The Lonely Profession was a made-for-television suspense film directed by Douglas Heyes

Douglas Heyes

Douglas Heyes was an American film and television writer, director, producer, actor, and composer with a long list of accomplishments.He was the father of actor Douglas Heyes, Jr..He died in Beverly Hills, California....

. It was first broadcast October 21, 1969 on 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...

.

Plot

Detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 Leo Gordon is hired to trail Karen Mendaros, the mistress

Mistress (lover)

A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...

 of a reclusive billionaire

Billionaire

A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...

. When they meet, Gordon and Mendaros hit it off and check in at a motel. Gordon wakes up the next morning and discovers that Mendaros had been murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ed during the night. Gordon opens his own investigation of Mendaros' past in an attempt to determine who killed Mendaros and why he's been set up as the fall guy

Fall guy

A fall guy is a person used as a scapegoat to take the blame for someone else's actions, or someone at the butt of jokes. One placed in the position of fall guy is often referred to as "taking the fall". In the film industry, a fall guy is a form of stock character.-Origin:The origin of "fall guy"...

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Main cast

Actor	Role
Harry Guardino Harry Guardino Harry Guardino was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter, a drama about a hard-hitting investigative journalist named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill as city...	Lee Gordon
Dean Jagger Dean Jagger Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...	Charles Van Cleve
Barbara McNair Barbara McNair Barbara McNair was an African American singer and actress.Born Barbara Jean McNair in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, McNair studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago...	Donna Travers
Fernando Lamas Fernando Lamas Fernando Álvaro Lamas was an Argentine-born actor and director, and the father of actor Lorenzo Lamas.-Early life and career:...	Dominic Savarona
Joseph Cotten Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...	Martin Bannister
Jack Carter Jack Carter (comedian) Jack Chakrin , known by his professional name of Jack Carter, is a Jewish-American comedian, actor and host. Brooklyn Born Carter had long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid pace contemporaries Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam...	Freddie Farber
Ina Balin Ina Balin Ina Balin was an American actress on Broadway and in film.Born as Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, she first appeared on television on The Perry Como Show...	Karen Menardos
Dina Merrill Dina Merrill -Early life:Merrill was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton in New York City, New York, the only child of Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her second husband, Wall Street stockbroker Edward Francis Hutton...	Beatrice Savarona
Troy Donahue Troy Donahue Troy Donahue was an American actor, who was active between the late 1950s and late 1990s.-Life and career:...	Julian Thatcher