And one last one in my saga about those "extra" guys ...
Over the years, I have kept a file titled
UNKNOWN GUY!! I started noticing
UNKNOWN GUY popping up
everywhere - in all sorts of I SPY episodes, in all different locales. After the DVDs came out, whenever I saw him, I took a screen capture and dumped it into the "UNKNOWN GUY file." And the file grew and grew .... but I never found out who he was ....
until the other day when I started putting together those photos of "ol' Hedley" and "Genius" to post on the FORUM!
All right .... Does this guy look familiar??
There have been many people who have appeared in several episodes on I SPY. Arthur Batanides showed up as the most "re-occurring" bad guy - 4 times, France Nuyen - 4 times, Ken Tobey - numerous times, James Hong - 4 times, and Mako - 3 times ... among many others.
These were all well-known actors, but who was this
UNKNOWN GUY ?? ....
By my last count, I had found him popping up in 7 episodes (and maybe an 8th)?
Well lo and behold, while putting together the Hedley and Genius postings the other day, I ran across him again - in LITTLE BOY LOST. He was definitely one of the bad guys, and by process of elimination, he had to be the character of "Burnett"!! So now
UNKNOWN GUY finally had a name - and it was
Larry Duran.
So using all the skills I learned in Russ Conway's and Col. Benkovski's Spy School classes, "Informaton R Us Tatia" set about tracking down Mr. Duran.
He was listed in most
I SPY Guides as being in 3 episodes ...
as "Burnett" in LITTLE BOY LOST
as the "Heavy" in THE LOSER
and as "Wong" in DANNY WAS A MILLION LAUGHS
but ... he appeared - uncredited - in lots of other episodes, because I had found him in THREE HOURS ON A SUNDAY NIGHT, SO LONG PATRICK HENRY, DRAGON'S TEETH, MY MOTHER THE SPY, and maybe CHRYSANTHEMUM. (Told you I had been keeping that
UNKNOWN GUY File for quite awhile!
)
The characters he played were almost always bad guys, usually holding a gun on Kelly or Scotty, and often getting punched out by Kelly at the end, when the good guys triumphed over the bad ones. Sometimes he was bald, sometimes he had a moustache, and sometimes he donned a toupee or a hat.
Since he was often involved in fight scenes, I thought perhaps he might have also done stunts or co-ordinated "something" on the series, because he was
always around - in different episodes in different countries. So either he traveled with the company - or - he did lots of his work when they returned to the sound stages in California.
Well, as it turns out, I was right about the stuntman part ... because I found this on IMDB ...
LARRY DURAN
An American bit player and stuntman - A former boxer and U.S. Navy veteran, Duran was befriended by Marlon Brando, who obtained a small part for him in Viva Zapata! (1952). He continued to work, first in Brando's films, then in other projects, often in athletic parts or as a stunt performer. He also worked frequently in television. He died at 77, in 2002. He was a Life Member of Stuntman's Association of America, and father of actor/ stuntman Richard L. Duran.
Here he is as the sympatico amigo character "Chico Modesto" in Brando's epic "One Eyed Jacks" (1961), the only film Marlon Brando ever directed (with music by Hugo Friedhofer).
And here is Larry Duran - a.k.a. UNKNOWN GUY - in his I SPY adventures .....
.... in SO LONG PATRICK HENRY
.... and in LITTLE BOY LOST
.... in THREE HOURS ON A SUNDAY NIGHT
.... in DRAGON'S TEETH
.... in THE LOSER
.... in MY MOTHER THE SPY
(He was out of the way in time to miss Scotty's famous "drink splashing" scene.
.... and in DANNY WAS A MILLION LAUGHS ....
in fact he was the guy was shot "Genius" (Nick Colasanto) while aiming at Danny (Martin Landau) in the restaurant.
.....
And then there is this guy in CHRYSANTHEMUM - who I had put in the
UNKNOWN GUY file. But it turns out that he is listed as Franklin Sui - who played Lt. Charlie Masters in that episode. Lt. Masters does have a few lines of dialogue - which was unusual for
UNKNOWN GUY - so perhaps this is a different actor, but boy oh boy do they look alike. What do you think??? Compare this to the pictures in DANNY WAS A MILLION LAUGHS (where Wong is listed as Larry Duran).
..... and CHRYSANTHEMUM???
I'm sure
UNKNOWN GUY has to be out there in more episodes, so if you run across him, please let me know!!
And if you know
anything more about
Larry Duran, we'd love to hear about it!!
As always (we're trying here, folks),
Tatia
~ ~ 