born Aug. 6, 1917, Bridgeport, Conn., U.S.
died July 1, 1997, Santa Barbara county, Calif.
U.S. film actor.
Expelled from high school in New York City, he spent his teenage years wandering the country and working odd jobs. After joining an acting company in California, he made his screen debut in 1943, acting in several Hopalong Cassidy westerns. He won praise for his role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). With his trademark sleepy-eyed, tough-guy appearance, he usually played loners and villains, in movies (many of them B movies that have grown in critical esteem over time) such as Out of the Past (1947), The Lusty Men (1952), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), and Farewell, My Lovely (1975). In his later years, he starred in the television miniseries Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988–89).