Larry Haines: The Versatile Voice of Radio's Golden Age and Television's Glory Days
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Larry Haines was an American actor famous for his roles on radio and on television. He was born August 3, 1918, in Mount Vernon, New York just a hop, skip, and a jump from New York City where he would begin his career in radio.
He began his radio career in 1935 in Gangbusters. This long-running show was a crime anthology that highlighted a different criminal case each week. At the end of the broadcast, a bulletin was announced for a real criminal wanted by the FBI.
Over the years he starred in many old time radio shows such as Suspense, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Crime Club, The Chase, Cloak and Dagger, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and X Minus One. In 1945 and 1946 he played the part of Steven Drew in a transcribed sydicated crime drama series called Manhunt. Each episode was a fifteen-minute complete story of which eight have survived to this day.
Throughout 1953 and 1954 he played the part of Private Eye Mike Hammer in That Hammer Guy a story based on the novels by Mickey Spillane. We have one episode of this though I beleive ther may be 12 extant. If you have any and would like to share them please email me ned@rusc.com.
Like many actors of his day, he made the transition to television easily. His most popular role was that of Stuart "Stu" Bergman on the popular soap opera Search for Tomorrow. For this role, he also won two Daytime Emmy awards in 1976 and 1981.
He was also an accomplished stage actor. In 1966 he won the Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor in a Drama for the show Generation. A few years later, in 1969, he earned the Tony for Best Supporting Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in Promises, Promises.
Later he returned to radio in CBS Radio Mystery Theater where he appeared in 82 episodes from 1974-1982. While his career spanned radio, stage productions, and television, he’s still best known for his role in the soap opera world. Soap opera fans tend to be the most loyal in the world. In fact, his biggest fan was former first lady Pat Nixon who loved his work on Search for Tomorrow.
Haines also had many guest roles on television shows throughout his career. He could be seen in small parts on The Odd Couple and Kojak. He also appeared in the soap operas Loving and Another World.
While he had a solid career on the stage and television, Larry Haines never left his radio roots. He was a major voice actor during the Golden Age of radio and went back to this craft in the 1970s and 1980s.
Larry Haines died on July 17th, 2008 in his 90th year.
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