Brad Harris

Like Clint Eastwood and numerous other rugged young American men in the 1960s, American bodybuilder turned actor Brad Harris found international fame playing men of action in dozens of European productions, including "Fury of Hercules" (1962), "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" (1965) and "The Mutations" (1974). Born Bradford Jan Harris in St. Anthony, Idaho on July 16, 1933, he relocated with his family to California, where he attended Burbank High School before earning an athletic scholarship to the University of California Los Angeles. There, he studied economics and played football until a knee injury cut short the latter pursuit; advised to take up weightlifting as a means of rebuilding his strength, Harris soon made bodybuilding his primary focus. He soon parlayed his powerful build into work as a stuntman and extra or bit player in feature films and television, most as a muscleman in "Li'l Abner" (1959) and a gladiator in "Spartacus" (1960), both also featuring fellow future European action star Gordon Mitchell. Inspired by the then-recent success of Steve Reeves, another American bodybuilder who had risen to international fame as the star of "Hercules" (1957), he remained in Europe after the completion of "Spartacus" and delved into the Italian film industry. His powerful build and granite looks made him an ideal candidate to play larger-than-life, even mythological figures in the wave of "peplum" or sword-and-sandal films that sprung up to reap some of the box office dollars generated by "Hercules," and in 1960, Harris made his debut as a lead in "Goliath Against the Giants" (1961). With that film's screenwriter, Gianfranco Parolini, he made several additional historical adventures, including "Fury of Hercules," before wisely sensing audiences' waning interest in the subgenre and moving into other types of action films. He adapted smoothly to whatever style of film had captured Continental filmgoers' attentions: Westerns like the West German-produced "Pirates of the Mississippi" (1964), mysteries based on the novels of Edgar Wallace ("Secret of the Chinese Carnation," 1964) and most significantly, spy thrillers in the style of United Artists' James Bond films. With Parolini, he starred opposite Italian actor Tony Kendall as a pair of rugged American lawmen in a series of German-produced action films based on the "Kommissar X" novels by Paul Alfred Mueller. Seven films, beginning in 1965 with "Kommissar X - Jagd auf Unbekannt" ("Hunt for the Unknown"/"Kiss Kiss Kill Kill"), were released theatrically throughout the world, making Harris an international star, while in America, he became a favorite of late-night TV viewers and habitués of drive-ins and "grindhouse" theaters, which frequently played dubbed versions of international imports. Between these efforts, Harris appeared in virtually every other type of European genre films, from fantasy-adventures ("The Three Fantastic Supermen," 1967) to horror titles ("The Mad Butcher," 1971), while also producing and writing films for his own production company, Three Stars. The majority of these were European productions, though he did co-star in and produce "The Mutations," a grisly British horror film directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff. But with the collapse of the Italian film industry in the late 1970s, Harris, along with many other American expatriate actors, was forced to look outside of Europe for opportunities or return to the United States. Unlike many of his former co-stars and collaborators, Harris actually found steady work, though often in bit parts in American television, including recurring appearances on "Dallas" (CBS, 1978-1991) and "Falcon Crest" (CBS, 1981-1990). He also owned numerous exercise and fitness-related businesses, and enjoyed renewed recognition from a new generation of genre film fans who discovered his '60s titles through home video. Harris made his final film appearance in "Shiver" (2012), a horror film he also co-produced; though still fit and active into his eighth decade, Harris died after a short illness at the age of 84 on November 7, 2017.