Will Hutchins


Will Hutchins is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster, in the Western television series Sugarfoot, which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961 for sixty-nine episodes.

Biography

Early life

Hutchins was born in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles. As a child, he visited the location filming of Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and made his first appearance as an extra in a crowd.
He attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he majored in Greek drama. He also studied at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he enrolled in cinema classes.
During the Korean War, he served for two years in the United States Army as a cryptographer in Paris, serving with SHAPE.
Hutchins began acting and got a role on Matinee Theatre.

Warner Bros

Hutchins was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros., who changed his name from Marshall Lowell Hutchason to Will Hutchins. The young actor's easygoing manner was compared to Will Rogers, the Oklahoma humorist.
His contract led him to guest appearances in Warner Bros. Television programs, such as Conflict, in which he appeared in three hour-long episodes, including his screen debut as Ed Masters in "The Magic Brew" on October 16, 1956.
Hutchins was also cast as a guest star on Cheyenne, Bronco, Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip.
He had small roles in the Warners movies Bombers B-52, Lafayette Escadrille, and No Time for Sergeants where he screen tested for the lead of Will Stockdale with James Garner playing the psychiatrist.

''Sugarfoot''

Hutchins leapt to national fame in the lead of Sugarfoot.
During the series' run he guest-starred on other Warner Bros shows such as The Roaring 20's, Bronco, and Surfside 6.
Warners tried him in the lead of a feature, Young and Eager aka Claudelle Inglish with Diane McBain.
He tried another pilot for a series, Howie, that was not picked up and war in the Warners war film with Jeff Chandler, Merrill's Marauders, a picture filmed in the Philippine Islands and Chandler's last acting role.
After this Hutchins left Warners.

Post Warners

Hutchins guest-starred on Gunsmoke and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
While appearing in a play in Chicago in late 1963, he was flown to Los Angeles to shoot a television pilot for MGM, Bert I. Gordon's Take Me to Your Leader, in which Hutchins played a Martian salesman who came to Earth. Though the pilot was not picked up, it led MGM to sign him for Spinout, in which he co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards alongside Elvis Presley.
Also in 1963, he appeared on an episode of Gunsmoke. In S8/Ep24, "Blind Man's Bluff", his character was Billy Poe.
In 1965, Hutchins co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates in Monte Hellman's The Shooting.
In 1966, he made a guest appearance on the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason as murderer Don Hobart in "The Case of the Scarlet Scandal".

Other TV series

In 1966–1967, he co-starred with Sandy Baron in Hey, Landlord, set in a New York City apartment building. The program followed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, but it failed to attract a sustaining audience against CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show and ABC's The F.B.I. with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., his former Warner Brothers colleague.
Hutchins was reunited with Presley in Clambake.
In 1968–1969, Hutchins starred as Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip Blondie.

1970s

He travelled to South Africa to appear in Shangani Patrol playing Frederick Russell Burnham.
Back in the United States, Hutchins guest-starred on Love, American Style, Emergency!, Chase, Movin' On, The Streets of San Francisco, and The Quest. He was in The Horror at 37,000 Feet, Slumber Party '57, and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington.
He also began appearing in circuses as Patches the Clown.

Later career

Hutchins had roles in Roar, Gunfighter and The Romantics.

Personal life

Hutchins was married to Chris Burnett, sister of Carol Burnett, with whom he had a daughter.

Major appearances