Myron McCormick

Myron McCormick

Heavy-set character actor Myron McCormick attended Princeton University, where he was active in college theatricals. Together with fellow Princetonite Joshua Logan, McCormick was one of the founders of the University Players, a Cape Cod summer stock group that boasted such developing talents as James Stewart, Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan. He made his screen bow in Winterset (1936), then played a rare romantic lead in the 1939 Harold Clurman-produced "agit prop" social drama One Third of a Nation. In 1949, McCormick created the character of wheeler-dealer Luther Billis in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical South Pacific. Though the role of Billis went to Ray Walston in the 1958 film version, McCormick was permitted to re-create his Broadway characterization of a neurotic, peace-loving air-force sergeant in the cinemazation of No Time for Sergeants (1958). Though a lifelong professional, Myron McCormick never completely conquered his early bouts with stage fright; an actor who worked with McCormick in his last years remembered how the veteran player would sit backstage trembling like a leaf before making his entrance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide