Don Stroud

Character actor Don Stroud made a career out of playing vicious killers with killer tans. Beach blond, hulky, and handsome, Stroud was the son of vaudevillian Clarence Stroud and grew up in Hawaii. There, he learned to surf and competed professionally in the sport. After working as a stunt-double on the TV series "Hawaiian Eye," Stroud was inspired to pursue acting and moved to Los Angeles. In time he began to land small roles on TV and gained his reputation as a villain once director Don Siegel cast him in "Madigan" and later "Coogan's Bluff," the latter opposite Clint Eastwood. With increasing frequency, Stroud began to show up on police procedurals as charismatic criminals -- "Charlie's Angels," "The Streets of San Francisco," and "Cannon" among them. Exploitation and low-budget producers also turned to Stroud to play heavies. One of his best roles came as the son of Ma Barker (Shelley Winters) in the 1970 Roger Corman flick "Bloody Mama," getting top billing over a young Robert De Niro (who played brother Lloyd Barker). What does Stroud have to say about his pigeonhole? "I'm most proud of simply the amount of stuff I did," he stated in an interview. "I've done over 100 films and over 200 television shows. How many actors get to work like that? I did."