Biography

Owned and operated Terry Gene's, a coffee shop on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles during WWII. 4F draft rating due to a club foot.

[about working with Broderick Crawford on Highway Patrol (1955)] Well, by that time Brod was drinking pretty regular, but he was a great guy. It never seemed to affect his work. Brod Crawford and I used to rehearse our scenes together, and you know, with him, he never gave you a cue. In the theater, you learned to handle that--you anticipate the other actor. For me, it was no problem. You could tell with Broderick just by watching him, the way he walked and moved, when he'd finish his lines. So, we worked well together. Now, he also had a couple of quarts of vodka in the prop truck, on ice. After every scene, he'd say, "Let's freshen up." So we'd go over to the prop truck, he'd take a drink and hand the thing to me. I'd blow bubbles in the darn thing and give it back to him! Come wrap time, I'd start to have a few, too! He'd get pretty stoned sometimes. One afternoon after one of these days with these long freshening-up rituals, he tripped over a cable and sprained his ankle, and he said to me, "Geez, you can handle that stuff!" He thinks I've been drinking drink for drink with him, and the whole time I've been blowing bubbles in his vodka.

[on why he finally left the film industry] I went out on an interview on the old Republic lot, which had been changed into the North Hollywood CBS television production facility. I sat down in front of these two young casting directors, and they asked me what I had done. I asked them if they were familiar with my work. They said no, and I said, "Well, if you're not familiar with my work, there's no sense in going any further with this." I got up, thanked them, turned heel and walked out without a regret. I got into the travel business, went around the world two dozen times. I feel I got to see Hollywood in its golden age, and rather than be on the way down and desperate, I decided to get out of the game while the getting was good. I led a charmed life--I repeat--a charmed life.

[on Charles King] Charlie was a great guy, but he was an alcoholic. He tried to kill himself twice. One time he shot himself with a .22, and another time he climbed a tree and tried to hang himself. Either the limb or the rope broke and Charlie ended up with a broken leg.