FIRST STEPS


In 1964 he and his wife moved to Los Angeles, California, and starred together in several plays at Laguna Playhouse, in Laguna Beach. After watching one of those plays, someone proposed him a contract with Columbia Pictures in a program called New Talent, for 150 dollars a week and the chance to do movie roles. He signed the talent program, getting bit parts in three films.

His first appearance remains uncredited and it was in the movie Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round where he played a bellboy. The only lines he had in the only scene he appeared were "Pagging Mr. Ellis, Pagging Mr. Ellis" and "No sir, Charles Ellis, room 607". Apparently that performance was not very well received by one of the executives who told him he has no future in film business.

 


<< The studio guy called me to his office and said to me: "When Tony Curtis first walked onscreen was carrying a bag of groceries... a bag of groceries! You took one look at that and said, 'THAT'S a movie star!' "
I said, "Weren't you supposed to say, 'That's a grocery delivery boy?'" >>

It gets worse. In the next two minor roles (Luv and A Time for Killing), he was credited... but as Harrison J. Ford, to avoid confussion with other actor, who died in 1957. The effort was not enough: he got fired from Columbia.

 


Consequently, he was dropping out the "J" and and three days later signing a new contract with Universal Studios for 250 dollars a week. The result was a few minor television roles in series such as Ironside and Gunsmoke.