Vic Morrow

Adept at strong and vulnerable character roles, Morrow studied both prelaw and drama at Florida State College before moving to New York and driving a cab to pay for further acting classes. After some stage work in the early '50s, he debuted on film in 1954 as a juvenile delinquent troublemaker in The Blackboard Jungle. Most of his subsequent films and television work was in war and western films, including the series Combat (1962–67) for which he was cast as tough but fair Sergeant Chip Saunders. He later played prominent parts in Roots (1977) and The Captains and the Kings (1976). He was tragically killed in 1982 along with two children in a helicopter accident on the set of Twilight Zone—The Movie. His daughter is the talented actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.