Tom Tryon born 14 January 1926 (d. 1991)Tom Tryon was an American film and television actor, as well as author of several science fiction, horror, and mystery novels. He was born Thomas Tryon in Hartford, Connecticut.
Tryon's film roles were mostly in B-horror and science fiction films, most notably I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958) and Moon Pilot (1962), and in westerns, especially Three Violent People (1956), with Charlton Heston, and Winchester '73 (1967). His best role, however, is considered by many to have been in the 1965 film, In Harm's Way, which is itself considered one of the best films set in the period of World War II. He also appeared, among many other stars, in The Longest Day, one of the central films of the World War 2 generation.
In 1962, Tom Tryon was cast in the unfinished Marilyn Monroe-Dean Martin comedy film, Something's Got to Give, directed by George Cukor, but lost that role after Monroe was fired from the movie. The part went to Chuck Connors when the film was finally completed as Move Over, Darling with Doris Day and James Garner. He was also considered but eventually passed over for the role of Janet Leigh's lover, Sam Loomis, in the classic thriller, Psycho.Tryon was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1963 for his role in The Cardinal, but the honour barely compensated for the trauma and abuse he suffered at the hands of director Otto Preminger. At one point during filming, Preminger actually fired Tryon in front of his parents when they visited the set, then rehired him after being satisfied that Tryon had been sufficiently humiliated.
Disillusioned with acting, Tryon retired from the profession in 1969 and began writing horror and mystery novels. He was, in his day, extremely successful. His most well-known work is The Other (1971), which was adapted as a film. Harvest Home, about the dark pagan rituals being practiced in a small New England town, was adapted as The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, a television mini-series starring Bette Davis, in 1978.
His other novels include Crowned Heads, a collection of novellas inspired by the legends of Hollywood. The first of these novellas, Fedora, about a reclusive former film actress whose relationship with her plastic surgeon is similar to that between a drug addict and her pusher, was later filmed by Billy Wilder.
During the 1970s, Tryon was in a gay romantic relationship with Clive Clerk, one of the original cast members of A Chorus Line and an interior designer who decorated Tryon's Central Park West apartment, which was featured in Architectural Digest. Tryon was also involved with Cal Culver, better known as gay porn star Casey Donovan, while still maintaining his relationship with Clerk. Their relationship was short-lived, for while Tryon had no problem with Culver's porn career per se, the attention and publicity his lover received made the closeted Tryon fearful of being outed, which he felt could destroy his career as a popular writer. Tryon and Culver parted ways in the summer of 1977.Tryon continued writing through the 1980s and 1990s, before dying at age 65 in 1991 from cancer.