DeForest Kelley Filmography:         Home/Main Index         Full Chronology        
1940s     1950     1951     1952     1953     1954     1955     1956     1957     1958     1959     1960     1961     1962     1963     1964     1965     1966     1970+

1954

4/25/54     You Are There: "The Surrender at Corregidor" - role?
8/2/54     Your Favorite Story: "Inside Out" - John Ainslee
12/14/54     Cavalcade of America: "A Medal for Miss Walker" - role?
1954     [Heinz] Studio 57: "Storm Signal" [unverified]
1954     Lone Wolf: "Las Vegas Story" - * Nick Kohler
1954     Lone Wolf: "Murder Story" - *** Ted Hopkins
1954     Public Defender: unknown title - ** Ralph Sanders

Role: ***Major       **Significant       *Minor
Death count: 1 of 3 viewed

Lone Wolf: Las Vegas Story

1954                     YOU ARE THERE:
“The Surrender at Corregidor (May 6, 1942)”

Role: ?
Episode: 2.34 (55)           Airdate: 4/25/54
Commercial Recording: None known

Series Notes: CBS; 30m; b/w; 1953-1957; 144 episodes [2/1/53 - 6/9/57]
Re-enactments of historical events with CBS reporters discussing events and interviewing participants as if for the nightly news. The series strove for authenticity, using primary sources and quotations were used. (Began as a radio series, 1947-1950.)
Regulars: Walter Cronkite (anchorman)

Episode Summary: ?
Sources: Gianakos; IMDB; Jensen

 

1954                     [YOUR] FAVORITE STORY: “Inside Out”

Role: John Ainslee
Episode: 2.25 (51)           Airdate: 8/2/54
Commercial Recording: None known


Series Notes: Syndicated; 30m; b/w; 1952-54; 78 episodes; anthology
Dramatizations of stories selected by guests, generally classics, both comedy and drama; adapted from the radio show Favorite Story, 1946-1949.
Host: Adolphe Menjou

Episode Summary: ?
Notes: Inman shows 1952 for this episode.
Sources: Brooks & Marsh; Inman; Gianakos

1954                     CAVALCADE OF AMERICA (aka Dupont Theatre):
“A Medal for Miss Walker”

Role: ?
Episode: 3.9          Airdate: 12/14/54
Commercial Recording: None known

Series Notes: NBC; 30m; b/w; 10/1/52-6/24/53; ABC 9/29/53-430/57
Dramatic anthology; stories of American heroes; followed radio show of same name.
 
Cast:
Maura Murphy (Dr. Mary Walker)
Frank Ferguson
DeForest Kelley
Roy Roberts
Hugh Sanders
Walter Reed

Episode Summary: Not viewed. From Classic TV Archive:
"A biographical account of the wartime medical service of Dr. Mary Walker, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for her courageous work as a civilian surgeon among Federal troops during the Civil War."

(written by William Sackheim, directed by William J. Thiele, producer: Jack Chertok)

 
Sources: Classic TV Archive (website)

 

1954                     LONE WOLF: “Las Vegas Story”

Role: * Nick Kohler (murder victim)
Episode: 1.1           Airdate: c5/14/54
Commercial Recording: Available from Scorched Earth Productions

As Nick Kohler, Lone Wolf: Las Vegas Story
Series Notes: Syndicated; 30m; b/w; 1954-55; 39 episodes; aka Streets of Danger.
Based on novels by Louis Joseph Vance; hero is a gentleman rogue turned private eye.
Regulars: Louis Hayward (Michael Lanyard)
Guest Cast:
Nancy Gates (Dena Lane)
Paul Langton (Steber)
Jack Lambert (DeCarlo)
Dona Drake (Lee)
Russ Conway (Thomas)
Jerry Paris (Paul)
Gus Schilling (Ace Held)

Episode Summary:
Lanyard comes to Las Vegas for a little R & R. Dena Lane, working as a singer in Vegas while she waits for her divorce to finalize, flirts with him at the Sands. When he goes to hear her perform, San Francisco homicide detective Steber demands to meet with him and asks him to find Nick Kohler (Kelley) -- his brother, wanted for but not guilty of murder in San Francisco -- and persuade Nick to turn himself in. Lanyard meets Nick; Nick says he knows what Lanyard is going to say, and who sent him, and he won’t listen. Lanyard tracks Nick to his apartment and roughs him up to convince him to go back to San Francisco. This seems oddly effective; Nick gives in. But while Lanyard fetches a cloth and water to clean up the damage he’s just done to Nick, someone kills Nick with a knife and drives off. Lanyard is questioned on suspicion of murder, which annoys him. He does some checking and finds that Steber is not a cop. He does some more checking and confronts Dena with the fact that Nick was divorcing her because of her affair with Steber, suggesting that they killed Nick for his fortune. He lets her go, though, and both Lanyard and the cops trail her and Steber to a rendezvous in a crowd at Boulder Dam. When she sees Lanyard, she blames the whole thing on Steber and propositions Lanyard - but he gives her to the cops anyway. Then he finds Steber and they have quite a nice little chase through the innards of the dam, ending with a knife- and fist-fight atop the dam before Steber, too, is taken into custody... and Lanyard goes back to his vacation.

Notes:
Kelley has two short scenes before his character is killed a few minutes into the show.
Kelley’s name is misspelled in the credits: “DeForrest Kelley”
Dead Again: Stabbed off-camera by his estranged wife's lover.
Sources: viewing; Classic TV Archive website; Ultimate Mystery Website

 

1954   LONE WOLF: “Murder Story”

Role: *** Ted Hopkins (psychiatric patient)
Episode: 1.17           Airdate: c5/17/54
Commercial Recording: none known

As Ted Hopkins, Lone Wolf: "Murder Story"
Series Notes: Syndicated; 30m; b/w; 1954-55; 39 episodes; aka Streets of Danger.
Based on novels by Louis Joseph Vance; hero is a gentleman rogue turned private eye.
Regulars: Louis Hayward (Michael Lanyard)
Guest Cast:
Michael Pate (Dr. Bill Roche); Freida Inescort (Mrs. Folsom); Ann Barton (Carol Palmer)

Episode Summary:
Ted Hopkins (Kelley) has landed in a psychiatric hospital after attacking his fiancée, Carol Palmer. He tells his psychiatrist, Dr. Roche, that he killed a woman, but can't or won't say any more than that. Roche calls Lanyard in to investigate, not wanting either to turn his patient over to the police or to release a dangerous man. Posing as a mystery writer, Lanyard elicits a few sinister details - that he hid in a closet, killed her "lots of ways," and that "she knew she was being killed before she died." Then he clams up, saying he doesn't like Lanyard's name - it makes him think of knives (a lanyard being a loop of rope, one use of which is to hang a knife around a sailor's neck). Lanyard visits Carol and discovers that Ted had come over upset after fighting with his mother, quarreled with Carol, and deliberately broke her finger, laughing. Next visit is to the mother, now Mrs. Folsom, who tells Lanyard that when Ted was six years old he killed a neighbor child with a pocket knife; she sent him away to school, they never spoke of it again, she let him live with her but would really rather forget his existence. Lanyard confronts Ted with his victim's name - Emily Barnhardt. Ted mutters, "I kill everybody," attacks Lanyard, and runs up to the roof to jump. Lanyard keeps him talking and gets the rest of the story, that he had quarreled with the girl; he wanted to scare her but she wouldn't scare, just laughed, and he wanted to kill her. Lanyard accuses Ted of cowardice and selfishness in wanting to die, at which Ted begins to lose consciousness. Lanyard and a couple of interns grab him off the ledge. Now with the real story, Roche brings the still-loyal Carol in to help with Ted's recovery and buys Lanyard dinner in gratitude for not having to sic the cops on his patient.

Notes:
One of Kelley's more interesting "psychotic" roles, nicely alternating between the sinister and the sympathetic to keep us guessing.
Kelley’s name is misspelled in the credits: “DeForrest Kelley”
Sources: viewing; Classic TV Archive website; Ultimate Mystery Website

1954     PUBLIC DEFENDER:
               (unknown episode title)

Role: ** Ralph Sanders
Episode: ?           Airdate: ?
Commercial Recording: None known

As Ralph Sanders, Public Defender, episode title unknown
Series Notes: CBS; 30m; b/w, 1954-1955; 69 episodes
Public Defender Bart Matthews defends accused individuals who cannot afford private counsel; stories based on case files of public defenders around the country.
Regulars: Reed Hadley (Bart Matthews)
Guest Cast:
Jeff Silver (Gary Johnson)
Bruce Cowling (Howard Stone)
Mary Newton (Landlady)
Don Harvey (Detective)
Donald Kirke (Judge)
Ann Morrison (Mrs. Johnson)
Clark Howat (Prosecutor)
Jay Douglas (Clerk)

Episode Summary:
High school student Gary Johnson checks the camera trap he set to get a picture of a raccoon, and finds the corpse of Miss June Bascomb. He runs to tell his science teacher, Ralph Sanders (Kelley), who calls the police. When Sanders reveals that not only was he engaged to the victim, he'd been driving with her in that very park the night before, he is arrested, and Matthews is appointed counsel. At the hearing, camera store owner Howard Stone testifies that when he saw the pair in the car at 10:30 they were quarreling, which Sanders denies. Sanders is held for trial and Matthews learns that June had broken up with Stone in favor of Sanders; also, that Stone's landlady heard him go out again about 11:00 on the night of the murder. Matthews visits Gary and finds that his picture of the raccoon shows a car in the background, with a perfectly legible license plate. He checks on the number and finds that the car is Stone's. Meanwhile, Stone has gone to Gary's, discovered the same thing, and offered to teach Gary to touch up the photo to get rid of the car, which "spoils the effect." He and Gary go to the camera store, where Gary notices that the number matches Stone's car, accuses Stone to his face (well, the kid's a good photographer, but maybe not too bright...) and Stone chases him through the alleys until Matthews arrives and rescues him. Stone confesses to the murder and Ralph is released (offscreen).

Notes:
Kelley gets about 3 short scenes, playing it nervous enough to be suspicious. Interesting little program.
Thanks to Russell Hall for noticing Kelley in this one!
Sources:viewing; Brooks & Marsh