| Subject: Actor John Saxon dead at age 83 |
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pneumonia
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Date Posted: Sun. 07/26/20 4:38:31pm
John Saxon, the teen idol who later starred in martial arts and horror films, died Saturday at the age of 83. The cause was pneumonia, according to his widow.
Saxon was born Carmine Orrico in Brooklyn in 1936. Talent agent Henry Wilson, who also discovered Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, saw his photo on the cover of a magazine and convinced the 17-year-old to change his name. Early projects from the 1950s include The Unguarded Moment, opposite Esther Williams, and Running Wild, opposite Mamie Van Doren.
He soon graduated to higher echelon films, working with notable directors like Blake Edwards opposite Debbie Reynolds in This Happy Feeling, Vincent Minnelli opposite Sandra Dee in The Reluctant Debutante, Frank Borzage in sandal epic The Big Fisherman, and John Huston in The Unforgiven. In 1966 he was nominated for a best supporting actor Golden Globe for his portrayal of Mexican bandit Chuy Medena in The Appaloosa opposite Marlon Brando.
In 1973, Saxon starred with Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon, one of the most profitable movies ever made. This was Lee’s first starring role in a Hollywood film, and the last that he completed.
The 1970s and early 1980s included saw Saxon quite busy, appearing on mainstream television shows like The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-0, Vega$, Quincy M.E., Magnum P. I., and Fantasy Island, plus a slew of lower budget feature films. (There’s some gold in that run, like Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, David Cronenberg’s Fast Company, and the John Sayles-penned Star Wars “homage” for Roger Corman, Battle Beyond the Stars.)
In 1983, however, he starred in what turned out to be not just another horror picture, but the launch of a major pop culture phenomenon, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Saxon’s Lt. Thompson returned in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.
Also in the 1980s, Saxon had a recurring role on Dynasty as a Middle Eastern oil tycoon named Rashid Ahmed who wooed Joan Collins, and as Lorenzo Lamas’s father on Falcon Crest. In 1996 he appeared as an FBI agent in the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino collaboration From Dusk Til Dawn, and he had one writer-director credit, an action-horror picture from 1988 called Death House.
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