![]() There was a chance to get some training in B pictures. When I started at Fox in 1950 they were making sixty-five pictures a year. ![]() This appeared confirmed when he was the lead in Stopover Tokyo (1957). Both movies were box office disappointments and it seemed Wagner was unable to make the transition to top-level star. īack at Fox Wagner was in Between Heaven and Hell (1956), a war movie, and The True Story of Jesse James (1957), playing the leading role for director Nicholas Ray ( Jeffrey Hunter was Frank). Zanuck's brother in law (the leads were all under contract to Fox) and released through United Artists. He received more critical acclaim for the lead in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), from the novel by Ira Levin it was made for Crown Productions, a company of Darryl F. Wagner was borrowed by Paramount for The Mountain (1956), directed by Dmytryk, where Wagner was cast as Spencer Tracy's brother, having played his son just two years earlier in the same director's Broken Lance. He was teamed with Jeffrey Hunter in a Western, White Feather (1955). While popular, critical reception was poor and Wagner later joked his wig in the movie made him look like Jane Wyman. Fox gave Wagner the lead in an expensive spectacular, Prince Valiant (1954). Īlso popular was a Western, Broken Lance (1954), where Wagner supported Spencer Tracy for director Edward Dmytryk, appearing as Tracy's son. Reviews were poor but the movie was only the third ever to be shot in CinemaScope and was a big hit. Leading man Wagner in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)įox gave Wagner his first starring role in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953). He was in a minor Western, The Silver Whip (1953) with Rory Calhoun. He supported James Cagney and Dan Dailey in John Ford's version of What Price Glory (1952) and supported Webb again in Titanic (1953). He was the romantic male lead in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), a biopic about John Philip Sousa starring Clifton Webb. They never let you rest." įox started to give Wagner better roles. When I wasn't working, I was on the road, going out and selling movies or dancing on the stage and meeting the public. "You felt proud of being part of the organization. "You were part of 20th Century Fox", he said. Wagner first gained significant attention with a small but showy part as a shell-shocked soldier in With a Song in My Heart (1952). Let's Make It Legal (1951) was a comedy where Wagner again supported an older star, in this case Claudette Colbert. The studio then had him perform a similar function in another war movie, The Frogmen (1951), again with Widmark the cast also included another young male under contract to the studio, Jeffrey Hunter, with whom Wagner would often work. Wagner had a supporting role, with Richard Widmark as the star. Wagner's first film for Fox was Halls of Montezuma (1951) a World War II film. Darryl Zanuck was always placing me in different positions." But you always felt you could work your way up, that you could have a better part in the next picture. ![]() "I started off as an ingenue", recalled Wagner. He made his uncredited film debut in The Happy Years (1950) was signed by agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century Fox. Wagner became interested in acting, and after an unsuccessful screen test directed by Fred Zinnemann for his film Teresa (1951), was represented by Albert R. Career 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures Wagner's father was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her parents were both immigrants from Norway, who married in La Crosse in 1887. Wagner's mother was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Wagner was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Thelma Hazel Alvera ( née Boe), a telephone operator, and Robert John Wagner, Sr., a travelling salesman who worked for the Ford Motor Company. ![]() Airport '79 (1979).Įarly life Jean Peters with Wagner in Broken Lance (1954) In films, Wagner is known for his role as Number 2 in the Austin Powers trilogy of films (1997, 1999, 2002), as well as for Prince Valiant (1954), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Pink Panther (1963), Harper (1966), The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Concorde. He later had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold in the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men (2007–2008) and made twelve guest appearances (2010–2019) as Anthony DiNozzo Sr. He is known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984). (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.
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