Emerging from Ossining, New York, he honed his craft at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art before joining Maurice Evans’s troupe and making a Broadway walk-on in 1939; later, as a member of the Actors Studio, he performed Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof under Elia Kazan’s direction. After a five-year army stint with the 101st Cavalry, he returned to the stage and soon caught Universal’s eye, leading…
