Word: backus
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...Backus Is Willing...
...Alcatraz. To come full circle, Backus first had to get out of taut Kentucky Military Institute outside Louisville -"an Alcatraz with tuition," where his best pal was "Cadet Slob" Victor Mature. "I predict you'll wind up in the gutter," said the commandant...
...Backus hurtled off to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, emerged in Depression-ridden 1933 when there were only six plays on Broadway. He ate one daily meal at an actors' soup kitchen, posed for sinister pictures in True Story Magazine. After several lean years, he got steady work in radio soap operas. He soon played in three shows a day at $30 apiece, often did 25 a week...
...years the work was profitable but depressingly anonymous. What finally got Backus better known was turning the lampshade boor into a radio character. Name: Hubert Updyke III, a hilarious snob who insisted that his ancestors landed at Cadillac Rock. Hubert bought cars by the gross, drove around with Guy Lombardo's Royal "Canoodians" instead of a radio, had a little man on the hood to work as a windshield wiper...
Stand the Pain. After three years with Updyke on radio. Backus fell into a fat part as the judge on TV's now-defunct I Married Joan comedy series, whose reruns are still "in orbit." Discovered at last, Backus made 47 feature movies (best role: James Dean's father in Rebel Without a Cause). But Backus ("always too early or too late'') began his movie career at the start of Hollywood's slump. He often suspects that papa was right. Once that businesslike gentleman from Cleveland sniffed scornfully around the movie lots, pronounced one studio...