Myron Healey

Early years

Healey was born in Petaluma in Sonoma County, California, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Robert D. Healey. He served in World War II as an Air Corps navigator and bombardier, flying in B-26 Martin Marauders in the European Theatre. After the war he continued military duties, retiring in the early 1960s as a captain in the United States Air Force Reserve.

Acting career

Healey's film debut was in Young Ideas (1943).

Returning to film work after the war, Healey played villains and henchmen in low-budget western films. He also did some screenwriting. In the post-war period he was often seen in westerns from Monogram Pictures, often starring Johnny Mack Brown, Jimmy Wakely and Whip Wilson.

In the 1950s Healey moved to more "bad guy" roles in other films, including the Bomba and Jungle Jim series, crime dramas and more westerns. He portrayed the bandit Bob Dalton in an episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, starring and narrated by Jim Davis. In 1955 he played a "good guy" for a change as Phyllis Coates' partner in the 1955 Republic Pictures serial Panther Girl of the Kongo.

Healey appeared seven times as Capt. Bandcroft in The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951-55). He was cast twice in 1957-58 as Becker in two episodes of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Colt .45 starring Wayde Preston and seven times in the long-running The Lone Ranger television series.

Healey played the outlaw Johnny Ringo in the western television series Tombstone Territory, with Pat Conway as Sheriff Clay Hollister, in the episode "Johnny Ringo's Last Ride". He appeared in an episode of the children's western series Buckskin, which aired on NBC from 1958-59. He was a semi-regular on programs produced by Gene Autry's Flying A production company: Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Jr., The Range Rider, and The Gene Autry Show. He also guest-starred on the crime drama with a modern western setting, Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield, and in the western set in the 1840s, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin. He also appeared in the second season of Zorro (season 2, episode 34--"The Captain Regrets).

Between 1960-63 Healey appeared five times on the NBC western Laramie, starring John Smith and Robert Fuller. He appeared ten times on another NBC western, The Virginian, starring James Drury and Doug McClure, and four times on its spinoff, Laredo. He also appeared in the very first episode of the TV show Checkmate, starring Doug McClure.

During the 1958-59 season Healey, billed as "Michael Healey", replaced Douglas Fowley as Doc Holliday in the popular ABC/Desilu western series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O'Brian in the title role.^:600 Earlier, on September 25, 1956, Healey played the drunken gunfighter Clay Allison in an episode of the same name on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. In the story line, Pete Albright, a storeowner in Dodge City, Kansas, played by Charles Fredericks, tries to hire Allison to gun down Earp because the marshal is fighting crime in the town and costing merchants business in the process.

From 1959-61 he played Maj. Peter Horry, top aide to Leslie Nielsen, in the miniseries Swamp Fox on Walt Disney Presents, based on the American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion.

Collectively, Healey appeared in some 140 films, including 81 westerns and three serials. Among his non-western pictures, he appeared in at least two horror films: the Americanized version of the Japanese giant-monster movie Varan the Unbelievable (1958) and The Incredible Melting Man (1977).

Death

In 2005 Healey broke his hip in a fall and never recovered. He died at the age of 82 at a hospital near his home in Simi Valley, California.

Recognition

In 2000 Healey received a Golden Boot Award for his contributions to Western films and television programs.

Other western appearances include:

Non-western appearances include:

Feature films include: