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Russell Thorson was an American actor, perhaps best known for his co- starring role as Det. Lt. Otto Lindstrom in the ABC late '50's hit crime series, The Detectives

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor is an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons, and on NBC during its third and final season...

Career

Born in Wisconsin, USA. He began his acting career in small roles for film and television in
Double Dynamite

Double Dynamite

Double Dynamite is a 1951 musical comedy film featuring Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra. The film was written by Leo Rosten, Mel Shavelson, Mannie Manheim, and Harry Crane, and directed by Irving Cummings....

(1953), with Jane Russell

Jane Russell

Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....

 and Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Dangerous Mission

Dangerous Mission

Dangerous Mission is a 1954 American dramatic color film noir thriller starring Victor Mature, Piper Laurie, Vincent Price and William Bendix. The movie was produced by Irwin Allen, directed by Louis King and released by RKO Pictures...

(1954). He has also appeared in several classic movies, including Johnny Concho

Johnny Concho (1956 film)

Johnny Concho is a 1956 film starring Frank Sinatra, Phyllis Kirk and Keenan Wynn and directed by Don McGuire. Sinatra's role allowed him to play against type in his portrayal of the film's villain.-Plot:...

(1956), 36 Hours

36 Hours

36 Hours is a 1965 American suspense film, based on the short story "Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl, starring James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Taylor, and directed by George Seaton...

(1965), The Stalking Moon

The Stalking Moon

The Stalking Moon is a 1968 western film in Technicolor starring Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint. It is directed by Robert Mulligan and based on the novel of the same name by T.V. Olsen.-Plot:...

(1968), and Walking Tall

Walking Tall

Walking Tall is a 1973 semi-biopic of Sheriff Buford Pusser, a former professional wrestler-turned-lawman in McNairy County, Tennessee. It starred Joe Don Baker as Pusser...

(1973).

Most of his career was made for television, he is perhaps best remembered for playing the role of Det. Lt. Otto Lindstrom, in the ABC-TV series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor is an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons, and on NBC during its third and final season...

(1959–1961).

He also had several roles in TV series Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...

,Trackdown

Trackdown

Trackdown is an American Western television series starring Robert Culp that aired on CBS between 1957 and 1959. The series offered more than seventy episodes and was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television and filmed at the Desilu-Culver Studio...

, Perry Mason

Perry Mason

Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...

, Wagon Train

Wagon Train

Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

, Lassie, Peyton Place

Peyton Place

Peyton Place may refer to:* Peyton Place , a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious* Peyton Place , a 1957 film, adapted from the novel* Return to Peyton Place, a 1959 follow-up novel also by Grace Metalious...

and The Virginian

The Virginian

-Literature:* The Virginian , a novel by American author Owen Wister-Film:* The Virginian , a silent film directed by Cecil B...

, and is also known for his role as a ship captain in "Cocoon", the pilot episode of CBS's original Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...

.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Film
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1949
| Easy Living

Easy Living (1949 film)

Easy Living is a 1949 American drama film directed by renowned horror and film noir director Jacques Tourneur, starring Victor Mature, Lizabeth Scott and Lucille Ball...

| Hunk
| (as Russ Thorson)
|-
| 1951
| Double Dynamite

Double Dynamite

Double Dynamite is a 1951 musical comedy film featuring Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra. The film was written by Leo Rosten, Mel Shavelson, Mannie Manheim, and Harry Crane, and directed by Irving Cummings....

| Tailman
| (as Russ Thorson)
|-
| 1954
| Dangerous Mission

Dangerous Mission

Dangerous Mission is a 1954 American dramatic color film noir thriller starring Victor Mature, Piper Laurie, Vincent Price and William Bendix. The movie was produced by Irwin Allen, directed by Louis King and released by RKO Pictures...

| Radio Operator (uncredited)
|
|-
|
|
|
|
|-
| 1956
| Please Murder Me

Please Murder Me

Please Murder Me is a 1956 American film directed by Peter Godfrey.- Plot synopsis :Defense lawyer Craig Carlson buys a pistol at a pawn shop and travels to his office, where he deposits the gun in a desk drawer with a file folder, then begins to dictate into a tape recorder...

| Trial judge
| (as Russ Thorson)
|-
|-
|
| Johnny Concho

Johnny Concho (1956 film)

Johnny Concho is a 1956 film starring Frank Sinatra, Phyllis Kirk and Keenan Wynn and directed by Don McGuire. Sinatra's role allowed him to play against type in his portrayal of the film's villain.-Plot:...

| Sheriff (uncredited)
|
|-
| 1957
| The Gray Ghost (TV series)
| Greene
|
|-
|
| Destination 60,000
| Dan Maddox
|
|-
|
| Sheriff of Cochise

Sheriff of Cochise

Sheriff of Cochise , renamed U.S. Marshal , is a 58-episode syndicated western-themed crime drama set in Arizona and starring John Bromfield as law enforcement officer Frank Morgan. In the first two seasons, Morgan was sheriff of Cochise County...

(TV series)
| Willis
|
|-
|
| Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...

(TV series)
| Dr. Rhody
|
|-
|
| Undersea Girl
| Commander Watkins (uncredited)
|
|-
|
| Sugarfoot

Sugarfoot

Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson...

(TV series)
| Jim Travis
|
|-
|
| Zero Hour!

Zero Hour!

Zero Hour! is a 1957 movie whose screenplay was written by Arthur Hailey, starring Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Sterling Hayden, and released by Paramount Pictures. Zero Hour! was an adaptation of Hailey's 1956 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation play Flight into Danger...

| Vancouver Flight Dispatcher
|
|-
|
| Have Gun - Will Travel
| Col. Harrison
|
|-
|
| Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman
| Prof. Philip Osborne
|
|-
| 1958
| Gun Fever

Gun Fever

"Gun Fever" is the fifth episode of the American situation comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia aired on September 1, 2005 on the FX Network in the United States. The episode was directed by Dan Attias and written by Glenn Howerton.-Plot:...

| Thomas Ram
|
|-
| 1959/1961
| The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor is an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons, and on NBC during its third and final season...

(TV series)
| Det. Lt. Otto Lindstrom
| 36 episodes
|-
| 1960
| Gunfighters of Abilene
| Wilkinson
|
|-
| 1963
| It Happened at the World's Fair

It Happened at the World's Fair

It Happened at the World's Fair is a 1963 musical film starring Elvis Presley as a cropdusting pilot.The motion picture was filmed in Seattle, Washington, site of the Century 21 Exposition, the 1962 World's Fair. The governor of Washington at the time, Albert Rosellini, suggested the setting to...

| Sheriff Garland (uncredited)
|
|-
| 1965
| Two on a Guillotine

Two on a Guillotine

Two on a Guillotine is a 1965 American horror/thriller film produced and directed by William Conrad. The screenplay by John Kneubuhl and Henry Slesar is based on a story by Slesar.-Plot synopsis:...

| Mr. Carmichael, Val's editor
|
|-
|
| 36 Hours

36 Hours

36 Hours is a 1965 American suspense film, based on the short story "Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl, starring James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Taylor, and directed by George Seaton...

| General Allison
|
|-
| 1966
| The Plainsman

The Plainsman

The Plainsman is a 1936 American Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The film presents a highly fictionalized account of the adventures and relationships between Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill Cody, and General George Custer, with a...

| Marshal Hart (uncredited)
|
|-
| 1967
| A Covenant with Death

A Covenant with Death

A Covenant with Death is a 1967 film directed by Lamont Johnson. It stars George Maharis and Laura Devon.-Cast:*George Maharis as Ben Lewis*Laura Devon as Rosemary*Katy Jurado as Eulalia Lewis*Earl Holliman as Brian Talbot...

| Dr. Shilling
|
|-
|
| Cimarron Strip

Cimarron Strip

Cimarron Strip is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from September 1967 to March 1968. Starring Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown, the series was produced by the creators of Gunsmoke...

(TV series)
| Hank Marlin
|
|-
| 1968
| Hang 'Em High

Hang 'Em High

Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American Western film directed by Ted Post and produced and co-written by Leonard Freeman. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching, Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him, Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched him, and Pat...

| Maddow, Cooper
|
|-
|
| Peyton Place

Peyton Place

Peyton Place may refer to:* Peyton Place , a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious* Peyton Place , a 1957 film, adapted from the novel* Return to Peyton Place, a 1959 follow-up novel also by Grace Metalious...

(TV series)
| William Kennerly
| six episodes
|-
| 1968
| The Stalking Moon

The Stalking Moon

The Stalking Moon is a 1968 western film in Technicolor starring Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint. It is directed by Robert Mulligan and based on the novel of the same name by T.V. Olsen.-Plot:...

| Ned
|
|-
| 1969
| The Big Valley

The Big Valley

The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...

(TV series)
| Otis Clark
|
|-
|
| The Learning Tree

The Learning Tree

The Learning Tree is a 1969 drama film which tells the story of a young African American growing up in rural Kansas during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when racial discrimination was a social norm, legally sanctioned in parts of the United States. Written and directed by Gordon Parks, the film...

| Judge Cavanaugh
|
|-
| 1970
| The F.B.I. (TV series)
| Derelict
|
|-
| 1973
| Walking Tall

Walking Tall

Walking Tall is a 1973 semi-biopic of Sheriff Buford Pusser, a former professional wrestler-turned-lawman in McNairy County, Tennessee. It starred Joe Don Baker as Pusser...

| Ferrin Meaks
|
|-
|
| Police Story (TV series)
| Dana
|
|-
| 1975
| The Sam Sheppard Murder Case

Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case (TV movie)

----Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case is a Drama TV movie, starring George Peppard and directed by Robert Michael Lewis- Plot :...

(TV movie)
| Judge Edwards
|
|-
| 1978
| The Rockford Files

The Rockford Files

The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...

(TV series)
| Arthur Kenner
|
|

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External links