London-born actor, Roddy McDowall, was one of the most versatile actors of this century. His career spanned over 60 years and 130 movies, with appearances in the classics How Green Was My Valley (1941), and My Friend Flicka (1943). Working steadily through the 1940s, McDowall took a break from films in the ’50s to work in theater.
In the ’60s, McDowall worked consistently in film and television. Although he was eventually typecast as a bad guy in the later years, he managed to break stereotypes. While most fans of McDowall will remember him for The Planet of the Apes and its sequels, he did leave his mark in the Western genre.
In 1967, he appeared in the Disney farce, The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin, with Mike Mazurki and Suzanne Pleshette, and in Five Card Stud the following year, with Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin. He later starred with Paul Newman and Stacy Keach in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972). He continued to work until he lost his life to cancer. He will also be remembered for the way he never forgot his fans.