Lyle Bettger
Born in Philadelphia in 1915 and passing away 88 years later, Lyle Bettger is barely recalled in today's Hollywood, but to film noir and western fans he's never been forgotten.
His father played infield for the St. Louis Cardinals, while Bettger became one of the villains of American cinema.
Watch him stand up against Barbara Stanwyck in his first film No Man of Her Own (1950), an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's I Married A Dead Man. He'll go up against William Holden in Union Station as the killer "Joe Beacom".
And, what stops me in my tracks each time I've seen these films, is how much Lyle Bettger, with my eyes open or closed, sounds like the writer Charles Bukowski.
The same soft voice with tumbling sharp blades.
