Ty Hardin

Early life

Hardin was born in New York City, but reared in Texas, after his family moved to the capital city of Austin when he was six months old. His father, an acoustical engineer, left the family four years later.

As a growing boy, his grandmother, with whom he lived part of the time after his parents divorced, nicknamed him "Ty" because he was as active as a "Texas typhoon". Hardin graduated in 1949 from Lamar High School in Houston. A football scholarship enabled him to attend Blinn College in Brenham, Texas for one year, and then he went to the Dallas Bible Institute for one semester.

He served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He was commissioned after attending Officer Candidate School in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and he became a pilot of Forward Observer O-1 Bird Dog liaison aircraft. He attained the rank of first lieutenant. After his return from service, he began taking courses at Texas A&M University in College Station on a scholarship under Coach Bear Bryant, for whom he played tight end.

Start

A Paramount Pictures talent scout discovered Hardin while Hardin attended a costume party. He had rented revolvers from a motion picture costume rental company. By 1957, Hardin acquired the services of agent Henry Willson and made his way to Hollywood, where he was put under contract by Paramount Pictures. Initially billed as "Ty Hungerford", he made various minor appearances in several Paramount films, such as I Married a Monster from Outer Space and Last Train from Gun Hill.

Warner Bros. years

According to Hardin, he tried to obtain a lead role in the 1959 film Rio Bravo that had been promised to singer Ricky Nelson. John Wayne reportedly saw Hardin while visiting a film set at Paramount and was impressed with Hardin's appearance. Wayne introduced him to Howard Hawks and William T. Orr at Warner Bros. Television; they bargained for his seven-year contract and he moved to Warner Bros., who changed his stage surname to "Hardin", reminiscent of the Texas gunfighter John Wesley Hardin. He also attended actors' school at Warner Bros. and landed small parts in various Warner productions.

When Clint Walker walked out on his ABC series Cheyenne in 1958 during a contract dispute with Warner Bros., Hardin got his big break. Warner bought out Hardin's contract from Paramount Studios and installed him into Cheyenne for the remainder of the season, as the country cousin "Bronco Layne". Walker and Warner Bros. came to terms after the season ended, but Hardin had made such a big hit on the show that Jack L. Warner gave him his own series, Bronco, under the Cheyenne title. Bronco alternated weeks with Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins, and Cheyenne for four years. The series ran from 1958 to 1962.

Hardin was soon given other prominent roles for Warner Bros., such as Merrill's Marauders, as Doug "Stretch" Fortune in the 1963 spring break film Palm Springs Weekend, The Chapman Report, and PT 109.

International films

When his contract expired, Hardin left Hollywood to seek opportunity overseas as his series aired all over the world. Like many other American actors, Hardin traveled to Europe, where he made several spaghetti Westerns, although he turned down Sergio Leone's offer to play the lead in A Fistful of Dollars, a role which went instead to Clint Eastwood. He also appeared in American-financed all-star epics such as Battle of the Bulge and Custer of the West. He was reportedly the first choice to play the starring role in the television series Batman, which went instead to Adam West. Hardin turned down Batman because of film commitments overseas.

Hardin starred in the 1968–1969 Australian television series Riptide, in which he played an American running a charter boat company along the eastern seaboard of Australia, and a 1970 German television series called On the Trail of Johnny Hilling, Boor and Billy, shown in the former West Germany.

Personal life

In 1958, Hardin had his name changed legally from Orison Whipple Hungerford Jr. to Ty Hardin. He ascribed the change to a matter of convenience.

From 1962 to 1966, he was married to the 1961 Miss Universe, German beauty queen Marlene Schmidt, who later worked in the movie industry; they had one daughter. At the time of his death, Hardin lived with his eighth wife, Caroline, in Huntington Beach, California.

Hardin died on August 3, 2017, aged 87.

Arizona Patriots

After difficulties with the Internal Revenue Service, Hardin founded an anti-tax movement in Prescott, Arizona. In 1982, the movement became known as the Arizona Patriots. The anti-Semitic group first gained public notice by its efforts to clog the Arizona court system with nuisance lawsuits in the 1980s, a tactic also employed by the violence-prone Posse Comitatus. The group also stockpiled weapons. It eventually disappeared after being infiltrated by the FBI. Three men (James Ellison, Kerrey Noble and William Thomas) were sentenced to prison, others to lesser sentences, and one remains a fugitive. Hardin left Arizona for California.