 1930, to Dean and Josephine Dillman, he
was Yale-educated and graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. Following
this he served with the U.S. Marines in Korea (1951-1953) before focusing on
acting as a profession. Studying with the Actor's Studio, he spent several
seasons apprenticing with the Sharon (CT) Playhouse before making his
professional acting debut in "The Scarecrow" in 1953.
Dillman took his initial Broadway bow in the Eugene O'Neill's play "Long
Day's Journey Into Night" in 1956, originating the author's alter ego
character Edmund Tyrone and winning a Theatre World Award in the process.
This distinct success put him squarely on the map and 20th Century Fox took
immediate advantage by placing the darkly handsome up-and-comer under
contract. Cast in the melodramatic soaper A Certain Smile (1958), he earned
a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Newcomer" playing a Parisian student who
loses his girl ('Christine Carere' ) to the worldly Italian roué Rossano
Brazzi. He followed this with a strong ensemble appearance in In Love and
War (1958), which featured a cast of young rising stars including Hope Lange
and Robert Wagner. More acting honors followed after completing the film
Compulsion (1959), which was ripped from the headlines of the real true-life
Leopold and Loeb murder case. He went on to share a "Best Actor" award at
the Cannes Film Festival with fellow co-stars Dean Stockwell, who played the
other youthful murderer, and veteran Orson Welles.
Poised for stardom, Dillman's subsequent films failed to serve him as well.
Though properly serious and stoic as the titular martyred saint in Francis
of Assisi (1961), the film itself was stilted and weakly scripted. A Circle
of Deception (1960) was a misguided tale of espionage and intrigue, but it
did introduce him to his second wife, supermodel-cum-actress Suzy Parker.
While A Rage to Live (1965) with Suzanne Pleshette was trashy soap material,
The Plainsman (1966) was a silly, juvenile version of the Gary Cooper
western classic. As a result of these missteps and others, he began to
top-line lesser quality projects or play support in the "A" line pictures.
His nothing role as Robert Redford's college pal-turned Hollywood producer,
and his major roles in the ludicrous The Swarm (1978) and Lords of the Deep
(1989) became proof in the pudding. His last good film role was in O'Neill's
The Iceman Cometh (1973), although he played an interesting John Wilkes
Booth in the speculative reenactment drama The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) and
had a fun leading role in the JAWS-like spoof Piranha (1978).
Dillman bore up very well on TV over the years, subsisting on a plethora of
mini-movies and guest spots on popular series. He earned a Daytime Emmy for
his appearance in "The Last Bride of Salem" and starred in two series --
"Court Martial" (1966), as a military lawyer, and "King's Crossing" (1982),
as an alcoholic parent and teacher attempting to straighten out. He also
spent a season on the already-established night-time soap "Falcon Crest"
(1981) in 1982. A smart, dependable player over the years, he enhanced a
number of standard westerns and melodramas -- consistently reliable at
playing unreliable types. His turncoats, frauds, embezzlers, adulterers,
psychotics and idle rich folk were all included in his bag of shady tricks,
although the hero in him was sometimes accessible.
The father of five children, Bradford launched a late-in-the career sideline
as an author. The football fan inside him compelled him to write "Inside the
New York Giants" (1995), a book which rated players drafted by the team
since 1967. Two years later, he published his memoirs, the curiously-titled
"Are You Somebody?: An Actor's Life." He hasn't been seen on the screen
since the mid 1990s.
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