Home >

Marshall Thompson

Marshall Thompson

Birthday: 1925-11-27 | Place of Birth: Peoria, Illinois, USA

Marshall Thompson (November 27, 1925 – May 18, 1992) was an American film and television actor. He was born James Marshall Thompson in Peoria, Illinois. In 1943 Thompson, known for his boy-next-door good looks, was signed by Universal Pictures. He played quiet, thoughtful teens in Universal's feature films, including a lead opposite singing star Gloria Jean in Reckless Age, earning $350 weekly. During 1946 Universal discharged most of its contract players; that same year Thompson moved to MGM and his film roles steadily increased and improved. Thompson became a freelance actor in the 1950s and worked for various studios on a variety of pictures, including a number of horror and science-fiction features; this included the role of Carruthers in It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), one of the two feature films that would later inspire the plot for director Ridley Scott's 1979 big budget feature film Alien. Thompson also starred as Mel Hunter in the syndicated science fiction TV series World of Giants, about a man who has been miniaturized and must live in a dollhouse. By the 1960s, Thompson's boyish looks had matured and his screen persona became more authoritative. He co-starred with Annie Fargé in the 33-episode CBS sitcom Angel (1960–1961) about an American architect with a charming but scatterbrained French wife, who often got into zany, Lucy Ricardo-esque situations, caused in part by her lack of English; the show was canceled after 33 episodes due to low ratings, despite critical acclaim for French-born newcomer Annie Fargé. In the mid-1960s Thompson starred in CBS's Daktari, a television series about a veterinarian in Africa; the series was based on Thompson's 1965 feature film Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion. Later in his career, he appeared in many television episodes and in feature films such as The Turning Point (1977) and The Formula(1980). Thompson was a brother-in-law of actor Richard Long, best known for his role as Jarrod Barkley in ABC's The Big Valley. Thompson's wife, Barbara, was Long's sister. Marshall Thompson died from congestive heart failure at the age of sixty-six in Royal Oak, Michigan. Description above from the Wikipedia article  Marshall Thompson , licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

...

Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1986
Dallas: The Early Years

as    Dr. Ted Johnson

1980
The Formula

as    Geologist #1

1979
Bog

as    Dr. Brad Wednesday

1977
The Turning Point

as    Carter

1966
Daktari

as    Dr. Marsh Tracy

1966
Around the World Under the Sea

as    Dr. Orin Hillyard

1966
To the Shores of Hell

as    Maj. Greg Donahue

1964
Year of the Tiger

as    Maj. Benson

1962
No Man Is an Island

as    Jonn Sonnenberg

1960
Angel

as    Johnny Smith

1959
First Man into Space

as    Cmdr. Charles Ernest Prescott

1958
It! The Terror from Beyond Space

as    Carruthers

1958
Fiend Without a Face

as    Major Jeff Cummings

1957
Lure of the Swamp

as    Simon Lewt

1955
Crashout

as    Billy Lang

1955
To Hell and Back

as    Johnson

1955
Cult of the Cobra

as    Tom Markel

1953
The Caddy

as    Bruce Reeber

1951
The Tall Target

as    Lance Beaufort

1950
Dial 1119

as    Gunther Wyckoff

1950
Mystery Street

as    Henry Shanway

1950
Devil's Doorway

as    Rod MacDougall

1949
Battleground

as    Jim Layton

1949
Roseanna McCoy

as    Tolbert McCoy

1948
Words and Music

as    Herbert Fields

1948
Homecoming

as    Staff Sgt. 'Mac' McKeen

1948
B.F.'s Daughter

as    The Sailor

1947
The Romance of Rosy Ridge

as    Ben Mac Bean