Myron McCormick(1908-1962)

American character actor of vast stage experience who appeared infrequently but memorably in films. A native of Albany, Indiana, he attended Princeton University, where he was an honors student and Phi Beta Kappa. In 1929, he joined the University Players in Massachusetts, joining and eventually sharing a New York City apartment with a trio of struggling performers: Henry Fonda, Joshua Logan, and James Stewart. While Fonda and Stewart found their greatest success in Hollywood, Logan and McCormick gravitated to and were most closely tied the New York stage. McCormick also became one of the busiest actors in radio drama. He made occasional movies, such as when the Broadway cast of Maxwell Anderson's "Winterset" reunited for the film version. He won fame as Luther Billis in Logan's production of "South Pacific" (the role was played by Ray Walston in the film) and as "Sergeant King" in Deux farfelus au régiment (1958) a part he repeated in the movie version. Cancer claimed him in 1962 at the age of 54.