Acting
Community Rating
6.3
TMDB estimate
Born
November 24, 1913
Died
July 8, 1990 (age 76)
Howard Green Duff (November 24, 1913 – July 8, 1990) was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio. Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team. His first film role was as an inmate in Brute Force. His other movies include The Naked City (1948), All My Sons (1948), Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949), Panic in the City (1968), In Search of America (1971), A Wedding (1978) and No Way Out (1987). He appeared in a number of films with his first wife, actress/director Ida Lupino. One of Duff's later performances was as Dustin Hoffman's attorney in the Academy Award-winning Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). On radio, Duff played Dashiell Hammett's private eye Sam Spade from 1946–1950, starring in The Adventures of Sam Spade on three different networks - ABC, CBS and NBC. In 1951 Steve Dunne took over the role of Sam Spade. Duff also appeared in an episode of Climax! entitled Escape From Fear in 1955. On television, Duff appeared with his then wife Ida Lupino in the CBS comedy Mr. Adams and Eve from January 1957 through September 1958, in which they played husband and wife film stars named Howard Adams and Eve Drake. He played the young Samuel Langhorne Clemens, in his early life in the West as a satirical and crusading journalist, in the TV series Bonanza ("Enter Mark Twain," season 1, episode 5, 1959). In 1960 he played the male main character in The Twilight Zone episode "A World of Difference" as Arthur Curtis/Jerry Raigan. From October 1960 through April 1961, Duff played Willie Dante, owner of the San Francisco nightclub, Dante's Inferno, in the NBC adventure/drama series Dante. In 1964, Duff guest starred as Harold Baker on the episode "Prodigy" of NBC's medical drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour, starring Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy. In 1990, he guest starred on an episode of The Golden Girls (episode: The Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding Present). From September 1966 through January 1969, Duff portrayed Detective Sergeant Sam Stone in the ABC police drama Felony Squad with costar Dennis Cole. In the 1980s, he appeared on dramas such as NBC's Flamingo Road and Knots Landing, and Dallas, both on CBS.

Los Angeles Plays Itself
as Dave Pomeroy in Panic in the City (archive footage)
2004

The World of Hammer
as Self (archive footage)
1994

Too Much Sun
as O.M.
1991

Settle the Score
as Cy Whately
1989

War and Remembrance
1988

No Way Out
as Senator William 'Billy' Duvall
1987

Roses Are for the Rich
as Denton
1987

Roses Are for the Rich
as Denton
1987

Monster in the Closet
as Father Martin Finnegan
1986

Love on the Run
as Lionel Rockland
1985

The Golden Girls
as Mangiacavallo
1985

Murder, She Wrote
as Ralph Earl / Stephen Earl
1984

Scarecrow and Mrs. King
1983

This Girl for Hire
as Wolfe Macready
1983

The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch
as Col. Samuel Isaacs
1982

St. Elsewhere
as Herbie
1982

Hotel
as Adam Korsak
1982

Lily for President?
as General
1982

East of Eden
as Jules Edwards
1981

Flamingo Road
as Titus Semple
1981