Tom Tryon

Tall, ruggedly handsome leading man of the 1950s and 60s who after a 16-year career gave up acting in 1971 to write the best-selling novels "Crowned Heads" and "Harvest Home." After beginning in a stock theatre company as a set painter and assistant manager, and later becoming a production assistant with NBC-TV, the Yale-educated Tryon entered film in 1955 with "Scarlet Hour." He appeared in mostly forgettable fare including "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" (1958) (as a stone-faced alien), and as the title character in the 1958 Walt Disney TV series "Texas John Slaughter." The height of his acting career was the starring role in Otto Preminger's "The Cardinal" (1963). In 1971, Tryon wrote the highly popular, supernatural thriller "The Other," which he adapted to the screen the following year, and then switched full time to his eventually more successful writing career. His novel "Harvest Home" was made into a 1978 TV movie "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home," and his "Crowned Heads" was adapted in part for the 1978 Billy Wilder film, "Fedora."