Profile of Don Durant on Famous Like Me

Don Durant (November 20, 1932–March 15, 2005) was an American singer and actor. Born Donald Allison Durae in Long Beach, California, Dorant's father had been killed in a truck accident two months prior; his mother would go on to remarry three times before her death in 1949. Dorant himself was seriously injured a few weeks before his eleventh birthday, when his bicycle chain broke and he careened into the path of a cement truck. He was in a coma for three days, his right arm fractured, his right femur and hip so badly damaged that doctors nearly amputated the leg before his family scraped up enough money for a specialist to save it. Durant was bedridden for over a year.

In his teens, one of Durant's stepfathers owned a Nevada cattle ranch, where he learned to shoot, ride and be a cowboy before returning to California. In junior high he was a dee-jay for a local radio station. In high school he played on the football team, wearing special plates due to his previous injuries. He was then in the Navy for several years, at one point serving in both branches simultaneously due to a paperwork mixup. He ended his commitment entertaining veterans at San Francisco's Letterman Army Hospital.

Durant then began touring western states as a singer/actor, opening at many prestigious nightclubs such as The Sands and The Sahara, and garnering a small role in 1955's Battle Cry. To supplement his income he taught actors how to ride horses and shoot guns, and worked at RCA as a technician, helping build the first kinescopic recorder and stereophonic sound recorder for Warner Brothers. In 1954 he signed up with CBS, taking small roles as the singer or young lover in a variety of legendary series, from The Jack Benny Show to You Bet Your Life (he also sang the latter's popular "It's Delightful, it's Delovely, it's Desoto" jingle). In 1955 he met big band leader Anthony Ray and began filming various TV advertisements. An ad for Papermate pens featured his future wife, Trudy, but he never actually met her -- his voice was dubbed in to replace her co-star. In 1956 he starred and did his own stunts in the early Roger Corman film She-Gods of Shark Reef, which would go on to become a cult classic. While continuing to tour, he sang on Ray Anthony's ABC series and recorded an album. He began getting more and more guest-starring roles on various Western series, including the first episode of Maverick (he'd tried out for the part of Bart Maverick) as a singing bad guy (he learned to play the guitar the weekend before filming).

In 1957 he met actress/model Trudy Wroe while they were on the way to film an ad for Ford automobiles. She spent most of the trip gushing over Elvis Presley. Durant told her he'd been to a few Elvis parties, and after striking up a conversation, the two began dating. They married on February 28, 1959 and were together until his death.

In 1958 Durant shot an unsuccessful pilot which caught the attention of actor/director/producer Dick Powell. Powell hosted Zane Grey Theater and asked one of his writers, a young Aaron Spelling, to pen a series for Durant. Spelling was also creator and producer (his first job in that capacity). As this was the heyday of the television Western, CBS quickly snapped up the pilot. Durant wrote and sang the theme, with permission from Spelling. Johnny Ringo debuted in the fall of 1959 in the 8:30 Thursday timeslot. Its main competitor was then-powerhouse Real McCoys, against which Ringo achieved decent ratings.

Many famous actors guest-starred on the series, and the JOHNNY RINGO PLAYSET would go on to become the most valuable TV western toy. But the sponsor, Johnson's Wax, felt there were too many Westerns (thirty at the time) on TV and wanted to replace one of their own with a sitcom. Powell was out of the country at the time and Spelling had moved on to another project. With no strong advocates for survival, Johnny Ringo was cancelled after one thirty-eight episode season.

Durant continued to make personal appearances (which paid more than his TV salary ever had), guest-starred in series such as the Twilight Zone and was nearly chosen to star opposite Lucille Ball in her Broadway debut, Wildcat!, which quickly flopped. He signed a contract with another studio but aside from a guest role on Laramie in 1963, little materalized. Durant bought out his contract in 1964 and since big band had faded out in the fervor for pop music, he subsequently retired from show business altogether, spending much of his time with his family and in his realty and investment holdings. Durant held no bitterness over the end of his fame, and in later years communicated extensively with Johnny Ringo fans.

In 1992 he contracted chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and more recently lymphoma. In early 2005 he suffered from a lung infection, but was not hospitalized. But on March 15, 2005 he died at home in Monarch Beach, California, with wife Trudy by his side. Durant was survived by his wife, his son Jeff, and his daughter Heidi.

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