Sammy Jackson
Encyclopedia
Sammy Jackson was an American actor
known particularly for his roles reflecting rural
life and a country music
disc jockey
, although he also played pop-standards during 1983 at Los Angeles's KMPC
.
, Jackson wished to be an actor and moved to California working as a shipping clerk but was contracted to Warner Brothers where he appeared saying one line in the film No Time for Sergeants
. He appeared in the syndicated
American Civil War
drama Gray Ghost
and on the Warner Brothers Television series 77 Sunset Strip
starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
, and in the TV series Maverick
, opposite James Garner
.
television sitcom, No Time for Sergeants
, he wrote directly to Jack Warner
saying that he was the best choice for the role and asked Warner to examine a certain Maverick episode as proof. Ten days later Jackson was told to come to the studio to test for the role. Jackson won the role over several actors including the better known Will Hutchins
, a Warner Brothers television contract star who had played Sugarfoot
and also had been in the No Time for Sergeants film.
The series was produced by George Burns
's production company and shown in the UK on ITV
from 1965 to 1969.It also preceded Burns' own Wendy and Me
sitcom, with Connie Stevens
, which aired on the Monday night ABC schedule.
for Frank Sinatra
as a Marine who makes friends with an enemy soldier by swapping his cigarette
s for the Japanese's soldiers' fish catch. In 1966 Jackson starred in an unsold television pilot
in the title role of Lil Abner.
With film roles for "hillbillies" drying up, Jackson began working on-air in radio in 1968 while also acting in a number of motion pictures and doing guest roles in television series. Television writer Larry Brody
recalled meeting Jackson and writing a television pilot for him. In the 1980s, Jackson worked for a radio station in Las Vegas
and briefly played non-country music on KMPC, Los Angeles. In 1992, he appeared in the pilot film, Casino (not to be confused with the better-known movie, Casino
). Sammy Jackson died of heart failure at the age of 57 in 1995.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
known particularly for his roles reflecting rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
life and a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, although he also played pop-standards during 1983 at Los Angeles's KMPC
KMPC
KMPC is a radio station based in Los Angeles, California and is owned by P&Y Broadcasting Licensee, LLC. Radio Korea is a division of the Radio Korea Media Group. The station airs Korean-language programming...
.
Biography and persona
Born in Henderson, North CarolinaHenderson, North Carolina
Henderson, with a population of 16,095 at the 2000 census, is the county seat of Vance County, North Carolina, United States.The city was named in honor of former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leonard Henderson, who lived nearby and was a friend of early settler Lewis Reavis...
, Jackson wished to be an actor and moved to California working as a shipping clerk but was contracted to Warner Brothers where he appeared saying one line in the film No Time for Sergeants
No Time for Sergeants
No Time for Sergeants is a 1954 best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, which was later adapted into a teleplay on The United States Steel Hour, a popular Broadway play and 1958 motion picture, as well as a 1964 television series. The book chronicles the misadventures of a country bumpkin named Will...
. He appeared in the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
drama Gray Ghost
Gray Ghost (TV series)
The Gray Ghost is an American historical series which aired in syndication from October 10, 1957, to July 3, 1958. It depicts the true story of Major John Singleton Mosby, a Virginia officer in the Confederate Army, whose cunning and stealth earned him the nickname "Gray Ghost".-Synopsis:The Gray...
and on the Warner Brothers Television series 77 Sunset Strip
77 Sunset Strip
77 Sunset Strip is an hour-length American television private detective series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes....
starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I. He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the series Maverick and as the voice behind the character Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated Series...
, and in the TV series Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...
, opposite James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
.
No Time for Sergeants
When Jackson read that Warner Brothers was going to produce a 1964 ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television sitcom, No Time for Sergeants
No Time for Sergeants
No Time for Sergeants is a 1954 best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, which was later adapted into a teleplay on The United States Steel Hour, a popular Broadway play and 1958 motion picture, as well as a 1964 television series. The book chronicles the misadventures of a country bumpkin named Will...
, he wrote directly to Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
saying that he was the best choice for the role and asked Warner to examine a certain Maverick episode as proof. Ten days later Jackson was told to come to the studio to test for the role. Jackson won the role over several actors including the better known Will Hutchins
Will Hutchins
Will Hutchins is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster in the Warner Brothers Western television series Sugarfoot on ABC from 1957-1961.-Biography:...
, a Warner Brothers television contract star who had played Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson...
and also had been in the No Time for Sergeants film.
The series was produced by George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
's production company and shown in the UK on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
from 1965 to 1969.It also preceded Burns' own Wendy and Me
Wendy and Me
Wendy and Me is an American sitcom that aired on ABC during the 1964–1965 television season, primarily sponsored by Consolidated Cigar's "El Producto"...
sitcom, with Connie Stevens
Connie Stevens
Connie Stevens is an American actress and singer, best known for her roles in the television series Hawaiian Eye and other TV and film work.-Early life:...
, which aired on the Monday night ABC schedule.
Other roles
Jackson also appeared in None But the BraveNone But the Brave
None But the Brave, also known as in Japan, is a 1965 war film starring Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tommy Sands and Brad Dexter. This is the only film directed by Frank Sinatra, and the first Japanese-American co-production, produced by Sinatra for Warner Bros...
for Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
as a Marine who makes friends with an enemy soldier by swapping his cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
s for the Japanese's soldiers' fish catch. In 1966 Jackson starred in an unsold television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
in the title role of Lil Abner.
With film roles for "hillbillies" drying up, Jackson began working on-air in radio in 1968 while also acting in a number of motion pictures and doing guest roles in television series. Television writer Larry Brody
Larry Brody
-Early life:At Northwestern University, Larry Brody majored in English and wrote dozens of short stories, poetry and essays. As an avid science fiction fan, he started writing in the genre, and by the time he graduated he was selling stories to The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction...
recalled meeting Jackson and writing a television pilot for him. In the 1980s, Jackson worked for a radio station in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
and briefly played non-country music on KMPC, Los Angeles. In 1992, he appeared in the pilot film, Casino (not to be confused with the better-known movie, Casino
Casino (film)
Casino is a 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese...
). Sammy Jackson died of heart failure at the age of 57 in 1995.
Filmography
- None But the BraveNone But the BraveNone But the Brave, also known as in Japan, is a 1965 war film starring Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tommy Sands and Brad Dexter. This is the only film directed by Frank Sinatra, and the first Japanese-American co-production, produced by Sinatra for Warner Bros...
(1965) - The Night of the GrizzlyThe Night of the GrizzlyThe Night of the Grizzly is a 1966 Western adventure film starring Clint Walker, Martha Hyer, Keenan Wynn, and Nancy Kulp. Directed by Joseph Pevney and written by Warren Douglas, the film was released by Paramount Pictures on April 20, 1966....
(1966) - The Fastest Guitar AliveThe Fastest Guitar AliveThe Fastest Guitar Alive is the soundtrack title for the 33 record album from MGM Records released in June 1967.-Track listing:All songs written by Roy Orbison and Bill DeesSide one# "Whirlwind"# "Medicine Man, Medicine Man"# "River"...
(1967) - The BoatniksThe BoatniksThe Boatniks is a 1970 American comedy film starring Robert Morse, Stefanie Powers, Don Ameche and Phil Silvers. It was made by Walt Disney Productions, released by Buena Vista Distribution and directed by Norman Tokar....
(1970) - Norwood (movie) (1970)
- The Million Dollar DuckThe Million Dollar DuckThe Million Dollar Duck is a 1971 Disney comedy film that was directed by Vincent McEveety, and stars Dean Jones, Sandy Duncan and Joe Flynn.-Plot:...
(1971)