John Milford was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor in theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, and film

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...

s, playing scores of roles, often as a western villain.

Born in Johnstown

Johnstown (city), New York

Johnstown is a city and the county seat of Fulton County in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2000 Census, the city had population of 8,511. Recent estimates put the figure closer to 8,100. The city was named by its founder, Sir William Johnson after his son John Johnson...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Milford studied Civil Engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 at Union College

Union College

Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...

 but chose to pursue his first love, acting.

After making his film debut in Marty

Marty (film)

Marty is a 1955 American film directed by Delbert Mann. The screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky, expanding upon his 1953 teleplay of the same name. The film stars Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The film enjoyed international success, winning the 1955 Academy Award for Best Picture and...

in 1955, Milford went on to act in dozens of film and TV roles, especially in westerns such as Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

, The Big Valley

The Big Valley

The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...

, The Rifleman

The Rifleman

The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...

, The Virginian

The Virginian

-Literature:* The Virginian , a novel by American author Owen Wister-Film:* The Virginian , a silent film directed by Cecil B...

, and many others.

In 1965 Milford had a recurring role as Cole Younger

Cole Younger

Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw with the James-Younger gang...

 in the TV series The Legend Of Jesse James

The Legend of Jesse James

The Legend of Jesse James is a 1980 country music concept album by various artists singing songs by English songwriter Paul Kennerley, based on the story of American Old West outlaw Jesse James....

.

Throughout his career Milford continued to work in the theatre. He founded the Chamber Theatre at 3759 Cahuenga Blvd, pioneering Equity Waiver productions in Los Angeles, and helped launched the careers of actors such as Richard Chamberlain

Richard Chamberlain

George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...

 and Vic Morrow

Vic Morrow

Victor "Vic" Morrow was an American actor whose credits include a starring role in the 1960s TV series Combat!, prominent roles in a handful of other television and cinema dramas, and numerous guest roles on television...

.

Milford's Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

obituary credits him with using his engineering background to help create the original design for the Hollywood Walk Of Fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

.

Milford died of skin cancer

Skin cancer

Skin neoplasms are skin growths with differing causes and varying degrees of malignancy. The three most common malignant skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises...

in 2000. He was survived by his wife, TV producer Susan Graw, and two sons.