Howard Duff
Acting • Born 1913-11-24 – Died 1990-07-08
Biography
Howard Green Duff (November 24, 1913 – July 8, 1990) was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio. Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team. His first film role was as an inmate in Brute Force. His other movies include The Naked City (1948), All My Sons (1948), Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949), Panic in the City (1968), In Search of America (1971), A Wedding (1978) and No Way Out (1987). He appeared in a number of films with his first wife, actress/director Ida Lupino. One of Duff's later performances was as Dustin Hoffman's attorney in the Academy Award-winning Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). On radio, Duff played Dashiell Hammett's private eye Sam Spade from 1946–1950, starring in The Adventures of Sam Spade on three different networks - ABC, CBS and NBC. In 1951 Steve Dunne took over the role of Sam Spade. Duff also appeared in an episode of Climax! entitled Escape From Fear in 1955. On television, Duff appeared with his then wife Ida Lupino in the CBS comedy Mr. Adams and Eve from January 1957 through September 1958, in which they played husband and wife film stars named Howard Adams and Eve Drake. He played the young Samuel Langhorne Clemens, in his early life in the West as a satirical and crusading journalist, in the TV series Bonanza ("Enter Mark Twain," season 1, episode 5, 1959). In 1960 he played the male main character in The Twilight Zone episode "A World of Difference" as Arthur Curtis/Jerry Raigan. From October 1960 through April 1961, Duff played Willie Dante, owner of the San Francisco nightclub, Dante's Inferno, in the NBC adventure/drama series Dante. In 1964, Duff guest starred as Harold Baker on the episode "Prodigy" of NBC's medical drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour, starring Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy. In 1990, he guest starred on an episode of The Golden Girls (episode: The Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding Present). From September 1966 through January 1969, Duff portrayed Detective Sergeant Sam Stone in the ABC police drama Felony Squad with costar Dennis Cole. In the 1980s, he appeared on dramas such as NBC's Flamingo Road and Knots Landing, and Dallas, both on CBS.
Filmography
124 credits
No Way Out
Movie • 1987
Senator William 'Billy' Duvall
The Naked City
Movie • 1948
Frank Niles
The Heist
Movie • 1972
Lieutenant Nicholson
Actor
Movie • 1978
Winfield Sheehan
Kramer vs. Kramer
Movie • 1979
John Shaunessy
Women's Prison
Movie • 1955
Dr. Crane
Brute Force
Movie • 1947
Robert 'Soldier' Becker
Boys' Night Out
Movie • 1962
Doug Jackson
Private Hell 36
Movie • 1954
Police Sgt. Jack Farnham
The Late Show
Movie • 1977
Harry Regan
While the City Sleeps
Movie • 1956
Lt. Burt Kaufman
Woman in Hiding
Movie • 1950
Keith Ramsey
Illegal Entry
Movie • 1949
Bert Powers
All My Sons
Movie • 1948
George Deever
A Wedding
Movie • 1978
Dr. Jules Meecham
Jennifer
Movie • 1953
Jim Hollis
Monster in the Closet
Movie • 1986
Father Martin Finnegan
Johnny Stool Pigeon
Movie • 1949
George Morton
Too Much Sun
Movie • 1991
O.M.
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Movie • 2004
Dave Pomeroy in Panic in the City (archive footage)
Shakedown
Movie • 1950
Jack Early
Lily for President?
Movie • 1982
General
In Search of America
Movie • 1971
Ray Chandler
Spaceways
Movie • 1953
Dr. Stephen Mitchell
Calamity Jane and Sam Bass
Movie • 1949
Sam Bass
Models Inc.
Movie • 1952
Lennie Stone
The Lady from Texas
Movie • 1951
Dan Mason
Red Canyon
Movie • 1949
Lin Sloane
Flame of the Islands
Movie • 1955
Doug Duryea
The Yellow Mountain
Movie • 1954
Pete Menlo
A Little Game
Movie • 1977
Dunlap
Tanganyika
Movie • 1954
Dan Harder
Sierra Stranger
Movie • 1957
Jess Collins
The Broken Star
Movie • 1956
Deputy Marshal Frank Smeed
War Gods of Babylon
Movie • 1962
Sardanapolo
Blackjack Ketchum Desperado
Movie • 1956
Tom "Blackjack" Ketchum
Panic in the City
Movie • 1968
Dave Pomeroy
Roses Are for the Rich
Movie • 1987
Denton
Tight as a Drum
Movie • 1974
Hollister
Steel Town
Movie • 1952
Jim Denko
Love on the Run
Movie • 1985
Lionel Rockland
The D.A.: Murder One
Movie • 1969
Lynn D. Compton
Settle the Score
Movie • 1989
Cy Whately
Flamingo Road
Movie • 1980
Sheriff Titus Semple
Double Negative
Movie • 1980
Lester Harlen
Snatched
Movie • 1973
Duncan Wood
Ski Lift to Death
Movie • 1978
Ben Forbes
Young Maverick - Dead Man's Hand
Movie • 1979
Herman Rusk
Know Your Enemy: Japan
Movie • 1945
Narrator
In the Glitter Palace
Movie • 1977
Raymond Dawson Travers
Spy Hunt
Movie • 1950
Steve Quain
Valentine Magic on Love Island
Movie • 1980
A.J. Morgan
Calhoun
Movie • 1964
Sid Rayner
This Girl for Hire
Movie • 1983
Wolfe Macready
The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch
Movie • 1982
Col. Samuel Isaacs
Roar of the Crowd
Movie • 1953
Johnny Tracy
Battered
Movie • 1978
Bill Thompson
St. Elsewhere
TV • 1982
Herbie
Magnum, P.I.
TV • 1980
Captain Thomas Sullivan Magnum I
Burke's Law
TV • 1963
Lou Cole
Kung Fu
TV • 1972
Noah Fleck
The Golden Girls
TV • 1985
Mangiacavallo
Batman
TV • 1966
Det. Sgt. Sam Stone
Flamingo Road
TV • 1981
Titus Semple
The Streets of San Francisco
TV • 1972
Alias Smith and Jones
TV • 1971
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
TV • 1983
Mannix
TV • 1967
Hotel
TV • 1982
Knots Landing
TV • 1979
Paul Galveston
The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries
TV • 1977
The Mod Squad
TV • 1968
Arrest and Trial
TV • 1963
Combat!
TV • 1962
Col. Hobey Jabko
The Rogues
TV • 1964
G. Carter Huntington
The Ford Television Theatre
TV • 1952
Johnny Abel
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Sam Benedict
TV • 1962
Bus Stop
TV • 1961
Felony Squad
TV • 1966
Det. Sgt. Sam Stone
The Immortal
TV • 1970
Police Story
TV • 1973
Switch
TV • 1975
Ira Larkin
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Ed Frazer
Search
TV • 1972
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Jim
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
TV • 1951
Terence Kerrigan
Climax!
TV • 1954
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
TV • 1963
Judd for the Defense
TV • 1967
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
TV • 1956
Self
Ellery Queen
TV • 1975
Mr. Novak
TV • 1963
Joe Stillman
The Whistler
TV • 1954
Medical Story
TV • 1975
Mr. Adams and Eve
TV • 1957
Dante
TV • 1960
Willie Dante
Tonight Starring Jack Paar
TV • 1957
Self
War and Remembrance
TV • 1988
Studio 57
TV • 1954
The Dream Merchants
TV • 1980
Charles Slade
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Arthur Curtis / Gerry Reagan
Matt Helm
TV • 1975
Dan Mallory
Charlie's Angels
TV • 1976
Harrigan
Burke's Law
TV • 1963
Charlie January
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self - Co-Host
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV • 1948
Self
The Rockford Files
TV • 1974
Edward J. Marks
I Spy
TV • 1965
Sean
East of Eden
TV • 1981
Jules Edwards
Climax!
TV • 1954
Dr. John C. Clark
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour
TV • 1957
Howard Duff
Batman
TV • 1966
Cabala
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Peter Harding
Murder, She Wrote
TV • 1984
Ralph Earl / Stephen Earl
Fantasy Island
TV • 1978
Douglas Shane
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
Kung Fu
TV • 1972
Mr. Jenkins
$weepstake$
TV • 1979
Roses Are for the Rich
TV • 1987
Denton
The World of Hammer
TV • 1994
Self (archive footage)
Police Story
TV • 1973
Sergeant Al Butler
Hotel
TV • 1982
Adam Korsak
The Name of the Game
TV • 1968
Wally Cook