LOS ANGELES -- Leo Gordon, 78, a tough-guy actor famous for playing the villain in scores of Westerns and television shows over nearly 50 years, died Dec. 26 at his Los Angeles home. The cause of death was not reported.
He played a killer in the 1954 film "Riot in Cell Block 11," which was filmed in California's Folsom Prison. But Mr. Gordon was best known for wearing the black hat in Westerns, from "Hondo" in 1953 to 1994's "Maverick." During the 1950s and 1960s, he seemed to make an appearance on virtually every Western TV show, from "Bonanza" to "Rin Tin Tin."
"Thank God for typecasting," he said in 1997 as he received the Golden Boot award for his Western screen work.
Mr. Gordon also was a screenwriter. He had more than a dozen films to his credit, including 1966's "Tobruk" and Roger Corman's 1959 B movie "Attack of the Giant Leeches." He also wrote "The Cry Baby Killer," which was Jack Nicholson's movie debut.
For TV, he wrote about 50 scripts for shows such as "Bonanza" and "Cheyenne," including 21 episodes of "Adam-12."
He was a real-life bad guy before he got into acting.
Mr. Gordon was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was raised by a single father who struggled to make ends meet. Mr. Gordon never left New York until serving in the Army in World War II.
He later drifted to Southern California and turned to robbery. After four years in San Quentin prison, he returned to New York and was working a construction job when he decided to use his military benefits to take acting classes.
He met his future wife, Lynn Cartwright, when she was studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and they were married in 1950.
Mr. Gordon went on to stage work, and a Hollywood agent who saw the Los Angeles production of "Darkness at Noon" launched his career by offering him a role in the 1953 Western "City of Bad Men."
Leo Gordon acted in about 70 movies and dozens of TV shows.
