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Height:
6' 4" -
6' 5"
(1m93 - 1m96) Weight: 195 pounds Eyes: blue Partners: (1) Maryline Poole (Adams), teacher, book illustrator (married Dec 15. 1958 – 1963; divorce) Children: Heidi Tarquin Hutton (Sept '59) Timothy Tarquin Hutton (16 Aug '60, actor) (2) Lynni M. Solomon (married 1970 – 1973; divorce) Child: Rebecca 'Punch' (1971, deputy fashion editor of Vanity Fair) (3) Yvette Vickers (intermittent 15-year relationship.) |
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Hutton
was expelled from five high schools and a boarding school due to behavior
problems but had excellent grades and test scores. He earned money for
school by digging ditches on weekends and delivering bananas at night.
After starting his school newspaper's sports column, he earned a scholarship
in journalism from Syracuse University. There he lost his position in
the school of journalism (& scholarship) when after playing the part of
Pontius Pilatus in a school theatre production he was bitten by the acting
bug. He subsequently lost academic ambition and failed three classes as a
freshman. His intentions to continue academic pursuits soon came to an end. In college he stole Syracuse's bulldozer and plowed the blue tulip bed in front of the library (while drunk) the night before the moving up ceremony where he was one of the honorees as class vice-president and was immediately expelled, although argued that his co-conspirator was let off because he was captain of the football team. At Niagara College he claimed to have drained a pond as a prank and was expelled once again for dropping his pants during an awards dinner on a $12 bet, where he was being honored by the faculty as president of the Drama Society. He went on to pursue his career as an actor in Greenwich Village where he lived for almost a year, but when out of money and unable to pay his rent or buy food he joined the United States Army (1955). He was nearly demoted in rank for putting alum powder in his commanding officer's bowl of stew, among other pranks he pulled while in the military, almost all on higher-ups. He starred in over 40 Army training films before going to Berlin to serve in special service. Hutton personally founded the American Community Theater by spearheading the renovation of theaters abandoned during World War II. He established the first English-speaking theater in Berlin with the GI production of the play Harvey (which he starred in). Receiving high praise from officers including official commendation, his superior officer agreed to assign Hutton to manage the theater as part of his official duties and he produced, directed, and acted in five productions over two years, receiving the European Theater Award for Best GI Theater. One of his productions, The Caine Mutiny (1954), received the attention of director Douglas Sirk who promptly cast him in A Time to Love and A Time to Die (1958). Using his entire military leave to film for 22 days, Universal was so impressed they offered him a contract, but he still had 18 months of service. "Maryline had been a lighting director for the off-Broadway theater, but by mutual consent it was decided there would be only one career in the family." Within five days of his military discharge, he had married and moved to Hollywood to pursue a career, but by then the offer was off the table from Universal. He eventually landed at MGM. In September 1959 his first daughter Heidi was born. On
TV he starred in The Twilight Zone episode "And When the Sky Was Opened"
(11 Dec 1959) Three astronauts have returned from the
first space flight. Jim plays Major William Gart,
hospitalized with a broken leg, contacted by
Colonel Clegg Forbes (an excellent Rod Taylor) which seems the only one to
remember the existence of Colonel Ed Harrington.
At MGM he got a string of lighthearted comedies, the most popular being
Where the Boys Are (1960) for which he gained
recognition with the youth population for his role.
This despite already being a 30 years old married father of two when he
played 20 year old college student TV Thompson.
Perhaps MGM had plans to turn Hutton
into the new Jimmy Stewart, for the studio insisted upon casting their young
star in roles calling for ingenuous clumsiness. His quintessential role was
perhaps as The Horizontal
Lieutenant (1962), in which his constant bumbling eventually transforms
him into a war hero. Hutton was romantically paired with Paula
Prentiss in 4 consecutive films: Where the Boys Are
(1960), The
Honeymoon Machine (1960), Bachelor in Paradise
(1961) and The
Horizontal Lieutenant (1962).
They worked so well together that
many fans assumed Hutton and Prentiss were married when in fact she was the
longtime wife to Richard Benjamin. According to Prentiss they were
paired because they were at the time Hollywood's tallest contract players
(he at 6' 5" and she at 5' 10").
When finally, in the mid-1970s, he snagged the
television for which his screen persona worked quite well: Ellery Queen.
Once he got it, he directed all his energies toward making his
characterization exceptional. Hutton refused to view the films of Lee
Bowman, George Nader, or Ralph Bellamy as "Ellery Queen"
- not wishing to be influenced by their performances. Hutton spent two
days at Los Angeles' main library researching the famous fictional
detective and the two men who created him. These studies left him
convinced that "Ellery Queen," as written, was a
patronizing know-it-all, completely without personal warmth or a sense
of humor. "That's when I decided to change the character around and
make him more human. To do that, I added dimensions not in the books."
Without them, Hutton believed he would lose the audience before the
first commercial. Surely this became the 'definite' Ellery Queen due to his likable impersonation in the NBC-TV series. The actor was charming and convincing as the self-effacing, deceptively preoccupied criminologist, especially when he turned to the camera 45 minutes into each Ellery Queen episode and invited the folks at home to help him solve the mystery. According to producer William Link, Ellery Queen was created with Hutton in mind after NBC saw his performance in They Call It Murder. Link described him as the most dedicated actor he'd ever worked with. He recalled that Hutton literally moved into his dressing room during the 7-month production, 7 days a week. He did this in order to study his script in the morning and night and avoid all distractions at the home of women and alcohol. But the crew noticed he drank heavily after production wrapped Friday throughout Saturday.
One of Hutton's memorable television appearances was appearing as a guest star in the 1977-1978 third season premiere of the Norman Lear sitcom One Day At A Time. The episode, entitled "The Older Man", was a four-part story arc in which Hutton portrayed Dr. Paul Curran, a forty-two year old veterinarian who falls in love with seventeen-year old Julie Cooper (played by Mackenzie Phillips). His last television role was in an unsold pilot called Butterflies based on the BBC2 sitcom. It was broadcast on NBC in August, 1979 several weeks after Hutton had died. (2) According to Tim, his father loved his profession, and
that love was his legacy to his son. Father and son also shared passions for
horse racing, poker, jazz, and tennis. The day after one of their tennis
games, Jim Hutton visited his doctor for respiratory trouble and back pain,
he was diagnosed with liver cancer, which had spread to his lungs.
“Friends” is always the word Tim uses to describe his
relationship with his father, and it is a word he insists not be taken
lightly.
Other references
Additional video & audio sources
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This actor profile is a part of
Ellery Queen a website on deduction.
The actor above played Ellery Queen
in TV series in 1975-1976. Click Uncle Sam if
you think you can help out...! Many of the profiles on this site have been compiled after very careful research of various sources. Please quote and cite ethically! |
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Page first published on Jul 27. 2016 Last updated April 24. 2022 |
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