Sam Buffington (October 12, 1931 – May 15, 1960)[1] was an American actor whose short career included performances on stage, radio, film, and television. He was the star of the CBS radio series Luke Slaughter of Tombstone during 1958[2] and was one of three regular cast members on the Whispering Smith television series.[3] His stage and screen roles were limited to character parts.[4] His career was going strong and had good prospects when, at age 28, he committed suicide.[5]
Sam Buffington | |
---|---|
Born | Samuel Elisha Buffington October 12, 1931 Swansea, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | May 15, 1960 | (aged 28)
Education | Leland Powers School |
Occupation | Actor |
Spouse |
Patricia Ann Whitehouse
(m. 1953) |
He was born in Swansea, Massachusetts, the youngest of four children for Carl Buffington, a lumber company manager, and Annette Gendron.[6][7] His parents were in their forties when Buffington was born, and his nearest sibling was eight years older.[7] At age 18, Buffington appears as a roomer in a Brookline, Massachusetts, boarding house during 1950,[8] when he was attending the Leland Powers School of Radio and Theater.[9] According to a 1951 newspaper article, he was working in nightclubs as an MC and comic dancer.[10]
Buffington's first known professional stage credits come from summer stock with the Allegheny Players at the Mishler Theatre in Altoona, Pennsylvania.[11] He was signed to perform character parts in six plays, each with a week-long run.[11] After the Mishler run completed, the Allegheny Players performed for a week in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, where Buffington had the male lead in a comedy.[12]
For the years 1952 through 1955 Buffington worked in both radio and on the stage. His radio work was at a station in Providence, Rhode Island, where according to a later interview, he had three shows under three different names and as many voices.[13] Buffington lamented, "The unfortunate thing about it was that I only got the salary of one man".[13] His stage work continued to be with the Allegheny Players during the summer seasons.[14]
Discouraged by lack of work on the East Coast, Buffington and his wife moved to the West Coast during 1956.[15] He told a later interviewer: "We figured it couldn't be any worse. But it was. We had just $90 when we got here. The first eight months she had to work to support me".[15] Then he began appearing in small roles on television, and in a Grade B film, Invasion of the Saucer Men. His breakthrough came in May 1957 with an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, wherein he played a thoroughly disagreeable character.[16] Reviews claimed "...it's Sam Buffington's portrayal of a rude, sloppy hypochondriac which steals the show".[17] Within the next six months he would have roles in six films, all released in 1958, and five more television shows, an auspicious first year.[15]
For the film Damn Citizen, a reviewer said "Sam Buffington does a splendid job of making himself thoroughly unpleasant in the role of a gambling casino operator".[18] Another reported "Sam Buffington's cunning small-time gambler is about twice as convincing as the real thing would be and also very amusing".[19] This was the high point of his film career; in no other movie did he capture critical attention. His career would continue to thrive on the small screen, as he completed more television episodes with each succeeding year.[citation needed]
Buffington appeared as himself on a local interview program called Meet the People during February 1958.[20] This was a lead-in to his starring role on a new CBS national radio program.[citation needed]
While filming an episode of The Gray Ghost, Buffington had asked Lillian Buyeff how she had gotten a gig on the radio drama Suspense.[15] She sent him to Bill Robson, a CBS radio producer, and about two months later Buffington was cast for the lead in a CBS radio western.[15]
Luke Slaughter of Tombstone began broadcasting on February 23, 1958, with Buffington playing the title character.[21] He portrayed a Civil War cavalryman, who after the war becomes a cattleman in Arizona.[22] The nationally heard program began five minutes after the hour, following a short CBS News break.[23] It was one of three western series broadcast by CBS on Sunday afternoons.[24] The program ran twenty-five minutes per episode, including commercials.[24]
The first episode had Slaughter drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Tombstone, while the second had him dealing with renegade lawmen who were after the proceeds from the cattle sale.[23] The series was suspended during July 1958, and Buffington used the time off to perform in Bell, Book and Candle with the La Jolla Playhouse.[25][26]
Despite his radio commitment, Buffington still managed to appear in sixteen episodes of television during 1958. He also completed film work for They Came to Cordura, released the following year.[27][28] For 1959 he did seventeen more television episodes, before landing a regular cast member spot in early 1960 on a new western series.[29]
This half-hour western series made at Revue Studios for NBC starred Audie Murphy and Guy Mitchell as frontier detectives for the Denver Police Department, c. 1870.[30] Buffington, who was third-credited, played their superior officer, Chief of Police John Richards.[31] In the film Unwed Mother he played husband to actress Dorothy Adams.[32]
While Buffington's wife Pat was in Palm Springs, California, he wrote a note to her, locked himself in the bathroom, sealed air passages under the door and window, and turned on a gas jet.[33] When she returned home to West Hollywood, California, on Sunday evening, May 15, 1960, she had to break-in the bathroom door.[34] Buffington was dead; his note apologized to her for not being able to support her, and requested cremation.[33] Buffington's friends expressed surprise at the note, since he had made over $20,000 the year before[fn 1] and had good career prospects.[5] Brief stories appeared the next day in California newspapers detailing the circumstances. The UPI story, with a West Hollywood dateline, cited alternatively police and sheriff's detectives as the source,[34][35] but was carried by only one out-of-state newspaper.[36] There were no follow-up stories to the original UPI release, nor did any newspapers carry the original story after the first day. This was a highly unusual story arc for such a newsworthy event, and suggests UPI pulled the original release.[citation needed]
When a year had passed, and Whispering Smith was finally set to debut on NBC television, newspaper announcements made only a brief reference to "the late Sam Buffington, who died after only 20 episodes were filmed".[37]
An accomplished painter of portraits in oil, Buffington once tried to make a living of it.[2] After he became an actor, he donated eight of his works to children's hospitals.[38]
Buffington married Patricia Ann Whitehouse on July 15, 1953, in Vance County, North Carolina.[39] They remained married until his death in 1960.[33]
Listed by year of first performance
Year | Play | Role | Venue | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1951 | You Can't Take It with You (play) | Boris Kolenkhov | Mishler Theatre | Buffington's first role with the Allegheny Players.[40] |
Ah, Wilderness! | Nat Miller | Mishler Theatre | [41] | |
See How They Run | Bishop of Lax | Mishler Theatre | [42] | |
Night Must Fall | Hubert Laurie | Mishler Theatre | [43] | |
Petticoat Fever | Rector | Mishler Theatre | [44] | |
Bertha the Typewriter Girl | Daniel Desmond | Mishler Theatre | Buffington's first lead role was as a melodrama villain.[45] | |
Brighten the Corner | Neil Carson | Centre Theatre | This was a 1945 comedy by John Cecil Holm that lasted only one month on Broadway.[12] | |
1954 | The Curious Savage | Standing Stone Playhouse | ||
Tonight at 8.30 | Toby Cartwright | Standing Stone Playhouse | Buffington was the male lead in Ways and Means.[9] | |
1958 | Bell, Book and Candle | Sidney Redlitch | La Jolla Playhouse[fn 2] | A single set version that starred Scott Forbes, Felicia Farr, and Darryl Hickman.[25] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1957 | Invasion of the Saucer Men | Colonel Ambrose | |
1958 | The Rawhide Trail[fn 3] | James Willard | Filmed during October 1957.[46] |
The Brothers Karamazov | Tipsy Merchant | Uncredited | |
Damn Citizen | DeButts | At least one newspaper account had the working title as Damned Citizen.[47] | |
King Creole | Dr. Martin Cabot | Uncredited | |
The Light in the Forest | George Owens | Filmed during August and September 1957.[48] | |
Unwed Mother[fn 4] | Mr. Paully | Filmed during December 1957, Buffington and Dorothy Adams play a married couple[fn 5] who are prospective adoptee parents.[49][32] | |
1959 | Blue Denim | Doctor | Uncredited |
They Came to Cordura | First Correspondent | Filmed on location at St. George, Utah, during November 1958.[27][28] |
Year | Series | Episode | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1957 | Cheyenne | The Iron Trail | Allen Chester | |
The Man Called X | Passport | |||
Conflict | Capital Punishment | Starred Will Hutchins, with Rex Reason, Edward Binns, Ray Teal, and Barbara Eiler.[50] | ||
Highway Patrol | Trojan Horse | Whitey Larkin | ||
Cheyenne | The Spanish Grant | Sam Tyson | ||
Tales of Wells Fargo | The Lynching | Sheriff Bill Egan | ||
Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Season 2 Episode 35: "The West Warlock Time Capsule" | Waldren | Reviewers praised Buffington's portrayal of the hypochondriac brother-in-law.[51] | |
Schlitz Playhouse | The Face of a Killer | |||
The Adventures of Jim Bowie | Epitaph for an Indian | Sheriff Pete Webber | ||
The Adventures of McGraw | Lucky's Diner | Lucky | ||
General Electric Theater | The Iron Rose | Bill Meadows | Buffington was impressed with the acting talent of episode star Vincent Price.[52][53] | |
Maverick | The Quick and the Dead | Ponca Brown | ||
The Gray Ghost | Jimmy | Matt Dawson | ||
1958 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Season 3 Episode 15: "Together" | Charles | Directed by Robert Altman, it starred Joseph Cotten and Christine White.[54] |
Sugarfoot | Deadlock | Ruby Martin | ||
Meet the People | (1958-02-05) | Himself | Local noontime interview program on KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles.[20] | |
Tombstone Territory | The Outlaw's Bugle | Monte Davis | Buffington starts a newspaper called The Bugle to secretly aid cattle rustlers.[55] | |
Maverick | The Seventh Hand | Logan | Buffington uses Samantha Crawford (Diane Brewster) as a catspaw to strike at Bret Maverick (James Garner).[56] | |
The Adventures of Jim Bowie | Up the Creek | Sheriff | [47] | |
Mike Hammer | For Sale, Deathbed, Used | Sam Earl | ||
The Silent Service | The Tigershark | Chief Joe Wilson | ||
U.S. Marshal | Ambush | Rich | ||
Behind Closed Doors | Trouble in Test Cell 19 | William Horne | [57] | |
77 Sunset Strip | Casualty | Vincent Manchester | ||
Wanted Dead or Alive | The Favor | Fred the Bartender | ||
Maverick | The Thirty-Ninth Star | Bigelow | ||
Peter Gunn | Death House Testament | Professor Olford | As an alcoholic professor, Buffington administers a truth serum to Peter Gunn.[58] | |
Sugarfoot | Yampa Crossing | Henry Dixon | Buffinton's role in this was described as "a genial opportunist".[59] | |
Wanted Dead or Alive | Eight Cent Reward | Hap Haefer | A Christmas story with Buffington as one of three frontier "wise men".[60] | |
1959 | Zane Grey Theater | Day of the Killing | Frank - Bartender | |
Wanted Dead or Alive | Six-Up to Bannach | Abb Crawford | Buffington rides shotgun on a stagecoach transporting dynamite.[61] | |
Perry Mason | The Case of the Foot Loose Doll | Fred Ernshaw | Buffington is a junior partner to an unscrupulous detective.[62] | |
Maverick | Yellow River | Professor von Schulenberg | [63] | |
Steve Canyon | Blackmail | Karl Janosek | ||
Black Saddle | Client: Jessup | Noah Bailey | ||
The Ann Sothern Show | The Square Peg | Mr. Stewart | [64] | |
Gunsmoke | Buffalo Hunter | Cook | ||
Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Season 4 Episode 30: "A Night with the Boys" | Smalley | Buffington is a bullying boss who forces his employee (John Smith) into a poker game.[65] | |
Bat Masterson | The Death of Bat Masterson | Judge D.B. Hodie | As a crooked judge, Buffington conspires to steal Masterson's (Gene Barry) money.[66] | |
The Thin Man | Hamilton Hollered Help | Doc | ||
The Rough Riders | Reluctant Witness[fn 6] | Ephraim Hoggs | Buffington, at age 27, plays an old hermit.[67] | |
Whirlybirds | The Perfect Crime | Mayor Edwards | ||
The Alaskans | Gold Sled | Count Meshikov | Buffington plays a treacherous guide to lost gold.[68] | |
77 Sunset Strip | Thanks for tomorrow | Mr. Anton | ||
Maverick | A Fellow's Brother | Burgess | When Bret Maverick gets a local reputation, it attracts bounty hunter Burgess (Buffington).[69] | |
Mr. Lucky | Little Miss Wow | Freddy Furlong | Buffington and Don Gordon are inept kidnappers of Yvonne Craig. | |
1960 | Alcoa Theatre | The Last Flight Out | Informer | Story set in Quemoy during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.[70] |
Hawaiian Eye | Then There Were Three | Big Jim MacIntosh | Buffington is a treacherous estate manager who seeks an inheritance. | |
The Man from Blackhawk | Execution Day | Josiah Cartwright | ||
Laramie | Saddle and Spur | Franklin | ||
Bourbon Street Beat | Ferry to Algiers | Junius Rattner | ||
1961 | Whispering Smith | 17 episodes | John Richards | Buffington had been filmed in 17 episodes prior to his death in May 1960. |
The Barbara Stanwyck Show | A Man's Game | Vic Trenton | First broadcast in July 1961, it must also have been filmed prior to May 1960. |