Bradford Dillman

Bradford Dillman (April 14, 1930 – January 16, 2018) was an American actor and author.

Early life
Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930 in San Francisco, California, the son of Dean Dillman, a stockbroker, and Josephine (née Moore). Bradford's paternal grandparents were Charles Francis Dillman and Stella Borland Dean. He studied at Town School for Boys and St. Ignatius High School. He later attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, where he became involved with school theatre productions. While at Yale University, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve during 1948. While a student, he was a member of the Yale Dramatic Association, Fence Club, Torch Honor Society, The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, WYBC and Berzelius. He graduated from Yale in 1951 with a BA in English Literature.

After graduation, he entered the United States Marine Corps as an officer candidate, training at Parris Island. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps during September 1951. As he was preparing to deploy to Korea, his orders were changed, and he spent the rest of his time in the Marine Corps, 1951 to 1953, teaching communication in the Instructors' Orientation Course. He was discharged during 1953 with the rank of first lieutenant.

Career
Studying with the Actors Studio, Dillman spent several seasons apprenticing with the Sharon, Connecticut Playhouse before making his professional acting debut in The Scarecrow in 1953.

Broadway
Dillman first played in a Broadway play as part of the cast of the Eugene O'Neill play Long Day's Journey Into Night in 1956, playing the author's alter ego character Edmund Tyrone and winning a Theatre World Award in the process. The production also featured Frederic March, Florence Eldridge and Jason Robards Jr., and played for 390 performances until 1958.

During 1955 he appeared in an episode of the television series The Big Picture as an MP patrolling the city of Augusta, Georgia. In 1957, Katharine Cornell cast him in a Hallmark Hall of Fame television production of Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning 1940 play, There Shall Be No Night.

20th Century Fox
Dillman was cast in the movie melodrama A Certain Smile (1958), for which he earned a Golden Globe award. He followed this with In Love and War (1958), a war movie featuring many of 20th Century Fox's young contract players. It was a financial success. So too was Compulsion (1959), featuring Dillman, Dean Stockwell and Orson Welles for producer Richard Zanuck and director Richard Fleischer.

Dillman shared an award for Best Actor with Stockwell and Welles at the Cannes Film Festival. After making the movie A Circle of Deception (1960) in London, Dillman was reunited with Welles, Fleischer and Zanuck for Crack in the Mirror (1960), filmed in Paris. It was unsuccessful. Back in Hollywood, Fox cast Dillman in support of Yves Montand and Lee Remick in Sanctuary (1961). They also had him in the title role in Francis of Assisi (1961).

Television
When he quit Fox, Dillman mostly concentrated on television. He co-featured with Barbara Barrie in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in the episode “Isabel” (1964). He appeared in 7 episodes of Dr. Kildare (1964-66) and 26 of Court Martial (1965-66). He guest-featured in television series such as The F.B.I. (6 episodes), Ironside (2 episodes), Shane, The Name of the Game, Columbo, Wild Wild West, The Eleventh Hour, Wagon Train, The Greatest Show on Earth, Breaking Point, Mission Impossible (2 episodes), The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barnaby Jones (6 episodes) and Three for the Road, and a two part episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which was made into the feature movie The Helicopter Spies (1968).

Dillman appeared twice in the Western television series, The Big Valley (1965–69), once in Season 2, episode 15, entitled “Day of the Comet,” broadcast December 26, 1966, and the second time in Season 3, episode 9 appearing in the episode entitled “A Noose is Waiting,” which was broadcast November 13, 1967. He appeared in occasional movies during this period, including A Rage to Live (1965), Sergeant Ryker (1968), and The Bridge at Remagen (1969).

Dillman played painter Richard Pickman in the television adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's 1926 story, “Pickman's Model,” presented as the opening act of a December 1971 Night Gallery episode.

Later career and author
Dillman appeared in made-for-television movies such as Fear No Evil (1969), Moon of the Wolf (1972), and Deliver Us from Evil (1973). His film work included Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), The Way We Were (1973), Gold (1974), Bug (1975), The Enforcer (1976), The Swarm (1978), Piranha (1978), Sudden Impact (1983), and Lords of the Deep (1989). He appeared in 10 episodes of Falcon Crest (1982-83), and 2 of Dynasty (1984). His last known acting appearance was an episode of Murder, She Wrote during 1995, a series in which he made eight guest appearances.

Dillman's football fan book, Inside The New York Giants, was published in 1995. An autobiography, Are You Anybody?: An Actor's Life, was published during 1997.

Personal life
From 1956 to 1962, Dillman was married to Frieda Harding, and had two children (Jeffrey and Pamela) with her. He met actress and model Suzy Parker during the production of A Circle of Deception (1960). The couple married on April 20, 1963, and had three children, Dinah, Charles, and Christopher. The marriage lasted until Parker died on May 3, 2003. Dillman is a cousin of the famed mystic, author, and heiress Aimee Crocker.

Dillman lived for many years in Montecito, California, and helped raise money for medical research. He died in Santa Barbara, California on January 16, 2018, aged 87, from complications of pneumonia.

Bradford Dillman was the actor's real name. He said "Bradford Dillman sounded like a distinguished, phony, theatrical name -- so I kept it."

Selected filmography

 * A Certain Smile (1958) as Bertrand Griot
 * In Love and War (1958) as Alan Newcombe
 * Compulsion (1959) as Arthur A. Straus
 * Crack in the Mirror (1960) as Larnier / Claude
 * A Circle of Deception (1960) as Capt. Paul Raine
 * Sanctuary (1961) as Gowan Stevens
 * Francis of Assisi (1961) as Francis Bernardone of Assisi
 * The Virginian (1963 episode "Echo of Another Day") as Sam Harder
 * Monstrosity (1963) as Narrator (voice, uncredited)
 * A Rage to Live (1965) as Sidney Tate
 * The Plainsman (1966) as Lt. Stiles
 * The Helicopter Spies (1968) as Luther Sebastian (archive footage)
 * Sergeant Ryker (1968) as Capt. David Young (archive footage)
 * Jigsaw (1968) as Jonathan Fields
 * Fear No Evil (1969, TV Movie) as Paul Varney
 * The Bridge at Remagen (1969) as Major Barnes
 * Mastermind (1969) as Jabez Link
 * Black Water Gold (1970, TV Movie) as Lyle Fawcett
 * Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970) as Capt. Myerson
 * Brother John (1971) as Lloyd Thomas
 * The Mephisto Waltz (1971) as Bill Delancey
 * Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) as Dr. Lewis Dixon
 * Five Desperate Women (1971, TV Movie) as Jim Meeker
 * The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler (1971) as Sen. Clayton Zachary Wheeler
 * Moon of the Wolf (1972, TV Movie) as Andrew Rodanthe
 * Deliver Us from Evil (1973, TV Movie) as Steven Dennis
 * The Way We Were (1973) as J.J.
 * The Iceman Cometh (1973) as Willie Oban
 * Chosen Survivors (1974) as Peter Macomber
 * 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974) as Big Eddie
 * Gold (1974) - Manfred Steyner
 * A Black Ribbon for Deborah (1974) as Michel Lagrange
 * The Disappearance of Flight 412 (1974, TV Movie) as Maj. Mike Dunning
 * Bug (1975) as James Parmiter
 * Mastermind (1976) as Jabez Link
 * The Enforcer (1976) as Capt. Jerome McKay
 * One Away (1976) as Ruben Bass
 * The Hostage Heart (1977, TV Movie) as Dr. Eric Lake
 * The Amsterdam Kill (1977) as Howard Odums
 * The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) as John Wilkes Booth
 * The Swarm (1978) as Major Baker
 * Piranha (1978) as Paul Grogan
 * Love and Bullets (1979) as Brickman
 * Guyana: Crime of the Century (1979) as Dr. Gary Shaw
 * The Memory of Eva Ryker (1980, TV Movie) as Jason Eddington
 * Running Scared (1980) as Arthur Jaeger
 * The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1982, TV Movie) as Singer
 * Sudden Impact (1983) as Captain Briggs
 * Treasure of the Amazon (1985) as Clark
 * Man Outside (1987) as Frank Simmons
 * Lords of the Deep (1989) as Dobler
 * Heroes Stand Alone (1989) as Walt Simmons