Ed Hinton (actor)


Edgar Latimer Hinton Jr. was an American actor known particularly for guest-starring roles on television westerns. He was the father of actor Darby Hinton, who was only fourteen months old, when Ed Hinton perished in an airplane crash on Santa Catalina Island off the California coast.

Early life and career

Hinton was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, the son of Edgar Latimer Hinton II, Sr.. His father owned the Seashore Hotel and Steel Pier, whose pier was one of the earliest for entertaining over the ocean in Wrightsville Beach, N.C. and all of the town's laundry businesses back then, as well as being a community actor in Wilmington himself. In 1948, Ed Hinton was cast as Kurt Shand in the film Harpoon. This would seem to have been his first acting role, however the Internet Movie Data Base does indicate that he appeared in an uncredited role as a Dartmouth College student in the 1938 film entitled Spring Madness, starring Sterling Holloway. IMDB contends that Hinton was born on March 26, 1919, which would be age-consistent for Spring Madness. TV Guide omits Spring Madness from Hinton's list of screen credits and instead begins ten years later with Harpoon.
Hinton had uncredited roles in the films Samson and Delilah and in two 1951 productions,
The Red Badge of Courage and I Was a Communist for the FBI, as agent Jim Broderick. The latter film inspired the syndicated television series, I Led Three Lives, in which Hinton appeared, apparently in only one episode, "Relatives", as Special Agent Henderson. Richard Carlson starred as informant Herbert Philbrick.
In 1954, Hinton appeared in some of his first television roles with an appearance on the CBS series Captain Midnight, starring Richard Webb, later of the syndicated series, Border Patrol.

Western roles

Hinton and his wife, Marilynn Hinton had three children, Daryn Hinton, Darcy Hinton Cook, and Darby Hinton, who co-starred from 1964-1970 on NBC's western series, Daniel Boone, with Fess Parker in the title role. Mrs. Hinton never remarried after Ed's death.