Although the son of a Canadian railroad executive, his family moved to Santa Monica, California when he was eight years old. His acting career began with plays at high school, followed by acting in West-Coast, a travelling theater company. In 1939 he got a screen test for Columbia who gave him a contract, although he debuted in 20th-Century-Fox' Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939). Columbia. His rise to stardom was interrupted by military service during WWII. After the war he jumpstarted his career with Gilda (1946). His career during the 1940s and 1950s showed that his talent were
… More extensive, playing film noir in The Big Heat (1953), westerns like 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and comedies like The Gazebo (1959) or The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956). He has usually been cast as a calm and collected everyday-hero, showing courage under pressure as in Blackboard Jungle (1955). Since the 1970s he has mainly done supporting roles in mini-series.
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