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Michael Callan

Highest Rated: 90% Cat Ballou (1965)

Lowest Rated: 0% Leprechaun 3 (1995)

Birthday: Nov 22, 1935

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Michael Callan's mother, apparently unenthused about his singing ability, offered to pay for dance lessons for her son. It was money well spent. At 15, he was dancing in nightclubs and at 19 was on stage on Broadway at the Royal Theater alongside Julie Andrews (her debut) in "The Boy Friend." He landed the part of gang leader Riff in the original Broadway production of "West Side Story" for director/choreographer Jerome Robbins in 1957. Talent agent Joyce Selznick found him there and a seven-year contract at Columbia Pictures followed. Callan lost the role of Riff to Russ Tamblyn for Robert Wise's film adaptation of "West Side Story" in 1961 due to contractual obligations at Columbia. With the musical slowly dying in popularity, Callan's talent as a song-and-dance man was shelved, and the studio was pushing him toward teen idol status through a variety of half-baked youth-oriented pictures in the 1960s. He did have success opposite Jane Fonda in "Cat Ballou" in 1965 and with Tony Curtis in the mob film "Lepke" in 1975, but it was television where Callan found his most consistent work. He had the lead role in the two seasons "Occasional Wife" aired in the late '60s and was a guest star on hugely popular shows like "Mary Tyler Moore," "Love, American Style," "Police Story," and "Fantasy Island" throughout the 1970s and '80s. His work slowed in the '90s but appeared in the film "The Still Life" in 2007. Michael Callan died on October 10, 2022 in Woodland Hills, CA at the age of 86.

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Highest-Rated Movies

90% 74% Cat Ballou
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82% 64% Mysterious Island
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80% 47% They Came to Cordura
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63% 44% Chained Heat
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40% 33% The Interns
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20% 78% The Victors
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0% 35% Leprechaun 3
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The Flying Fontaines
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Dark Dreams
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Because They're Young
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Filmography

Movies TV Shows
The Last Road 1997 Actor Leprechaun 3 0% 35% 1995 Mitch Actor Dark Dreams 1993 RAW / McCarthy Actor Freeway 18% 1988 Lt. Boyle Actor My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn 60% 1985 Hal Wallis Actor Last of the Great Survivors 1984 Jerry Actor Chained Heat 63% 44% 1983 Martin Actor Double Exposure 4% 1982 Adrian Wilde Actor The Cat and the Canary 29% 1978 Paul Jones Actor Donner Pass: The Road to Survival 1978 William Eddy Actor Record City 1977 Eddie Actor Lepke 38% 1975 Robert Kane Actor Frasier, the Sensuous Lion 1973 Marvin Feldman Actor Gift of Terror 1973 Steve Actor The Magnificent Seven Ride! 26% 1972 Noah Forbes Actor The Valachi Papers 54% 1972 Actor Love American Style 1969 Actor In Name Only 1969 Steve Braden Actor Cat Ballou 90% 74% 1965 Clay Boone Actor You Must Be Joking 1965 Lt. Tim Morton Actor The New Interns 1964 Dr. Alec Considine Actor The Victors 20% 78% 1963 Actor 13 West Street 22% 1962 Chuck Actor Bon Voyage! 37% 1962 Nick O'Mara Actor The Interns 40% 33% 1962 Dr. Alec Considine Actor
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