James MacArthur

James Gordon MacArthur (December 8, 1937 – October 28, 2010) was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad in the long-running television series Hawaii Five-O, and for playing the juvenile lead in a series of Disney movies.[1]
MacArthur was selected by Walt Disney to star in The Light in the Forest (1958), playing a white man raised by Native Americans. In April 1957 MacArthur signed a three picture deal with Disney as part of his casting. On Light in the Forest he was paid $2500 a week. This went up to $3,000 a week for the second film and $3,500 for the third, although he could not be forced to work other than during his summer vacation at Harvard, where he was studying history.[7]
Disney liked his performance and cast him in Third Man on the Mountain (1959), playing a young man who climbs the Matterhorn. His mother had a cameo.[8]
Deciding to make acting his full-time career, he left Harvard in his second year to make two more Disney movies, Kidnapped (1960) alongside Peter Finch, and Swiss Family Robinson (1960) with John Mills. The latter was especially popular. He was named a possibility for Bon Voyage but ended up not appearing in the final film.[9]
MacArthur made his Broadway debut in 1960, playing opposite Jane Fonda in Invitation to a March, for which he received a Theatre World Award. Although he never returned to Broadway, he would remain active in theatre throughout his career, appearing in such productions as Under the Yum Yum Tree, The Moon Is Blue, John Loves Mary (with his then wife, Joyce Bulifant), Barefoot in the Park, and Murder at the Howard Johnson's.[10]
He also released several records in the early 1960s,[11] scoring two minor hits with "(The Story of) The In-Between Years" and "The Ten Commandments of Love", both of which peaked at number 94 in the Billboard Hot 100.
MacArthur gave a particularly chilling performance as baby-faced opium dealer Johnny Lubin in The Untouchables episode, "Death For Sale". He was in Bus Stop and Wagon Train. He returned to features as one of several young actors in The Interns (1962), Columbia's popular medical drama.
He did episodes of The Dick Powell Theatre, Sam Benedict and Arrest and Trial, then made Spencer's Mountain (1963) at Warners with Henry Fonda and Cry of Battle(1963) in the Philppines.[12]
In 1963, he was nominated for the "Top New Male Personality" category of the Golden Laurel Awards 1963. That year he starred in and produced a pilot for a TV series about a writer, Postmark: Jim Fletcher (1963), but it was not picked up.[12]
He guest starred in Burke's Law, The Eleventh Hour, and The Great Adventure. After an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour he did The Truth About Spring (1965) and John and Hayle Mills and The Bedford Incident (1965).
Though many of his movie roles were not starring roles, and some were quite brief, they were usually pivotal to the plot. His role in The Bedford Incident was that of a young ensign who became so rattled by the needling of his captain (Richard Widmark), that he accidentally fired an ASROC at a Soviet submarine, thus creating a nuclear incident when the submarine returned fire, resulting in the destruction of both vessels.
In Battle of the Bulge (1965), he again played the role of a young and inexperienced officer. However, this time, the officer found courage and a sense of responsibility.
MacArthur was in Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966) and guest starred in Branded, Combat!, Gunsmoke, Hondo, Insight, Death Valley Days, Bonanza and The Virginian. In 1966, he guest-starred as Lt. Harley Wilson in "The Outsider", episode 20 in the second season of Twelve O'Clock High. He co-starred with his mother Helen Hayes in the 1968 episode "The Pride of the Lioness" on the Tarzan television series.
MacArthur returned to Disney to make Willie and the Yank (1967) for television, released theatrically as Mosby's Marauders. He had a role in The Love-Ins (1967) for Sam Katzman.[13]
His had a brief but memorable appearance in the Clint Eastwood movie, Hang 'Em High then made The Angry Breed (1968), a low budget feature.
Category:Celebrities