Handsome and smooth natured leading man who often played oily
individuals, Ray Danton was born in New York and dramatically trained
at Carnegie Tech. First debuted on-screen as a moody Native American in
Der Speer der Rache (1955) and
regularly guest-starred in many 1950s TV shows including
Playhouse 90 (1956),
Wagon Train (1957), and
77-Sunset-Strip (1958)...often
as a gunslinger or a slippery criminal.
Danton found plenty of demand for his talents and appeared in several
minor films including
The Night Runner (1957),
Brückenkopf Tarawa (1958), in
which he starred with his wife, Julie Adams,
and then as a serial rapist in
Die Haltlosen (1959).
However, his most well remembered role was as the vicious prohibition
gangster Jack Diamond in the superb
J.D., der Killer (1960)
also starring a young Warren Oates and
directed by Budd Boetticher. Danton
reprised his Legs Diamond role only a year later in the unrelated, and
not as enjoyable
Portrait of a Mobster (1961).
Cornering the market on playing shady characters, Danton then portrayed
troubled actor George Raft in
Der tanzende Gangster (1961),
but he was back on the side of good in 1962 playing an Allied officer
at the invasion of Normandy in
Der längste Tag (1962). Europe
then beckoned for the virile Danton, and like many other young US
actors in the early 1960s, he made several films in Italy and Spain
between 1964 and 1969 with a mixture of success. Danton returned to the
USA in the early 1970s and appeared in several other low budget
features; however, he also turned his hand to direction and his first
film was the AIP production of
Deathmaster (1972) starring
Robert Quarry who was riding high on the
success of the Count Yorga vampire films. Danton directed another
couple of minor horror films before becoming involved in television and
directing episodes of some of the most popular TV series of the
1970/80s including
Quincy (1976),
Der unglaubliche Hulk (1977),
Magnum (1980) and
Cagney & Lacey (1981).
His final directorial work was on the TV series
Vietnam War Story (1987) in
1987. Danton passed away in 1992 from kidney failure aged only 60.
