Not a lot is known about actress Marjorie Clements, her list of credits contain only three films in one year. Her two feature films were westerns, The Old Texas Trail (1944) and Dead or Alive (1944). Her one serial had Clements cast as the daughter of a riverboat captain who helps hero Robert Lowery prevent Lyle Talbot from stealing their suddenly oil rich Louisiana swamp land in Universal’s The Mystery of the Riverboat (1944).
No, I don’t mean the fitness guru who sweats to oldies. Richard Simmons, or Dick as he was sometimes billed, will always be remembered for starring in one of the most popular syndicated TV shows of the fifties (hint: not Superman). An athletic man, he competed in fencing and swimming in college, then spent his early twenties traveling the world working on freighters and tankers before settling in LA in the ’30’s.
Legend has is that Louis B Mayer gave him an MGM contract after seeing him break some Arabian horses. Simmons spent most of his career playing bit parts in movies like Sergeant York (1941), Pilot #5 (1943), Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), Angels in the Outfield (1951), The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964).
The fifties and sixties were his most prolific time as he appeared on TV shows like My Little Margie, Mr and Mrs North, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Loretta Young Show, Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, Perry Mason and The Munsters. But what made Simmons a star was the three years he played the title role in Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, the third of the three great shows based on the radio prgrams created by George Trendle and Fran Striker, where Royal Mountie Preston, along with his horse Rex and lead sled dog King bring justice to the wilds of Canada.
Right before he made his big splash in TV, Simmons made a big splash on the serial screen. He had had a bit part in early the Republic serials King of the Royal Mounted (1940) (kind of ironic there) and King of the Texas Rangers (1941). Thirteen years later he played the title role in Republic’s The Man with the Steel Whip (1954), playing a rancher who dons a Zorro style outfit to stop an Indian uprising machinated by a saloon owner who has discovered gold on their reservation. Wonder if this had any impact on his being cast in Sergeant Preston?
Copyright © 2007 Todd’s Serial Blog.
