Kirby Grant, (born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr. , in Butte, Montana, November 24, 1911 - October 30, 1985), was a long-time B movie and television actor. He is mostly remembered for playing the title role in the television series Sky King. Grant, a child prodigy violinist, continued to pursue music and became a professional singer and bandleader. In 1939 the "Gateway to Hollywood" talent-search contest awarded him a movie contract.

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  • Kirby Grant, (born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr. , in Butte, Montana, November 24, 1911 - October 30, 1985), was a long-time B movie and television actor. He is mostly remembered for playing the title role in the television series Sky King. Grant, a child prodigy violinist, continued to pursue music and became a professional singer and bandleader. In 1939 the "Gateway to Hollywood" talent-search contest awarded him a movie contract. These "Gateway" contracts were already prepared with fictitious screen names (thus Josephine Cottle signed a contract to become "Gale Storm," and Ralph Bowman signed to become "John Archer"). Grant's contract was made out to "Robert Stanton," and Grant used the pseudonym in his earliest films before adopting his first and middle names professionally. His first film as "Robert Stanton" was Three Sons, with Edward Ellis and William Gargan. For the next few years he freelanced among various studios; his most familiar picture from this period (as Kirby Grant) is probably 1941's Blondie Goes Latin, with Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. In 1943, Grant signed with Universal Pictures, where he played romantic leads in B musicals, and in Abbott and Costello and Olsen and Johnson comedies. His smooth baritone voice got him teamed with Universal's singing star Gloria Jean for two features in 1944, and then Universal selected him to replace Rod Cameron (who had just been promoted to more important roles) as the studio's B-Western series star in 1945. These seven westerns established Kirby Grant as an action star. In the late 1940s Monogram Pictures hired him for a series of mounted-police adventures, featuring "Chinook the Wonder Dog. " Grant was working in this capacity when television beckoned in 1951, with an adventure series called Sky King. Grant starred as Arizona rancher-pilot Schuyler "Sky" King, who fought bad guys and rescued people with his airplane. Production spanned much of the Cold War; early villains were bank robbers and kidnappers; some later foils were Russian spies and saboteurs. Sky's first airplane was a Cessna T-50 (known among pilots as the "Bamboo Bomber" because of its wooden wings), and later a much more modern Cessna 310B. Sky's airplanes were named "Songbird". Sky and his niece "Penny" lived on the "Flying Crown Ranch". Occasionally a nephew named, "Clipper", played by Ron Hagerthy, would appear on the show. The series called for Grant to wear the same outfit on every show. That prompted many fans to wonder if the character owned any other clothes. Actually, this was a common practice in the early days of TV production: the series regulars in Adventures of Superman and Dragnet, for example, always wore the same outfits so different episodes could be filmed at the same time, and file footage could be added to new footage without anyone noticing. Grant did little acting after the show ended although he and co-star Gloria Winters were in demand for personal appearances at fairs and aviation events. He traveled with the Carson and Barnes Circus from 1967 to 1970. Grant retired that year. Sky King continued to play in reruns, but Grant received no residuals. Grant and his wife, Carolyn, had three children. In the early 1970s, they moved from California to Florida. The couple founded the nonprofit Sky King Youth Ranches of America, which provided homes for abandoned or orphaned children. He had plans to resurrect the Sky King series with the Flying Crown Ranch becoming a home for such kids, and publicizing their stories, but it never materialized. Grant was killed at the age of seventy-three in a car accident near Titusville, Florida. He was on his way to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral, where he was also to be honored by the astronauts for encouraging aviation and space flight. Grant was not wearing his seatbelt. He is interred in Missoula, Montana.
  • Kirby Grant Hoon, Jr. war ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler. Grant erhielt nach Schulabschluss ein Stipendium für die American Conservatory of Music als Violinist und Sänger. 1935 kam er in Berührung mit dem Filmgeschäft, als er als Musiker in einigen Filmen eingesetzt wurde; drei Jahre später erhielt er einen Vertrag als Schauspieler in einer Reihe von B-Western (merkwürdigerweise nicht als singender Cowboy). Zunächst trat er unter dem Namen Robert Stanton auf; auch in anderen Filmen des Republic Pictures und der RKO war er zu sehen. Der Zweite Weltkrieg unterbrach seine Karriere für kurze Zeit, bevor er u.a. mit der letzten von Universal Pictures produzierten Western-Serie auf die Leinwand zurückkehrte. Daneben spielte er in einer Reihe anderer Filme und erneut einen Mountie für die Monogram, der neben seinem Hund Chinook Verbrechern auf der Spur war. 1954 war, wie für nahezu die gesamte B-Industrie, ein Ende gesetzt. Grant wechselte zum Fernsehen, spielte in 72 Episoden den Sky King und trat bis 1970 im Zirkus auf. Seine späteren Jahre arbeitete Grant als Werbeleiter für Sea World. Er starb bei einem Autounfall und hinterließ neben seiner Frau zwei Töchter und einen Sohn.
  • Kirby Grant est un acteur américain né le 24 novembre 1911 à Butte dans le Montana aux États-Unis, décédé le 30 octobre 1985 en Floride.
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  • May 2009
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  • Kirby Grant, (born Kirby Grant Hoon Jr. , in Butte, Montana, November 24, 1911 - October 30, 1985), was a long-time B movie and television actor. He is mostly remembered for playing the title role in the television series Sky King. Grant, a child prodigy violinist, continued to pursue music and became a professional singer and bandleader. In 1939 the "Gateway to Hollywood" talent-search contest awarded him a movie contract.
  • Kirby Grant Hoon, Jr. war ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler. Grant erhielt nach Schulabschluss ein Stipendium für die American Conservatory of Music als Violinist und Sänger. 1935 kam er in Berührung mit dem Filmgeschäft, als er als Musiker in einigen Filmen eingesetzt wurde; drei Jahre später erhielt er einen Vertrag als Schauspieler in einer Reihe von B-Western (merkwürdigerweise nicht als singender Cowboy).
  • Kirby Grant est un acteur américain né le 24 novembre 1911 à Butte dans le Montana aux États-Unis, décédé le 30 octobre 1985 en Floride.
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  • Kirby Grant
  • Kirby Grant
  • Kirby Grant
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