John Saxon, 'Enter the Dragon,' 'Nightmare on Elm Street' Actor,
Dies at 83
The Hollywood Reporter
By Mike Barnes
7/25/2020
The Brooklyn tough guy also
starred in 'The Appaloosa,' 'The Unguarded Moment' and 'Black Christmas.'
John Saxon, the rugged actor who kicked around with Bruce
Lee in Enter the Dragon and appeared in three Nightmare on Elm
Street movies for director Wes Craven, died Saturday. He was 83.
Saxon died of pneumonia in Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
his wife, Gloria, told The Hollywood Reporter.
An Italian-American from Brooklyn,
Saxon played characters of various ethnicities during his long career.
His portrayal of a brutal Mexican bandit opposite Marlon
Brando in The Appaloosa (1966) earned him a Golden Globe, and he had a
recurring role on ABC's Dynasty as Rashid Ahmed, a powerful Middle East tycoon who romanced Alexis Colby (Joan
Collins). And on another 1980s primetime soap, CBS' Falcon Crest, he
played the father of Lorenzo Lamas' character.
Years earlier, Saxon starred from 1969-72 as the surgeon
Theodore Stuart on "The New Doctors" rotating segment of the NBC
drama series The Bold Ones.
Discovered by the same agent who launched the careers of
Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, Saxon first gained notice for his performance as a
disturbed high school football star who taunts Esther Williams in The
Unguarded Moment (1956). In the film's credits, he's billed as "the
exciting new personality John Saxon."
He played a police chief who makes a fatal mistake in the
Canadian cult classic Black Christmas (1974), featuring Margot Kidder
and Keir Dullea, and his horror résumé also includes two films for Roger
Corman: Queen of Blood (1966) and Battle Beyond the Stars
(1980), playing a tyrannical warlord.
In Warner Bros.' Enter the Dragon (1973), Lee's
first mainstream American movie and last before his death at age 32, Saxon
portrayed Roper, a degenerate gambler who participates in a martial arts
tournament. In real life, his fighting skills did not approach those possessed
by Lee and another co-star, karate champion Jim Kelly.
Saxon, though, said that Lee "took me seriously. I
would tell him I would rather do it this way, and he'd say, 'OK, try it that
way,'" he told the Los Angeles Times in 2012.
Saxon played the cop Donald Thompson in the first and third
films in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, where he's eventually
killed by Freddy Krueger's skeleton. He then returned to play a version of himself
in New Nightmare (1994).
He was born Carmine Orrico on Aug. 5, 1936, the eldest of
three children of an Italian immigrant house painter. While in high school, he
worked as a spieler at a Coney Island archery
concession, becoming proficient with the bow and arrow.
"Brooklyn was a tough
place to grow up in, but it taught you survival, and if you were ambitious, it
taught you to want better things," he once said.
Walking out of a movie theater after skipping class at New Utrecht
High School, he was
spotted by a male modeling agent and then appeared in magazines like True
Romances.
One photo shoot, which he said pictured him as a
"Puerto Rican guy" leaning against a garbage can after he had been
shot, caught the attention of Henry Willson, the legendary Hollywood agent who
had discovered Hudson and Hunter.
Then just 17, Saxon signed with Willson, studied dramatics
for six months with Betty Cashman at Carnegie Hall and flew to Hollywood, where he was
quickly signed by Universal. He attended the studio's workshop for 18 months
and then worked with Mamie Van Doren in Running Wild (1955).
After Unguarded Moment, Saxon appeared as young
rock 'n' roll musicians in Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) and Summer
Love (1958) and played opposite Sandra Dee in The Reluctant Debutante
(1958), directed by Vincente Minnelli, and Debbie Reynolds in Blake Edwards' This
Happy Feeling (1958).
In Cry Tough (1959), Saxon starred as a tough
Puerto Rican kid from New York,
and in War Hunt (1962), he was top-billed as a psychotic solider.
(Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack also were in the cast, and the three would
reunite in 1979 for The Electric Horseman.)
Never shy about showing off his machismo, Saxon also
co-starred with Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd (1972) and played a dirty
union lawyer in Andrew McLaglen's Mitchell (1975).
His film résumé also included Mario Bava's Evil Eye
(1963), Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (1963), Blood Beast From
Outer Space (1965), The Swiss Conspiracy (1976), Wrong Is
Right (1982), Richard Brooks' Fever Pitch (1985), Beverly
Hills Cop III (1994) and God's Ears (2008).
He was married three times, to screenwriter Mary Ann Murphy,
airline attendant turned actress Elizabeth Saxon and, since 2008, cosmetician Gloria
Martel. Survivors also include his sons, Antonio and Lance; grandson Mitchell;
great-grandson John; and sister Dolores.
Memorial contributions in his name may be made to the Motion
Picture and Television Fund.
SAXON, John (Carmine
Orrico)
Born: 8/5/1936, Brooklyn, New
York, U.S.A.
Died: 7/25/2020,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S.A.
John Saxon’s
westerns – actor:
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1965, 1966, 1967, 1975 (Dingo, Cal Strom
Jr., Virgil Stanley, Pedro Manez, Gristy Calhoun)
The Virginian (TV) 1967, 1968, 1971 (Sgt. Terence Mulcahy, Ben
Oakes, Dell Steler)
Kung Fu (TV) – 1972 (Raven)
The Plunderers – 1960 (Rondo)
The Unforgiven – 1960 (Johnny Portugal)
Posse from Hell – 1961 (Seymour Kern)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1965, 1975 (
The Appaloosa – 1966 (Chuy Medina)
Cimarron Strip (TV) – 1967 (Screamer)
Winchester
73 (TV) – 1967 (Dakin McAdam)
Bonanza (TV) – 1967, 1969 (Chief Jocova, Blas, Steven
Friday)
I Came, I Saw, I Shot – 1968 (Clay Watson)
Death of a Gunfighter – 1969 (Lou Trinidad)
The Intruders (TV) – 1970 (Billy Pye)
Joe Kid – 1972 (Luis Chama)
The Electric Horseman – 1979 (Hunt Sears)
Lucky Luke (TV) – 1992 (Black Sheriff)
Jonathan of the Beats – 1994 (Fred Goodwin)
California
(TV) – 1997 (Don Rafael Guevara)
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