Phillip Terry
Encyclopedia
Phillip Terry was an American
actor
.
He was born Frederick Henry Kormann in San Francisco
, California
, the only child of German Americans, Frederick Andrew Kormann (1883–1948) and Ida Ruth Voll (1883–1954).
He attended grade school in Glendale, California
. His father was a chemical engineer
in the oil
fields who moved often. To ensure he receive a stable education, his parents sent him to live with relatives in New Jersey
and attend school while they travelled.
During the holidays, he would return to his parents in such places as Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
, and Burkburnett, Texas
. When he completed high school, he rejoined them for good. He worked for a time in the oil fields as a roustabout, then a tool pusher
and rig builder. When he was seventeen, they moved back to San Francisco.
He attended Stanford University
, where he played football
. He then became interested in theatre
. After a brief stay in New York
, he went to London
, in 1933, where he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
.
He later went to Hollywood, California and took a job with CBS
Radio
, where he performed in a number of plays on the air. In 1937, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
talent scout heard him in one of these broadcasts and arranged an interview. Terry made a screen test
and was awarded a contract
with the studio
. Among his motion picture
appearances, he had a bit part in the movie Mannequin
starring Joan Crawford
and the lead in Seven Keys to Baldpate
(1947).
Two years later he signed with Paramount
, where he starred in The Parson of Panamint. He then did supporting roles in Wake Island
and Bataan, the latter on which was when he was on "loan-out" to MGM.
When he left Paramount, he signed with RKO and was in Music in Manhattan
, George White's Scandals
and Pan-Americana.
Phillip Terry appeared in more than eighty movies over the span of his career
. Many of the early roles were small and often uncredited. But in the 1940s he received bigger and more numerous roles in some quality movies, such as The Lost Weekend (1945
) starring Ray Milland
, and To Each His Own
(1946) starring Olivia de Havilland
, who won one of her Oscars for her role in the film.
. He was a good salesman and investor
, and eventually became very wealthy.
, to actress Joan Crawford
. They were divorced in 1946. During this marriage Crawford adopted her first child, daughter, Christina
. He later married a non-actor, Rosalind Lee; they remained married until his death.
s from this period include The Leech Woman
(1960), with Grant Williams
, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
(1966), with Mamie Van Doren
.
Sometimes he would accept television
roles and was in episodes of The Name of the Game
and Police Woman
.
In 1973, he retired and moved to Santa Barbara, California
.
He suffered the first of a series of strokes in 1978. Because of the strokes, he lost his mobility and communication
and was an invalid for several years before his death at the age of 83.
Phillip Terry died at his home in Santa Barbara. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
He was born Frederick Henry Kormann in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, the only child of German Americans, Frederick Andrew Kormann (1883–1948) and Ida Ruth Voll (1883–1954).
He attended grade school in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
. His father was a chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
in the oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
fields who moved often. To ensure he receive a stable education, his parents sent him to live with relatives in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and attend school while they travelled.
During the holidays, he would return to his parents in such places as Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
, and Burkburnett, Texas
Burkburnett, Texas
Burkburnett is a city in Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Wichita Falls, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 10,927 at the 2000 census. The community's newspaper is the Burkburnett Informer/Star...
. When he completed high school, he rejoined them for good. He worked for a time in the oil fields as a roustabout, then a tool pusher
Tool pusher
A tool pusher is an occupation within the oil drilling industry.On a land drilling rig the tool pusher may be rig manager and responsible for all operations, but on drillships and offshore oil rigs, toolpushers are department heads in charge of the drilling department and reporting to the Master...
and rig builder. When he was seventeen, they moved back to San Francisco.
He attended Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where he played football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
. He then became interested in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. After a brief stay in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, he went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, in 1933, where he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
.
He later went to Hollywood, California and took a job with CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Radio
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
, where he performed in a number of plays on the air. In 1937, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
talent scout heard him in one of these broadcasts and arranged an interview. Terry made a screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
and was awarded a contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
with the studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
. Among his motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
appearances, he had a bit part in the movie Mannequin
Mannequin (1937 film)
Mannequin is 1937 film directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy and Alan Curtis. In the film, Crawford plays Jessie, a young working class woman who seeks to improve her life by marrying her boyfriend, only to find out that he is no better than what she left behind...
starring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
and the lead in Seven Keys to Baldpate
Seven Keys to Baldpate
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a 1917 silent film mystery produced by George M. Cohan and distributed by Artcraft Pictures, an affiliate of Paramount. It is based on Cohan's play of the novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Cohan himself stars in this silent version along with Anna Q. Nilsson and Hedda Hopper,...
(1947).
Two years later he signed with Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, where he starred in The Parson of Panamint. He then did supporting roles in Wake Island
Wake Island (1942 film)
Wake Island is a 1942 American film written by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler, and directed by John Farrow. The film tells the story of the United States military garrison on Wake Island and the onslaught by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor...
and Bataan, the latter on which was when he was on "loan-out" to MGM.
When he left Paramount, he signed with RKO and was in Music in Manhattan
Music in Manhattan
Music in Manhattan is a 1944 musical film directed by John H. Auer. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording .-Plot:...
, George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals
George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modelled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, ...
and Pan-Americana.
Phillip Terry appeared in more than eighty movies over the span of his career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
. Many of the early roles were small and often uncredited. But in the 1940s he received bigger and more numerous roles in some quality movies, such as The Lost Weekend (1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
) starring Ray Milland
Ray Milland
Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
, and To Each His Own
To Each His Own (film)
To Each His Own is a 1946 American drama film. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, and stars Olivia de Havilland, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, and John Lund in his first on-screen appearance, where he played dual roles as father and son. The screenplay was written by Charles Brackett and Jacques...
(1946) starring Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
, who won one of her Oscars for her role in the film.
Investing
When his career began to slide in the late 1940s he turned his attention to real estateReal estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
. He was a good salesman and investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
, and eventually became very wealthy.
Marriages
He was married on July 21, 1942, at the Hidden Valley Ranch in Ventura County, CaliforniaVentura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
, to actress Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
. They were divorced in 1946. During this marriage Crawford adopted her first child, daughter, Christina
Christina Crawford
Christina Crawford is an American writer and actress, best known as the author of Mommie Dearest, an exposé of alleged child abuse by her mother, actress Joan Crawford.-Early life and education:...
. He later married a non-actor, Rosalind Lee; they remained married until his death.
Later years
Terry never completely abandoned acting. During the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, he took on occasional movie roles. Some of his better B movieB movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s from this period include The Leech Woman
The Leech Woman
-Plot:A mysterious old woman approaches Dr. Paul Talbot and promises to reveal to him the secret of eternal youth. Following her to Africa, he and his wife June Talbot witness the secret ceremony that utilizes orchid pollen and a victim's pineal gland secretions...
(1960), with Grant Williams
Grant Williams
Grant Williams was an American film actor and operatic tenor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Scott Carey in the seminal science fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man , which has since become a cult classic.-Early life:Born John Joseph Williams in New York City to a Scottish father...
, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
The Navy vs. the Night Monsters is a 1966 American science fiction film directed by Michael A. Hoey. The movie was based on the novel The Monster from Earth's End by Murray Leinster.- Plot summary:...
(1966), with Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren is an American actress and singer; who rose to popularity as Universal Pictures's version of 20th Century Fox's Marilyn Monroe....
.
Sometimes he would accept television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
roles and was in episodes of The Name of the Game
The Name of the Game (TV series)
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for the likes of The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s...
and Police Woman
Police Woman (TV series)
Police Woman is an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson that ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to March 29, 1978.-Synopsis:...
.
In 1973, he retired and moved to Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
.
He suffered the first of a series of strokes in 1978. Because of the strokes, he lost his mobility and communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
and was an invalid for several years before his death at the age of 83.
Phillip Terry died at his home in Santa Barbara. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.