Tris Coffin
Encyclopedia
Tristram Coffin also known as Tris Coffin, was a film
and television
actor
from the latter 1930s
through the 1970s
, usually in western
s or other action-adventure
productions.
and silver
mining
community of Mammoth, Utah
, and was reared in Salt Lake City. He began acting while he was in high school
and thereafter joined traveling stock companies. He earned a Bachelor of Arts
degree in speech
from the University of Washington
at Seattle, Washington. He worked as a news analyst and sportscaster
until spotted by a Hollywood
talent scout. His stolid looks were said to have served him well in his later roles.
In 1940, Coffin appeared as Phillips, along with Milburn Stone
and I. Stanford Jolley
, in Chasing Trouble
, a comedy espionage film. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jeff King in Republic Pictures
' King of the Rocket Men
, the first of three serials starring the "Rocketman" character, who would later be paid homage to through the character of The Rocketeer, which was adapted into a Walt Disney
film in 1992.
In 1955, he joined Peter Graves
, William Schallert
, and Tyler McVey
in the episode "The Man Who Tore Down the Wall" of NBC
's Hallmark Hall of Fame
. He had guest starred in the series Adventures of Superman
, sometimes playing a "good guy", sometimes a "bad guy". He even appeared in comedy, including the 1956-1957 CBS
series, Hey, Jeannie!
, starring Jeannie Carson
.
He also had a role in the very first TV episode of The Lone Ranger
, as Captain Reid of the Texas Rangers
, the older brother of the man who would become The Lone Ranger after his brother and four other comrades were murdered by outlaws. From 1951-1955, he appeared eight times as Colonel
Culver in the Bill Williams
syndicated television series
, The Adventures of Kit Carson
. He appeared nine times as banker Tom Barton in the syndicated half-hour color western series, The Cisco Kid
, starring Duncan Renaldo
and Leo Carrillo
. In 1956, Coffin appeared in different roles in six episodes of the syndicated series, Judge Roy Bean
, with Edgar Buchanan
, Jack Buetel
, and Jackie Loughery
.
Coffin played the lead as Captain Thomas H. Rynning
in his own syndicated series 26 Men
, based on official files of the Arizona Rangers
in the final days of taming the "Old West" before Arizona statehood in 1912. Kelo Henderson
appeared with Coffin in the role of Deputy Clint Travis.
In 1954, Coffin committed a noted blooper
on the Climax! live television
anthology series, in The Long Goodbye, in which Coffin's character was depicted as lying dead. The actor did not realize he was still on frame, resurrected
himself, and walked off camera. Despite this mishap, the actor was cast and appeared in another episode of Climax!, Escape From Fear
, in 1955.
Coffin died of lung cancer
at the age of eighty in Santa Monica
, California
. His ashes were scattered.
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...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
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...
from the latter 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
through the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
, usually in western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
s or other action-adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
productions.
Biography
Coffin was born in the goldGold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
community of Mammoth, Utah
Mammoth, Utah
Mammoth is a semi-ghost town in northeastern Juab County, Utah, United States about three miles south of Eureka and two miles east of Tintic Junction....
, and was reared in Salt Lake City. He began acting while he was in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
and thereafter joined traveling stock companies. He earned a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in speech
Speech
Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
from the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
at Seattle, Washington. He worked as a news analyst and sportscaster
Sports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
until spotted by a Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
talent scout. His stolid looks were said to have served him well in his later roles.
In 1940, Coffin appeared as Phillips, along with Milburn Stone
Milburn Stone
Milburn Stone was an American television actor, a nephew of Broadway comedian Fred Stone and the son of a shopkeeper, best known for his role as "Doc" on the CBS western series Gunsmoke. He also played a doctor, CDR Blake, in the 1943 film Gung Ho!.Stone was born in Burrton in Harvey County in...
and I. Stanford Jolley
I. Stanford Jolley
Isaac Stanford Jolley, Sr., known as I. Stanford Jolley was a prolific American character actor of film and television, primarily in western roles as cowboys, law-enforcement officers, or villains...
, in Chasing Trouble
Chasing Trouble
- Cast :*Frankie Darro as Frankie 'Cupid' O'Brien*Marjorie Reynolds as Susie*Mantan Moreland as Jefferson*Milburn Stone as Callahan*Cheryl Walker as Phyllis Bentley*George Cleveland as Lester*Alex Callam as Morgan*Tristram Coffin as Phillips...
, a comedy espionage film. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jeff King in Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
' King of the Rocket Men
King of the Rocket Men
King of the Rocket Men is a 1949 Republic movie serial, in twelve chapters, notable for introducing the "Rocketman Character" who reappeared under a variety of names in later serials Radar Men from the Moon, Zombies of the Stratosphere and the semi-serial Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the...
, the first of three serials starring the "Rocketman" character, who would later be paid homage to through the character of The Rocketeer, which was adapted into a Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
film in 1992.
In 1955, he joined Peter Graves
Peter Graves (actor)
Peter Aurness , known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973...
, William Schallert
William Schallert
William Joseph Schallert is an American actor who has appeared in many films and in such television series as The Smurfs, The Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Waltons, Bonanza, Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Love, American Style, Get...
, and Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey was an American character actor.-Early life and career:McVey was born in Bay City on Saginaw Bay in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His first screen role, uncredited, came at the age of 39 in 1951, when he portrayed Brady in the The Day the Earth Stood Still...
in the episode "The Man Who Tore Down the Wall" of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
. He had guest starred in the series Adventures of Superman
Adventures of Superman (TV series)
Adventures of Superman is an American television series based on comic book characters and concepts created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The show is the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California...
, sometimes playing a "good guy", sometimes a "bad guy". He even appeared in comedy, including the 1956-1957 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...
series, Hey, Jeannie!
Hey, Jeannie!
Hey, Jeannie! is a 32-episode half-hour situation comedy starring Jeannie Carson as a young Scottish woman living in New York City. Twenty-six segments aired on CBS from September 8, 1956 to May 4, 1957 in the Saturday slot following The Gale Storm Show and preceding the western series Gunsmoke.Six...
, starring Jeannie Carson
Jeannie Carson
Jeannie Carson is a retired English-born United States-based comedienne and musical theatre actress...
.
He also had a role in the very first TV episode of The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
, as Captain Reid of the Texas Rangers
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
, the older brother of the man who would become The Lone Ranger after his brother and four other comrades were murdered by outlaws. From 1951-1955, he appeared eight times as Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Culver in the Bill Williams
Bill Williams (actor)
Bill Williams was an American television and film actor. He is best known for his starring role in the early 1950 television show The Adventures of Kit Carson.-Career:...
syndicated television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
, The Adventures of Kit Carson
The Adventures of Kit Carson
The Adventures of Kit Carson is an American Western series that aired in syndication from August 1951 to November 1955, originally sponsored by Coca-Cola. It stars Bill Williams in the title role as frontier scout Christopher "Kit" Carson...
. He appeared nine times as banker Tom Barton in the syndicated half-hour color western series, The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid (TV series)
The Cisco Kid is a half-hour American Western television series starring Duncan Renaldo in the title role, The Cisco Kid, and Leo Carrillo as the jovial sidekick, Pancho...
, starring Duncan Renaldo
Duncan Renaldo
Renault Renaldo Duncan , better known as Duncan Renaldo, was an American actor who portrayed The Cisco Kid in films and on the 1950-1956 American TV series, The Cisco Kid.-Early years:...
and Leo Carrillo
Leo Carrillo
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo , was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.-Family roots:...
. In 1956, Coffin appeared in different roles in six episodes of the syndicated series, Judge Roy Bean
Judge Roy Bean (TV series)
Judge Roy Bean is a syndicated American Western series starring Edgar Buchanan as the legendary Kentucky-born Judge Roy Bean, a justice of the peace known as "The law west of the Pecos".-Synopsis:...
, with Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s...
, Jack Buetel
Jack Buetel
Jack Buetel was an American film and television actor.Born in Dallas, Texas, Buetel moved to Los Angeles, California in the late 1930s with the intention of establishing a film career...
, and Jackie Loughery
Jackie Loughery
Jacqueline "Jackie" Loughery is best known as the first Miss New York USA and winner of the first Miss USA beauty pageant, in Long Beach, California. In 1952, she won the title only after a second ballot broke a first-place tie...
.
Coffin played the lead as Captain Thomas H. Rynning
Thomas H. Rynning
Thomas H. Rynning was an American law enforcement officer, warden of Yuma Territorial Prison and a captain in the Arizona Rangers, serving as head of the organization from 1902 to 1907.-Biography:...
in his own syndicated series 26 Men
26 Men
26 Men is a syndicated American western television series about the Arizona Rangers, an elite group commissioned in 1901 by the legislature of the Arizona Territory and limited, for financial reasons, to twenty-six active members. Russell Hayden was the producer of the series and the co-composer of...
, based on official files of the Arizona Rangers
Arizona Rangers
The Arizona Rangers is an Arizona law enforcement agency modeled on the Texas Rangers. The Arizona Rangers were created by the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1901, disbanded in 1909, and subsequently reformed in 1957. They were created to deal with the infestations of outlaws in the sparsely...
in the final days of taming the "Old West" before Arizona statehood in 1912. Kelo Henderson
Kelo Henderson
Kelo Henderson is an American former actor who co-starred as Deputy Clint Travis in the 1957-1959 syndicated western television series 26 Men. The program starred Tristram Coffin as Captain Thomas H. Rynning, the real-life commander of the Arizona Rangers, the case files of which were the basis...
appeared with Coffin in the role of Deputy Clint Travis.
In 1954, Coffin committed a noted blooper
Blooper
A blooper, also known as an outtake or boner is a short sequence of a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms of misspoken words...
on the Climax! live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
anthology series, in The Long Goodbye, in which Coffin's character was depicted as lying dead. The actor did not realize he was still on frame, resurrected
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
himself, and walked off camera. Despite this mishap, the actor was cast and appeared in another episode of Climax!, Escape From Fear
Escape From Fear (1955)
Escape From Fear is a 1955 American television adaptation from A. J. Cronin's 1954 serial story of the same title. The show was written by Bernard Girard, directed by Allen Reisner, and produced by Tony Barr. It was the twelfth episode of the first season of Climax!, which was broadcast on CBS...
, in 1955.
Coffin died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
at the age of eighty in Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, 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...
. His ashes were scattered.