Don Haggerty

Don Haggerty (July 3, 1914 – August 19, 1988) was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was a student-athlete at Brown University and later attended the Experimental Theatre of Vassar College. He served in the United States Army counterintelligence from March 1943 to March 1946.

Haggerty made his Broadway appearance in 1941 in Mr. and Mrs. North. His screen career began in 1947, and he went on to appear in films including Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1951), Angels in the Outfield (1951), and The Narrow Margin. Frequently cast as tough policemen or cowboys, he continued working in film through the early 1980s.

Television became a central part of Haggerty's career. He played the lead in the DuMont series The Cases of Eddie Drake, filmed in 1949 and aired in 1952, and starred in the syndicated private eye series The Files of Jeffrey Jones from 1954 to 1955. He appeared 21 times as newspaperman Marsh Murdock in the ABC/Desilu western The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, with 19 of those appearances occurring in 1955 and 1956. Between 1949 and 1955, he made four guest appearances on The Lone Ranger, portraying outlaws, a crooked sheriff, and a legitimate sheriff across those episodes.

Haggerty portrayed outlaw Sam Bass in a 1955–1956 episode of the syndicated series Stories of the Century and appeared as Sheriff Elder in nine episodes of State Trooper during the same period. He also appeared on CBS in the Reed Hadley legal drama The Public Defender and in three episodes of the syndicated western 26 Men. In 1959, he guest starred on Behind Closed Doors, Bruce Gordon's NBC docudrama about the Cold War, and appeared on Bat Masterson as crooked casino owner Jess Porter and on Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Harry Moxton.

His television work continued into the 1960s with appearances on Rawhide, Tales of Wells Fargo, Dan Raven, The Californians, Riverboat, and Colt .45, where he played Marshal Bill Thompson in the episode "Alibi." He appeared on Bonanza seven times in various roles between 1962 and 1972, and guest starred on My Favorite Martian in 1964 and 1965. In 1963, he was cast in an episode of the NBC modern western series Redigo, and in 1967 he portrayed a sheriff in an episode of Rango. Haggerty died in Port St. John, Florida, on August 19, 1988, at the age of 74.