Ron Hagerthy

Film roles

Hagerthy was 18 and playing the gentleman caller in a Glendale College production of The Glass Menagerie in 1950 when he was invited to Warner Bros. for an intervie. Hagerthy's first screen role was as 19-year-old Dick Cvetic in the 1951 Warner Brothers film, I Was a Communist for the FBI. Frank Lovejoy (1912–1962) played the role of Matt Cvetic, a 39-year-old undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent within the Communist Party United States of America. Philip Carey (1925–2009) and Paul Picerni (1922–2011) were cast in the roles of Mason and Joe Cvetic, respectively. I was a Communist in the FBI subsequently inspired the syndicated television series I Led Three Lives. Hagerthy also appeared in small roles in two other 1951 Warner Bros. films, as Minto in Force of Arms and as corporal Rick Williams, who become the romantic interest of a Hollywood starlet, played by Janice Rule, in Starlift.

Sky King

Hagerthy appeared in nineteen episodes of Sky King, which in a topsy turvy broadcast history aired at one time on all three major television networks as well as in syndication. The series is set on a fictitious Arizona ranch. Hagerthy's episodes are:

Transitional roles

After Sky King, Hagerthy entered the military. He still appeared in three 1953 films: (1) as Johnny McKeever in Warner's 3-D Western The Charge at Feather River (1953) (2) as Stubby Kelly in City That Never Sleeps, and (3) as an unnamed college student in Titanic. That same year, he guest starred in William Boyd's Hopalong Cassidy, the first western television series, in the role of Johnny Bolton in the episode, "The Devil's Idol".

From 1952-1953, Hagerthy appeared on Fireside Theatre in different roles in three episodes entitled "Honor", "The Alien", and "The Boy Down the Road". In 1956, he appeared with Inger Stevens and Everett Sloane in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show in the episode "Law is for the Lovers".

Western roles

Hagerthy's long string of appearances in western series began to accelerate in 1956 with two guest-starring roles on the syndicated Annie Oakley, starring Gail Davis as Annie Oakley. He played the title role of Chuck Hutchins in the episode "The Waco Kid". Elizabeth Slifer (1896–1958) appeared as long-suffering mother, Jenny Hutchins, who yearns for her son to turn away from outlawry. He appeared as Billy Stryker thereafter in "Annie Rings the Bell", which also features Slim Pickens and X Brands. Pickens also guest starred in "The Waco Kid" segment.

His other western roles include:

Last roles

Hagerthy appeared on two CBS sitcoms, The Gale Storm Show as Sergeant Rickie Hyland in the 1956 episode "Wedding at Sea" and on The Beverly Hillbillies as an unnamed geologist in the groundbreaking 1962 series premiere episode, "The Clampetts Strike Oil". Hagerthy, never identified by name, informs the fictitious Clampetts that oil has been discovered on their Arkansas farm land. Hagerthy also appears via archival footage in the 1963 The Beverly Hillbillies episode, "Jed Pays His Income Tax".

Hagerthy appeared four times on CBS's Lassie: as Jack in "A Place for Everything" (1956), as a hunter in "The Archers" (1958), as a helicopter pilot in "Temper the Wind" (1965), and as Tom in "The Foundling", his last ever screen role in 1968.

Hagerthy, the son of Ford Hagerthy (1907–1996) and Rita Hagerthy (1911–1998), is a South Dakota native. He was living in Los Angeles, California by the late 1930s. He and his wife, Judith A. Hagerthy (born ca. 1940), reside in Corona del Mar, a neighborhood in Newport Beach, California. The couple has two children, Kelly Ann Hagerthy (born ca. 1961) and Patrick R. Hagerthy (born ca. 1963). After his acting career ended, Hagerthy entered the real estate business in southern California.

With the death of Gloria Winters in 2010, Hagerthy became the last surviving member of the Sky King cast.