Happy Birthday, Dear Vic

Today would have been actor Vic Morrow's 92nd birthday.  You very likely know by now that he is an actor very dear to my heart.  He's been one of my favorite actors for decades now.

I've reviewed several of Vic's movies over the years, as well as gushed about his character Sergeant Saunders (my favorite fictional character of all time) on the show Combat! (1962-67) over and over.  Today, I'd like to round up the best of those posts and reviews and share them here with you, to celebrate his birthday and pay tribute to an actor I will forever hold dear.

Combat! focuses on a squad of American soldiers battling their way through Normandy after the D-DAY invasion, during World War Two.  It has been my favorite show since I was 14 years old, and I wrote a whole post about why I love it so much.

Although I love all the characters on Combat!, it's Vic Morrow's Sergeant Saunders who holds the highest spot in my heart.  A couple of years ago, I mused in this post about why he is so dear to me.

I once reviewed my absolute favorite episode of Combat!, "The Walking Wounded," which also happens to be the first full episode I ever watched.

I've also reviewed my other favorite C! episode, "The Long Way Home, Parts 1 and 2."  If you've never watched the show, but are curious about it, that's a great one to start with because it really lets every regular character shine, and helps you get to know all of them nicely.  You can watch it on YouTube -- part one is here, and part two is here.  If you're a fan of meaty dramas with amazing character development, solid acting, and plenty of WWII action, definitely give it a whirl.

I shared a list of my ten favorite Combat! episodes a few years ago.

But I don't only love to watch Vic Morrow in Combat! -- I really like a lot of his movies too, and I've reviewed several of them.

Blackboard Jungle (1955) was Vic's first screen role, though he had been acting on stage for quite a while by then.  He turns in a searing performance as a hoodlum bent on destruction.  Plus, he gets to square off against Glenn Ford, who is another favorite of mine.

Until Combat! came along, Vic mostly played bad guys, and his turn in the Barbara Stanwyck Show episode "The Key to the Killer" (1960) is no exception.  But he makes his character not merely vicious and explosive, but gives him a kind of needy, yearning desperation to be better than he is.  I always dig getting to see favorite actors opposite each other, and I love that Vic Morrow and Barbara Stanwyck got a chance to share the screen.

In Posse from Hell (1961), Vic plays yet another bad guy, this time a wild west outlaw facing off against Audie Murphy.  This is only a year before he would begin playing Sgt. Saunders, but it's only a small part, and you can see why he would be hungry for a starring role on the small screen.

The last post I'll share in this little birthday roundup is this fun one I did for a blogathon a few years ago, where I imagined up the perfect cast for a 1950s version of The Avengers. I set it in the year 1956 just so I could cast Vic as a key character.

Vic Morrow was an actor who could take a flat, one-note character and elevate it into someone you can't take your eyes off.  He could turn mean characters tender, and charming characters vicious.  And when he occasionally got to sink his teeth into a really deep, fully rounded character like Saunders, he was breathtaking.

Happy birthday, dear Vic.  Always.