  leif erickson (october 27, 1911 â january 29, 1986) was an american stage, film, and television actor. ==background== born william y. wycliffe anderson, in alameda near san francisco, california, erickson worked as a soloist in a band as vocalist and trombone player, performed in max reinhardt's productions, and then gained a small amount of stage experience in a comedy vaudeville act. initially billed by paramount pictures as glenn erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in westerns. erickson's first films were two 1933 band films with betty grable before starting a string of buster crabbe western films based on zane grey novels. erickson took four years off to serve in the united states navy during world war ii as a combat photographer. erickson served as an instructor, was shot down twice in the pacific, and was twice wounded. ==career== erickson appeared in films such as college holiday (1936), conquest (1937), ride a crooked mile (1938), the snake pit (1948), sorry, wrong number (1948), abbott and costello meet captain kidd (1952), invaders from mars (1953), on the waterfront (1954), the fastest gun alive (1956), twilight for the gods (1958), a gathering of eagles (1963), roustabout (1964), the carpetbaggers (1964), and mirage (1965). one of his more notable roles was as deborah kerr's macho husband in the stage and film versions of tea and sympathy. he also played the role of pete, the vindictive boat engineer, in the 1951 screen remake
1911_births 1986_deaths 20th-century_American_male_actors American_male_film_actors American_male_singers American_male_television_actors American_military_personnel_of_World_War_II American_trombonists Cancer_deaths_in_Florida Male_actors_from_Los_Angeles,_California Musicians_from_Los_Angeles,_California People_from_Alameda,_California People_from_Pensacola,_Florida United_States_Navy_personnel Western_(genre)_television_actors