Phillip Terry

Phillip Terry (born Frederick Henry Kormann, March 7, 1909 – February 23, 1993) was an American actor.

Phillip Terry
Born	Frederick Henry Kormann March 7, 1909 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	February 23, 1993 (aged 83) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Years active	1937–1974
Spouse(s)	Joan Crawford ​ ​ (m. 1942; div. 1946)​ Helen Murphy ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1954)​ Rosalind Lee ​ (m. 1973)​

Early years

Terry was born in San Francisco, California, the only child of German Americans, Frederick Andrew Kormann (1883–1948) and Ida Ruth Voll (1883–1954). His father was a chemical engineer in the oil fields who moved often. To ensure he receive a stable education, his parents sent him to live with relatives in New Jersey and attend school while they travelled.

He attended grade school in Glendale, California. (A 1945 newspaper item reported that Terry "had elementary education in various schools in the oil country around Texas and Oklahoma."[1]) He attended Iona High School in New York and Sacred Heart College in San Francisco.[1]

During the holidays, he would return to his parents in such places as Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Burkburnett, Texas. When he completed high school, he rejoined them for good. He worked for a time in the oil fields as a roustabout, then a tool pusher and rig builder. When he was seventeen, they moved back to San Francisco.

He attended Stanford University, ("where he interested himself in theatricals and resolved to become an actor")[1] and where he played football. He then became interested in theatre. After a brief stay in New York, he went to London, in 1933, where he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

After studying at the Royal Academy, he toured British provinces for four years performing in stock theater. He went to Hollywood, California and took a job with CBS Radio, where he performed in a number of plays on the air, specializing in Shakespearean roles.[1] In 1937, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scout heard him in one of these broadcasts and arranged an interview. Terry made a screen test and was awarded a contract with the studio. Among his motion picture appearances, he had a bit part in the movie Mannequin starring Joan Crawford.

Two years later he signed with Paramount, where he starred in The Parson of Panamint, The Monster and the Girl. He then did supporting roles in Wake Island and Bataan, the work on the latter occurring when he was on "loan-out" to MGM. During World War II Terry was classified "4F" unfit for military service due to defective vision.[2]

When he left Paramount, he signed with RKO and was in Music in Manhattan, George White's Scandals, Pan-Americana, Born to Kill and the lead in Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947).

Phillip Terry appeared in more than eighty movies over the span of his career. Many of the early roles were small and often uncredited. But in the 1940s, he received bigger and more numerous roles in some quality movies, such as The Lost Weekend (1945) starring Ray Milland, and To Each His Own (1946) starring Olivia de Havilland, who won one of her Oscars for her role in the film.

Investing

When his career began to slide in the late 1940s he turned his attention to real estate. He was a good salesman and investor, and eventually became very wealthy.

Marriages

He was married on July 21, 1942, at the Hidden Valley Ranch in Ventura County, California, to film star Joan Crawford.[3] They were divorced in 1946. Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace, David Wallechinsky, and Sylvia Wallace wrote in their book, The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People:

Despite her status as a single parent, in 1939 she [Crawford] began adoption proceedings for a baby girl, whom she named Joan Crawford, Jr. Months later Joan changed the child's name to Christina. ... During [her marriage to Phillip Terry] she adopted a second child — a boy — and named him Phillip Terry, Jr. Following her 1946 divorce from Terry, she renamed the boy Christopher Crawford.[4]

Terry later married Rosalind Lee, who was not an actress; they remained married until his death.

Later years

Terry never completely abandoned acting. During the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, he took on occasional movie roles. Some of his better B movies from this period include The Leech Woman (1960), with Grant Williams, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966), with Mamie Van Doren.

Sometimes he would accept television roles and was in episodes of The Name of the Game and Police Woman. He also made five guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murder victim Robert Doniger in the 1960 episode, "The Case of the Gallant Grafter", and he played murderer Lawrence Kent in the 1961 episode, "The Case of the Resolute Reformer".

In 1973, he retired and moved to Santa Barbara, California. He suffered the first of a series of strokes in 1978. Because of the strokes, he lost his mobility and communication and was an invalid for several years before his death at the age of 83. Terry died at his home in Santa Barbara. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	The Last Gangster	Reporter	Uncredited
1937	Navy Blue and Gold	Kelly
1937	You're Only Young Once	Pilot	Uncredited
1937	Mannequin	Man Outside Stage Door	Uncredited
1937	Rosalie	West Point Cadet	Uncredited
1938	Love Is a Headache	Club 44 Radio Man	Uncredited
1938	Of Human Hearts	Army Intern	Uncredited
1938	Test Pilot	Photographer	Uncredited
1938	Hold That Kiss	Ted Evans
1938	Yellow Jack	Ferguson
1938	Three Comrades	Young Soldier	Uncredited
1938	Marie Antoinette	Man in Gaming House	Uncredited
1938	Boys Town	Newspaper Reporter	Uncredited
1938	Too Hot to Handle	San Francisco Airport Official	Uncredited
1938	Vacation from Love	Band Leader	Uncredited
1938	Young Dr. Kildare	Dr. Vickery	Uncredited
1938	The Great Waltz	Student	Uncredited
1938	Spring Madness	Dartmouth College Student	Uncredited
1938	Four Girls in White	Dr. Sidney
1939	Honolulu	Nightclub Bandleader	Uncredited
1939	Calling Dr. Kildare	Bates
1939	Tell No Tales	Man on Stage	Uncredited
1939	It's a Wonderful World	Chauffeur	Uncredited
1939	On Borrowed Time	Bill Lowry
1939	Miracles for Sale	Magic Show Master of Ceremonies	Uncredited
1939	Fast and Furious	Master of Ceremonies	Uncredited
1939	Balalaika	Lt. Smirnoff
1940	Those Were the Days!	Ransom
1940	Junior G-Men	Jim Bradford	Serial
1940	Fugitive from a Prison Camp	Bill Harding
1940	North West Mounted Police	Constable Judson	Uncredited
1940	Dancing on a Dime	Brent Martin
1941	The Monster and the Girl	Scot Webster
1941	I Wanted Wings	Radio Operator	Uncredited
1941	The Parson of Panamint	Reverend Philip Pharo
1941	Public Enemies	Bill Raymond
1942	Torpedo Boat	Tommy Whelan
1942	Are Husbands Necessary?	Cory Cortwright
1942	Sweater Girl	Prof. Martin Lawrence
1942	Wake Island	Pvt. 'Cookie' Warren	Uncredited
1943	Bataan	Matthew Hardy
1944	Ladies Courageous	Tommy Harper
1944	Music in Manhattan	Johnny Pearson
1944	Double Exposure	Ben Scribner
1945	Pan-Americana	Dan Jordan
1945	The Lost Weekend	Wick Birnam
1945	George White's Scandals	Tom McGrath
1946	To Each His Own	Alex Piersen
1946	The Dark Horse	George Kelly
1947	Beat the Band	Damon Dillingham
1947	Born to Kill	Fred
1947	Seven Keys to Baldpate	Kenneth Magee
1952	Deadline – U.S.A.	Lewis Schaefer	Uncredited
1958	Man from God's Country	Sheriff
1958	Money, Women and Guns	Damian Bard
1960	The Leech Woman	Dr. Paul Talbot
1961	The Explosive Generation	Mr. Carlyle
1966	The Navy vs. the Night Monsters	Base Doctor
1972	Class of '74	Dave

References

1. Lunn, Robert (December 2, 1945). "Movie Makers". The Eugene Guard. Oregon, Eugene. p. 24.
2. Considine, Shaun Bette And Joan: The Divine Feud Hachette UK, 29 January 2015
3. Chandler, Charlotte (2012). Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford: A Personal Biography. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781471105869. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
4. Wallace, Irving; Wallace, Amy; Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Sylvia (2008). The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People. Feral House. p. 61. ISBN 9781932595291. Retrieved 29 October 2016.

External links

• Phillip Terry at IMDb
• Phillip Terry at the Internet Broadway Database
• Phillip Terry at Find a Grave