John Phillip Law

John Phillip Law (September 7, 1937 – May 13, 2008) was an American actor born in Los Angeles, California, to John Law, a deputy sheriff, and Phyllis Sallee, a Broadway actress. As a child, he appeared in a production of The Magnificent Yankee, playing a page. He initially pursued engineering at college before transferring to the University of Hawaii, where he studied psychology and drama.

Law's professional career began on stage. He appeared in Garson Kanin's Come on Strong in 1962, and subsequently spent three years at the Repertory Theater at Lincoln Center, where his credits included Marco's Millions, The Changeling, Tartuffe, and After the Fall. His Broadway work spanned from 1962 to 1965. After departing Lincoln Center, he relocated to Europe, where he took roles in High Infidelity and Three Nights of Love.

His transition to film came when director Norman Jewison, having seen Law in an Italian production, cast him as the young English-speaking Russian sailor Alexei Kolchin in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). The following year brought two further film appearances: a farmer in Otto Preminger's Hurry Sundown and the gunfighter Bill Meceita opposite Lee Van Cleef in the spaghetti western Death Rides a Horse (1967). In 1968, Law appeared in three notable films: the science fiction picture Barbarella alongside Jane Fonda, in which he played the blind angel Pygar; the action film Danger: Diabolik, in which he took the title role; and the Otto Preminger "acid comedy" Skidoo, which paired him with actress Alexandra Hay.

Law's career continued into the early 1970s with a cameo in The Last Movie (1971) and the lead role of Manfred von Richthofen in Von Richthofen and Brown (1971), for which he learned to take off and land an aircraft. That same year he starred in The Love Machine, based on Jacqueline Susann's novel, reuniting him with Alexandra Hay. His most widely seen role came with The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), in which he played the title character Sinbad. The film was a worldwide box office hit and won the first Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.

Throughout the mid-to-late 1970s, Law worked extensively in Europe, appearing in Docteur Justice (1975), A Whisper in the Dark (1976), The Cassandra Crossing (1977), Target of an Assassin (1977), Eyes Behind the Wall (1977), The Rider on the White Horse (1978), and The Devil's Bed (1978), among others. He later returned to the United States, where he appeared in The Best Place to Be and Ring of Darkness.

Law remained active as an actor through the 1980s and 1990s, with credits including Attack Force Z (1982), Tin Man (1983), Night Train to Terror (1985), American Commandos (1985), Space Mutiny (1988), and Alienator (1990), as well as numerous international productions. In 2001 he appeared in Roman Coppola's CQ. His later credits included Curse of the Forty-Niner (2002), which he also associate produced, The Three Faces of Terror (2004), Ray of Sunshine (2006), and Chinaman's Chance (2008), his final screen appearance.

In his personal life, Law was married to and later divorced from actress Shawn Ryan, with whom he had a daughter. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on December 13, 2007, and died on May 13, 2008, at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 70.