Charles Robert Starrett

 Charles Robert Starrett (March 28, 1903 – March 22, 1986)

Starrett was an American actor best known for his starring role in the Durango Kid western series. He played the romantic lead in his first movie, Fast and Loose (1930), which also featured Miriam Hopkins, and Carole Lombard, in support of top billed star, Frank Morgan . He starred in the Canadian production The Viking (1931), filmed on location in Newfoundland, which had begun as a Paramount Pictures project. After that he was very active for the next two years but his roles were unremarkable. He was featured in Our Betters (1933), Murder on the Campus (1933). and in his most charming role co-star Irene Hervey. Offscreen, he helped organize the Screen Actors Guild. After playing assorted rancher, ranger, and sheriff roles, Starrett was cast as "The Durango Kid" in 1940. The character was revived five years later in The Return of the Durango Kid. A follow-up film was made, and then a series. One favorite device became a signature: the masked Durango Kid suddenly materializing like Superman, always catching the villains by surprise. The Durango Kid rejuvenated Charles Starrett's career, winning him a new generation of loyal fans and a new five-year contract. The series was also a useful training ground for novice actresses and fashion models, who would be signed to six-month contracts and cast as cowgirls in Starrett westerns. Starrett was featured in a comic book adaptation, Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid, from 1949 to 1955, published by Magazine Enterprises.

Charles Starrett retired at age 48, when his last Columbia contract lapsed. Although his agent, Sam Jaffe, tried to interest movie and TV producers in hiring Starrett, the actor no longer needed or wanted a show-business career; he was independently wealthy from wise investments and his family fortune. In retirement he traveled widely with his wife, favoring tropical islands.. He was married from 1927 until his death and had two children. Starrett died of cancer in Borrego Springs, California, in 1986, six days short of his 83rd birthday. His body was cremated and the remains were scattered.