Dana James Hutton, known as Jim Hutton, was an American actor in film and television best remembered for his role as Ellery Queen in the 1970s TV series of the same name, and his screen partnership with Paula Prentiss in four films, starting with Where the Boys Are.
38 Facts About Jim Hutton
2.
Jim Hutton was expelled from five high schools and a boarding school due to behavior problems, but had excellent grades and test scores.
3.
Jim Hutton was expelled from Syracuse after driving a bulldozer through a bed of tulips near the library while drunk.
4.
Jim Hutton then enrolled at Niagara University, where he began pursuing an acting career.
5.
Jim Hutton performed in summer stock in Connecticut and La Jolla, and won state oratory competitions.
6.
Jim Hutton served in the United States Army from 1956 and starred in over 40 Army training films before going to Berlin to serve in special services.
7.
Jim Hutton personally founded the American Community Theater by spearheading the renovation of theaters abandoned during World War II.
8.
Jim Hutton was performing in live theater in Germany, playing Captain Queeg in a production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, while with the Army, when he was spotted by American film director Douglas Sirk.
9.
Jim Hutton made his debut in the film as a neurotic German soldier who commits suicide.
10.
When Jim Hutton got out of the Army, he moved to Hollywood, but discovered the offer from Universal had expired.
11.
Jim Hutton got an agent, though, and started doing auditions.
12.
Jim Hutton guest-starred on episodes of Father Knows Best and Tate.
13.
The film was a big flop, but Jim Hutton was then cast in a teen comedy for the same studio, Where the Boys Are, where he appeared alongside a number of young players under contract to the studio, including George Hamilton, Connie Francis, Yvette Mimieux, and Paula Prentiss.
14.
Jim Hutton was romantically teamed in the film with Prentiss, in part because they were the tallest MGM contract players of their time, and public feedback being positive, MGM decided to make them a regular team, along the lines of William Powell and Myrna Loy.
15.
Jim Hutton appeared with Prentiss in The Honeymoon Machine supporting Steve McQueen, which was a hit.
16.
Jim Hutton and Prentiss were given top billing in The Horizontal Lieutenant, which was a box-office disappointment.
17.
Jim Hutton was meant to play a role in How the West Was Won, a soldier who tries to desert and fights with George Peppard, but Russ Tamblyn ended up playing the role.
18.
Jim Hutton did some stage acting at the La Jolla Playhouse in Write Me a Murder in 1962.
19.
Jim Hutton was Connie Francis's leading man in Looking for Love.
20.
Jim Hutton was going to be Sandra Dee's leading man in The Richest Girl in Town but was replaced by Andy Williams for the final film, which became I'd Rather Be Rich.
21.
Jim Hutton signed a one-year contract with Universal and received an offer to make a Western at Columbia, Major Dundee, which was directed by Sam Peckinpah, and Hutton played the third lead after Charlton Heston and Richard Harris, an ineffective officer.
22.
Jim Hutton followed it with another expensive Western, The Hallelujah Trail with Burt Lancaster, directed by John Sturges for United Artists.
23.
Jim Hutton was the male juvenile in Never Too Late with Paul Ford and Connie Stevens, at Warner Bros.
24.
Jim Hutton made a pilot for a sitcom about a travelling salesman, Barney, written and directed by Shelley Berman for Screen Gems, but it was not picked up.
25.
Jim Hutton made a cameo in The Trouble with Angels, and was the second male lead in Walk, Don't Run, a comedy with Samantha Eggar and Cary Grant at Columbia.
26.
Director Charles Walters says Jim Hutton was Grant's personal choice for the role.
27.
Jim Hutton was announced for the lead in A Guide for the Married Man but when the script changed, he ended up asking to be released from it.
28.
In November 1966, Jim Hutton signed a nonexclusive, two-year deal with 20th Century Fox.
29.
In July 1967, Jim Hutton signed to appear in the John Wayne war drama, The Green Berets, in which Jim Hutton played a Special Forces sergeant in a mix of comedy and drama, with a memorable booby trap death scene.
30.
Also in 1968, Jim Hutton appeared with Wayne in Hellfighters, playing the role of Greg Parker.
31.
Jim Hutton was in two TV movies, the thriller The Deadly Hunt and a war film, The Reluctant Heroes of Hill 656.
32.
Jim Hutton played Erle Stanley Gardner's small-town district attorney hero, Doug Selby, in They Call It Murder, a TV movie that was a pilot for a proposed series that never came about.
33.
Jim Hutton co-starred with Connie Stevens in Call Her Mom, another TV movie that was a pilot for a series that was not picked up.
34.
The episode, titled "The Older Man", was a four-part story arc in which Jim Hutton portrayed Dr Paul Curran, a 42-year-old veterinarian who falls in love with 17-year-old Julie Cooper.
35.
Jim Hutton was married to Maryline Adams, who was a teacher.
36.
Jim Hutton had an intermittent 15-year relationship with actress and model Yvette Vickers.
37.
On June 2,1979, Jim Hutton died of liver cancer, two days after his 45th birthday, and a month after being diagnosed.
38.
Jim Hutton was cremated and his ashes were interred at the Garden of Roses area of Westwood Village Memorial Park.