American character actor who appeared in 65 theatrical films and many more television series, often portraying police chiefs, judges, eccentric loners or other western characters.
McIntire is well known for having replaced Ward Bond, upon Bond’s sudden death in November 1960, as the star of NBC’s Wagon Train. He played Christopher Hale, the leader of the wagon train (and successor to Bond’s character, Seth Adams) from early 1961 to the series’ end in 1965. He also replaced Charles Bickford, upon Bickford’s death in 1967, as ranch owner Clay Grainger (brother of Bickford’s character) on NBC’s The Virginian for four seasons.
He grew up primarily in Eureka, Montana around ranchers, an experience that later inspired his performances in dozens of film and television westerns.
McIntire began acting on radio in Tarzan and the Diamond of Asher and he met his future wife Jeanette Nolan through their work on radio programmes. He was active in the theatre, before he embarked on a lengthy film and television career as a character actor. He was already 40 when he made his big-screen debut in 1947 in the movie The Hucksters.
His films included The Asphalt Jungle (1950), the 1960 Hitchcock thriller Psycho and the 1960 drama Elmer Gantry starring Burt Lancaster, but some of his more memorable roles were in westerns such as The Far Country (1955), with James Stewart, and The Tin Star (1957) with Henry Fonda.
Though he technically played a supporting part, McIntire received top billing and his greatest critical acclaim for the fact-based crime movie The Phenix City Story (1955). He played Albert Patterson, a real-life reform politician who was assassinated by the Mob.
On 26 August 1935, McIntire married actress Jeanette Nolan, and the couple had two children together, one of whom was the actor Tim McIntire (1944–1986). Their daughter Holly was also an actress, appearing in two episodes of Wagon Train.
McIntire died on 30 January 1991 at age 83 from emphysema and lung cancer in Pasadena, Los Angeles County. Aside from Nolan, he was also survived by their daughter, Holly McIntire-Wright and a grandson Luke Wright. McIntire and Nolan’s son, actor/musician Tim McIntire, predeceased his parents, having died in 1986 from heart problems.
Link to Wikipedia biography