Danny Lockin

Daniel Joseph Lockin was born on July 13, 1943, in Lanai, Hawaii, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He began performing professionally at the age of eight, appearing at area fairs in an act that paired him with Neal Reynolds, an African American boy with whom he tap danced, told jokes, pantomimed, and performed impressions. During his junior year of high school, his family relocated to Anaheim, California, where he graduated from Rancho Alamitos High School. Before turning professional, he performed leading juvenile roles in regional productions of Gypsy: A Musical Fable, The Music Man, and Time for Everything.

Lockin's earliest screen appearance came in 1962, when he was cast without credit as one of Dainty June's farm boys in the film version of Gypsy. The following year, in October 1963, he appeared in the play Morning Sun alongside Patricia Neway and Bert Convy, a production that closed after nine performances. The New York Times noted that he "dances with acrobatic suppleness and engaging freshness." He made his Broadway debut on April 8, 1964, in West Side Story, playing the role of Gee-Tar, a part he held until May 3 of that year. He subsequently appeared as an actor and dancer in a regional production of Take Me Along, and later in 1964 was cast in a starring role in the musical Tom Sawyer at the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

In the winter of 1965, Lockin replaced Jerry Dodge as Barnaby Tucker in Hello, Dolly!, a role that would define the remainder of his career. He toured the United States in six traveling productions of the show, performing opposite Betty Grable, Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Dorothy Lamour, and Anne Russell in the role of Dolly Levi. He was cast in the 1969 film version of Hello, Dolly! on the strength of his dancing, a part he secured after thirteen screen tests. Lockin later described making the film as "the dream of my life." During production, he had a notable encounter with director Gene Kelly: after Lockin performed four "butterflies" — a cartwheel executed without placing the hands on the ground — Kelly demonstrated six technically superior repetitions of the same move, an episode that reportedly left Lockin sulking for three days. Following the completion of filming, he returned to the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly!, where he continued as Barnaby Tucker alongside both Ethel Merman and Phyllis Diller until the show closed on December 27, 1970.

Lockin also maintained a television presence throughout his career, appearing in guest and incidental roles on Father of the Bride, Dr. Kildare, Mr. Novak, My Three Sons, and the Sid Caesar Show. In April 1970, he guest-starred on The Dean Martin Show. He underwent a screen test for the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music but was not cast. In 1967, he was offered a minor role in The Graduate but was contractually obligated to a regional production of Hello, Dolly! in Las Vegas and could not accept the part.

In 1967, Lockin married dancer Kathy Haas, whom he met during a production of Hello, Dolly! in San Francisco. Their son, Jeremy Daniel Lockin, was born in 1969, the same year the couple divorced. Following the divorce, Lockin resumed touring with Hello, Dolly! in the role of Barnaby until the tour concluded. Substance abuse issues contributed to a decline in his career, and he moved into his mother's apartment in Anaheim. Around 1974, he began helping his mother operate the Jean Lockin Dance Studio. After the studio closed in early 1977, he took a position teaching at another dance studio.

On August 21, 1977, Lockin appeared on the television talent program The Gong Show, winning an award for the episode. Later that evening, he went to a gay bar in Garden Grove, California, and left with Charles Leslie Hopkins, a 34-year-old unemployed medical clerk who had a prior police record and was on probation at the time. Hopkins subsequently contacted police claiming a man had broken into his apartment and attempted to rob him. Officers arriving at the scene discovered Lockin's body on the floor; he had been stabbed one hundred times and had bled to death, and his body had been mutilated after death. Hopkins was arrested immediately. He was tried beginning in May 1978, with the proceedings delayed two months after the prosecutor was injured in an unrelated accident. During the delay, a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Chadwick led the trial court to exclude a book of pornographic material found in Hopkins' apartment, which prosecutors had intended to use to establish premeditation. On August 8, the trial judge ruled that the death penalty could not be applied due to insufficient evidence of premeditation. On September 28, 1978, Hopkins was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison, an increase from the standard three-year term based on evidence the court was permitted to consider at sentencing. Prosecutors indicated that with good behavior, Hopkins could be released in approximately two years, accounting for time already served. Lockin was interred at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, California. He was thirty-four years old at the time of his death.