Howard Green Duff (November 24, 1913 – July 8, 1990) was an American actor.
Early life
Duff was born in Charleston, Washington (today a part of Bremerton), in 1913. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932, where he began acting in school plays after he was cut from the school basketball team.
Duff worked locally in Seattle-area theater until entering the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He was eventually assigned to their radio service, and announced re-broadcasts prepared for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). In this role, he served as the announcer for the drama Suspense, dated March 16, 1943.
Career
Sam Spade
Duff's most memorable radio role was as Dashiell Hammett's private eye Sam Spade in The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946–1950). Due to accusations of Duff being a communist and with his TV and film career starting to take hold, he ultimately left the program in 1950 at the start of its final season; Stephen Dunne took over the voice role of Spade.
Contract with Universal
Duff was signed to a long-term contract with Universal, and made his film debut alongside Burt Lancaster as an inmate in 1947's Brute Force. The movie was produced by Mark Hellinger and directed by Jules Dassin, who gave Duff a bigger role in their next film, The Naked City (1948). He subsequently reunited with Lancaster for the family drama All My Sons (also 1948), based on the play of the same name by Arthur Miller.
More substantial roles soon followed, with Duff taking the lead in numerous Westerns and films noir including Illegal Entry, Red Canyon, Johnny Stool Pigeon, Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (all 1949);Spy Hunt, Shakedown and Woman in Hiding (all 1950). The latter film saw Duff act alongside his future wife Ida Lupino; the couple would subsequently co-star in a further four films during the 1950s.
In 1951, Duff made a pilot for a new radio series, The McCoy. Following his marriage to Lupino in October 1951, Duff was granted a release from his contract with Universal.
Television
In addition to his movie roles, Duff also experienced success in television, with appearances in the 1950s series The Star and the Story, Climax! and Crossroads. From January 1957 to July 1958, he appeared with Lupino in the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, which revolved around the private lives of two fictitious film stars, Howard Adams and Eve Drake, who were married to each other. They also served as producers.
Other TV roles included an appearance in NBC's western series Bonanza, playing a young Samuel Langhorne Clemens in his early life in the West as a satirical and crusading journalist, in the first-season episode "Enter Mark Twain". Duff also featured in episodes of numerous TV series during the 1960s including The Twilight Zone, Burke's Law, Combat! (episode “Missing in Action”), The Eleventh Hour, Mr. Novak and Batman (episode "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra", alongside wife Ida Lupino). In 1960, Duff portrayed Arthur Curtis on The Twilight Zone in an episode titled “A
Later career
Duff continued to make guest appearances in TV series during the 1970s including The Streets of San Francisco, Police Story, The Rockford Files, and $weepstake$, amongst others, and also featured in the TV movies A Little Game (1971) and Snatched (1973). In 1971 Duff appeared as Stuart Masters in The Men from Shiloh (the retitled final season of the TV western The Virginian) in the episode titled "The Town Killer".
Personal life
Duff had a tempestuous relationship with actress Ava Gardner in the late 1940s.
In October 1951, he married Ida Lupino.
After he was listed in Red Channels as a communist subversive in 1950, he lost his radio work and might have forfeited his entire career had it not been for his marriage. Duff and Lupino had a daughter, Bridget Duff (born April 23, 1952). The couple separated in 1966 but did not divorce until 1984. He subsequently married Judy Jenkinson. Like former wife Lupino, Duff was a staunch Democrat.
Death
Duff died at age 76 of a heart attack on July 8, 1990, in Santa Barbara, California.
- SERVES
- 6
- COOK TIME
- 55 Min
One of summer's most popular vegetables is the star in our recipe for Summer Stuffed Peppers. We stuff these fresh and colorful beauties with a saucy meat mixture to make 'em the perfect, flavor-packed, summer dish! Once you learn how to make stuffed peppers this yummy, you're sure to have a brand new, go-to summer dish. Serve this healthy summer dish as an appetizer or make a bunch for an quick entree.
- 1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 cup uncooked instant rice
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 6 bell peppers, washed, tops removed, and seeded
- In a medium bowl, combine tomato sauce, water, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; mix well. Remove 1 cup of mixture to a large bowl and add to it ground beef, rice, and onion; mix well.
- Stuff each bell pepper with an equal amount of the meat mixture. Place 2 cups tomato sauce mixture in soup pot and place peppers upright in sauce. Spoon remaining sauce over peppers.
- Cover and cook over low heat 55 to 60 minutes, or until no pink remains in the beef and rice is tender.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Wikipedia
- February 6, 1911, Tampico, Illinois, United States
- June 5, 2004, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease
1919 – Richard Scarry, American author and illustrator (d. 1994) I bought his books for my children...
