Don Durant (born Donald Allison Durae; November 20, 1932 â€" March 15,
2005) was an American actor and singer, best known for his role as the
gunslinger-turned-sheriff in the CBS Western series Johnny Ringo,
which ran on Thursdays from October 1, 1959 to June 30, 1960.Durant
was born Donald Allison Durae in Long Beach, California. His father
was killed in a truck accident near Bakersfield two months before
Durant's birth; his mother remarried three times before she died of
lung cancer at the age of only forty-six in 1959. Durant himself was
seriously injured a few weeks before his eleventh birthday, when his
bicycle chain broke, and he careened into the path of a cement truck.
He lay in a coma for three days, his right arm fractured, his right
femur and hip so badly damaged that doctors nearly amputated the leg
before his family scraped up enough money for a specialist. Young
Durant was bedridden for more than a year.One of Durant's stepfathers
owned a cattle ranch near Elko in northeastern Nevada. Durant spent a
summer there and learned to shoot and ride before he returned to
California. In junior high school, he was a deejay for a local radio
station. In high school, he played on the football team, having worn
special plates because of his previous injuries. He enlisted in the
United States Navy. At one point, he served in the United States Army
as well because of a mixup in paperwork. Toward the end of his
commitment, he entertained veterans at Letterman Army Hospital in San
Francisco.Durant then began touring the American West as a
singer/actor. He opened at many prestigious nightclubs, such as The
Sands and the Sahara in Las Vegas. He garnered a small role in the
1955 Van Heflin film Battle Cry. To supplement his income, Durant
taught actors how to ride horses and shoot guns, and worked at RCA as
a technician. He helped to build the first kinescopic recorder and
stereophonic sound recorder for Warner Brothers. In 1954, he signed
with CBS to take small roles as the singer or young lover in a variety
of legendary series, including The Jack Benny Show. He sang Groucho
Marx's popular "It's delightful, it's Delovely, it's DeSoto"
advertising jingle for the former DeSoto automobiles.
2005) was an American actor and singer, best known for his role as the
gunslinger-turned-sheriff in the CBS Western series Johnny Ringo,
which ran on Thursdays from October 1, 1959 to June 30, 1960.Durant
was born Donald Allison Durae in Long Beach, California. His father
was killed in a truck accident near Bakersfield two months before
Durant's birth; his mother remarried three times before she died of
lung cancer at the age of only forty-six in 1959. Durant himself was
seriously injured a few weeks before his eleventh birthday, when his
bicycle chain broke, and he careened into the path of a cement truck.
He lay in a coma for three days, his right arm fractured, his right
femur and hip so badly damaged that doctors nearly amputated the leg
before his family scraped up enough money for a specialist. Young
Durant was bedridden for more than a year.One of Durant's stepfathers
owned a cattle ranch near Elko in northeastern Nevada. Durant spent a
summer there and learned to shoot and ride before he returned to
California. In junior high school, he was a deejay for a local radio
station. In high school, he played on the football team, having worn
special plates because of his previous injuries. He enlisted in the
United States Navy. At one point, he served in the United States Army
as well because of a mixup in paperwork. Toward the end of his
commitment, he entertained veterans at Letterman Army Hospital in San
Francisco.Durant then began touring the American West as a
singer/actor. He opened at many prestigious nightclubs, such as The
Sands and the Sahara in Las Vegas. He garnered a small role in the
1955 Van Heflin film Battle Cry. To supplement his income, Durant
taught actors how to ride horses and shoot guns, and worked at RCA as
a technician. He helped to build the first kinescopic recorder and
stereophonic sound recorder for Warner Brothers. In 1954, he signed
with CBS to take small roles as the singer or young lover in a variety
of legendary series, including The Jack Benny Show. He sang Groucho
Marx's popular "It's delightful, it's Delovely, it's DeSoto"
advertising jingle for the former DeSoto automobiles.
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