1. Van Heflin played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man.
49 Facts About Van Heflin
1. 2.
Van Heflin had memorable roles in the westerns Shane, 3:10 to Yuma, and Gunman's Walk.
3.
Van Heflin portrayed a mentally disturbed airline passenger in the classic disaster film Airport.
4.
Van Heflin's sister was Daytime Emmy-nominated actress Frances Van Heflin.
5.
Van Heflin went to the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1932, and was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
6.
Van Heflin earned a master's degree in theater at Yale University.
7.
Van Heflin began his acting career on Broadway in the late 1920s.
8.
Van Heflin appeared in Mr Moneypenny, The Bride of Torozko, The Night Remembers, Mid-West, and End of Summer.
9.
Van Heflin made his film debut in A Woman Rebels, opposite Katharine Hepburn, whom he played opposite in the stage version of The Philadelphia Story.
10.
Van Heflin followed it with The Outcasts of Poker Flat, billed third after Preston Foster and Jean Muir, and Flight from Glory, a Chester Morris programmer where Heflin played an alcoholic pilot.
11.
Van Heflin was in Annapolis Salute, then was given his first lead role in Saturday's Heroes, playing a star quarterback.
12.
Van Heflin returned to Broadway for Western Waters and Casey Jones, the latter for the Group Theatre and directed by Elia Kazan.
13.
In Hollywood Van Heflin had a support role in Back Door to Heaven.
14.
Van Heflin returned to Broadway where he played Macaulay Connor opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Booth in The Philadelphia Story, which ran for 417 performances from 1939 to 1940.
15.
Not being "swamped with offers" after Santa Fe Trail, Van Heflin contacted Billy Grady, an MGM talent scout, and arranged for a screen test, which Van Heflin did opposite Donna Reed.
16.
Van Heflin had a part as Robert Taylor's doomed best friend in Johnny Eager, which won Heflin an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and was a box office success.
17.
Van Heflin was Judy Garland's love interest in Presenting Lily Mars ; then, he enlisted in the Army.
18.
Van Heflin first appeared in the training film Land and Live in the Jungle and then in three more films.
19.
When Van Heflin returned to Hollywood, MGM lent him to Hal Wallis to star opposite Barbara Stanwyck in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.
20.
Van Heflin was in the all-star musical Till the Clouds Roll By then was loaned to Warner Bros to co star with Joan Crawford in Possessed.
21.
Van Heflin was top-billed in Zinnemann's Act of Violence, and supported Jennifer Jones in Madame Bovary.
22.
Van Heflin then made a third film with Stanwyck, East Side, West Side, but he was now billed beneath James Mason.
23.
Van Heflin acted on the Lux Radio Theatre, Suspense, Cavalcade of America and many more radio programs.
24.
Van Heflin began appearing on television on episodes of Nash Airflyte Theatre and Robert Montgomery Presents.
25.
Van Heflin had the lead role in a Western at Universal, Tomahawk and starred in a thriller directed by Joseph Losey, The Prowler.
26.
Van Heflin went to England to star in South of Algiers.
27.
Van Heflin appeared in a huge success as the honest farmer in Shane with Alan Ladd.
28.
Van Heflin starred in an independent Western, The Raid and was one of many stars in 20th Century Fox's Woman's World.
29.
Van Heflin stayed at Fox to star in Black Widow and he was top billed in Warners' Battle Cry based on Leon Uris's best seller which was a major hit at the box office.
30.
Van Heflin returned to Broadway to appear in a double bill of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays which ran for 149 performances under the direction of Martin Ritt.
31.
Van Heflin had an excellent part in 3:10 to Yuma with Glenn Ford.
32.
Van Heflin made a Western with Tab Hunter, his old Battle Cry co star, Gunman's Walk.
33.
That was made for Columbia, with whom Van Heflin signed a contract to make one film a year for five years.
34.
Van Heflin then went to Italy to star in Tempest.
35.
Van Heflin was billed after Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth in They Came to Cordura.
36.
Van Heflin went back to Europe for 5 Branded Women, which he starred in for Martin Ritt, Under Ten Flags, and The Wastrel.
37.
Van Heflin went to the Philippines to star in a war film Cry of Battle.
38.
Van Heflin had another Broadway hit in the title role of A Case of Libel which ran for 242 performances.
39.
Van Heflin appeared in a short but dramatic role as an eyewitness of Jesus' raising of Lazarus from death in the 1965 Bible film, The Greatest Story Ever Told.
40.
Van Heflin returned to MGM for a support part in Once a Thief.
41.
Van Heflin was in the remake of Stagecoach and went to Europe to star in The Man Outside and Every Man for Himself.
42.
Van Heflin had a six-month marriage to actress Eleanor Shaw in the mid-thirties.
43.
Van Heflin was the grandfather of actor Ben O'Brien and actress Eleanor O'Brien.
44.
Van Heflin played the role from January 5,1970, until her death in June 1994.
45.
Van Heflin was the uncle of Marta Heflin and Mady Kaplan, both actresses, and director Jonathan Kaplan.
46.
On June 6,1971, Van Heflin suffered a heart attack in his swimming pool.
47.
Van Heflin was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for nearly seven weeks and apparently never regained consciousness.
48.
In 1960, Van Heflin was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his contributions to motion pictures at 6311 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard.
49.
Van Heflin was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1964.