Todd Armstrong was an American actor known for playing Jason in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). He also appeared in the television series Manhunt and in films including Walk on the Wild Side, King Rat, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, and A Time for Killing. His screen career extended from 1961 to 1983.
Background
Todd Armstrong was born John Harris Armstrong on July 25, 1937, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the son of architect Harris Armstrong and Louise McClelland Armstrong. His father was known for designing modernist buildings and civic structures in the St. Louis area.
Armstrong graduated from Ladue High School in 1956. He later moved to California to pursue acting and adopted Todd as his professional first name. Before obtaining substantial acting work, he supported himself as a landscape gardener, including work for actress Gloria Henry, who helped arrange a screen test for him at Columbia Pictures.
Education
Armstrong graduated from Ladue High School in 1956. He subsequently trained at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts, graduating in 1958. The Pasadena Playhouse had been founded in 1917 and its theatre school, later known as the College of Theatre Arts, became an important Southern California training institution for actors and other theatre professionals during the growth of the motion-picture and television industries.
His training placed him within the postwar expansion of professional acting schools in the Los Angeles region. The Pasadena Playhouse combined theatrical education with a producing theatre and offered preparation for stage, screen, radio, and television work.
Career
Armstrong began his screen career in television, appearing in the syndicated crime series Manhunt in 1961. His first film roles followed in Walk on the Wild Side and Five Finger Exercise, both released in 1962. His early path into the industry included a screen test arranged through Gloria Henry and Columbia Pictures, a major Hollywood studio founded in 1924.
Armstrong received his best-known role as Jason in Don Chaffey's Jason and the Argonauts (1963), a fantasy adventure film distinguished by Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects. Armstrong's dialogue was redubbed for the released film by British actor Tim Turner. The role gave him his principal leading-man opportunity, but most of his later work consisted of supporting film parts and television appearances.
He subsequently played a leading role in the Second World War drama King Rat (1965), directed by Bryan Forbes. His other film credits included The Silencers, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, Winnetou and Old Firehand, and A Time for Killing. His television work included appearances in Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, The Greatest American Hero, and other series. His final listed screen credit was Icebound in the Antarctic in 1983.
In 1992, Armstrong was reported to have contracted AIDS. He died by suicide from a gunshot wound on November 17, 1992, in Butte City, California, at the age of fifty-five.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Armstrong was reported to have been 6 feet 3 inches tall.
Connections
Armstrong was the son of architect Harris Armstrong and Louise McClelland Armstrong. Actress Gloria Henry, for whom he worked as a landscape gardener, helped him obtain a Columbia Pictures screen test that contributed to his entry into acting.
