TRISTRAM COFFIN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Tristram Coffin was the nephew of journalist, Tris Coffin. He was born on March, 26th, 1909 in the gold and silver mining community of Mammoth, Utah to parents Alice Coombs Coffin and James William Coffin. He grew up in Salt Lake City Utah and began acting in High School. He began his acting career traveling with stock companies. Tris earned his college degree in speech from the university of Washington and was working as a new analyst and sports cater until a Hollywood talent agent scout approached him with an offer to put him in films.
By the year 1939, Coffin was becoming one of the screens most prolific character actors. In 1940, Coffin appeared as Phillips, along with Milburn Stone and I. Stanford Jolley, in "Chasing Trouble", a comedy espionage film.
Majority of the roles he played were crooked lawyers, business executives and gang bosses in B rated pictures. In his A rated films he portrayed soft spoken doctors and professors. He played in serials like "Perils of Nyoka" (1942) and Spy Smasher (1942), but there were occasional hero roles, too, as in the feature The Corpse Vanishes (1942). His only one starring film was, "King of the Rocket Men" (1949) which was a republic movie serial in twelve chapters, notable for introducing the "Rocketman Character". This character reappeared under various names in a later serial, "Radar Men from the Moon", "Zombies of the Stratosphere" and the semi-serial "Commando Cody, Sky Marshal of the Universe".
Coffin's career was mostly on television. In 1955, he was cast on the episode "The Man Who Tore Down the Wall" of NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame. He also had a regular guest role on, the, "Superman series" starring George Reeves and he also starred as Captain Ryning of the Arizona Rangers in the weekly syndicated Western, "26 Men" ( 1957-1958). He even appeared in comedy, including the 1956-1957 CBS series, "Hey, Jeannie!", starring Jeannie Carson.
He also had a role in the very first TV episode of, "The Lone Ranger" starring Clayton Moore, as Captain Reid of the Texas Rangers. He appeared eight times as Colonel Culver in the Bill Williams syndicated television series, "The Adventures of Kit Carson". He appeared nine times as Tom Barton in the half-hour color western series, "Cisco Kid" starring Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo. In 1956, Coffin appeared in different roles in six episodes of the syndicated series, "Judge Roy Bean" starring Edgar Buchanan.
He passed away on March 26th, 1990 in Santa Monica, California from Lung cancer at the age of eighty. His ashes were scattered.
Filmography
1970 Clum's Constabulary
1970 The Duke of Tombstone
1969 Boom at the Top
1969 Collard Greens An' Fatback
1967 Visitors from Beyond the Stars
1966 Vacation in Las Vegas
1966 A Riddle a Day Keeps the Riddler Away
1966 When the Rat's Away, the Mice Will Play
1965 The Quest
1965 The Book
1966 Hugh Glass Meets the Bear
1966 The Hat That Huldah Wore
1966 Sense of Justice
1965 That Old Black Magic
1963 Mirror of a Man
1962 Money from Heaven
1961 The Joe Muharich Story
1961 Yankee Tornado
1961 The Man in the Mirror
1961 The Unremembered
1960 Kiz
1960 A Noose for Nora
1960 Family Skeleton
1960 The Fanatics
1960 The Valley Caper
1960 Calico
1960 The 10% Blues
1960 The Kamehameha Cloak
1961 The Classic Cab
1958 Trail of Darkness
1958 Panic at Bisbee
1958 Insurrection
1958 Slaughter Trail
1958 Gun Hand
1958 Cattle Embargo
1958 Badge to Kill
1958 Hoax at Globe
1958 Bounty Hunters
1958 Legacy of Death
1958 The Bells of St. Thomas
1958 Idol in the Dust
1958 Wayward Gun
1958 Shadow of Doubt
1958 The Last Rebellion
1958 Judge Not
1958 My Brother's Keeper
1959 Ranger Without a Badge
1959 The Unwanted
1959 Live and Let Die
1959 Cave-In
1959 The Tiger
1957 Jeannie the WAC
1957 Whatever Goes Up
1956 The Throwback
1956 The Fleeting Years
1956 The Martins and the Coys
1956 In Times Like These
1956 Crisis in Kansas
1956 The Refugee
1956 Halley's Comet
1956 The Judge of Pecos Valley
1956 The Horse Thief
1956 Family Ties
1956 Border Raiders
1956 The Cross Draw Kid
1956 The Wedding of Old Sam
1956 Second Chance
1956 The Conspirators
1956 Jeannie the Cook
1957 Wyatt and the Captain
1957 Dragoon Patrol
1957 And the Birds Still Sing
1957 Louise
1957 Trouble at Pinnacle Peak
1957 The Wild Bunch
1957 Border Incident
1957 Destination Nowhere
1957 I ncident at Yuma
1957 The Slater Brothers
1957 Dead Man in Tucson
1957 Man on the Run
1957 The Big Rope
1957 Valley of Fear
1957 Indian Gunslinger
1957 Emergency
1957 The Avenger
1957 Canuck
1957 Lucy Misses the Mertzes
1957 Country Club Dance
1957 The Countess and the Convicts
1957 The Commander and the Kid
1957 Trade Me Deadly
1957 Violent Land
1957 The Recruit
1955 Salted Ground
1955 Canyon of Wanted Men
1955 Desert Story
1955 P.J. and the Lady
1955 Commercially Ever After
1955 The House Always Wins
1955 Squeeze Play
1955 Make Up Your Mind
1955 Trail's End for a Cowboy
1955 The Well
1955 Patrick Henry
1955 Clark Kent, Outlaw
1955 The Man Who Tore Down the Wall
1955 The Case of the Wild Wind
1955 The Case of the Deadly Homburg
1955 The Case of the Phoney Paper
1955 Escape from Fear
1955 The Boy and the Hound Dog
1955 Outlaw's Portrait
1955 Witness
1955 New York's Finest
1954 The Long Goodbye
1954 Model for Murder
1954 Jose's Inheritance
1954 Term Paper
1954 Star of Khyber
1954 The New Neighbors
1954 The Gatling Gun
1954 Not Guilty
1954 Horseless Carriage
1954 Powder Depot
1954 Frontier of Challenge
1954 The Glass Thumb
1953 Savage Outpost
1953 Marshal of Gun Town
1953 Jack of Hearts
1953 Mysterious Decoy
1953 Hang the Jury
1953 The Indians and the Delegates
1953 The Woman Mayor
1952 Surprise
1952 The Case of the Talkative Dummy
1952 Mystery of the Broken Statues
1952 The Baron of Black Springs
1952 Mojave Desperados
1952 Quarter Horse
1952 Hideout
1952 Civilian Clothes
1951 The Old Bum
1951 Water Rights
1951 Hidden Valley
1951 The Devil's Daughters
1951 Homer Atchison
1951 Outlaw Flats
1950 Dog Story
1950 Mission Bells
1949 Enter the Lone Ranger
1949 Cannonball McKay
1939 The Scuttling of the Graf Spee
