Biography

Hutchins was born in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. 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, 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, France serving with SHAPE.

Acting career

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 easy going manner reminded one of 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, and Maverick, as well as his own Sugarfoot series. He was released from his contract with Warners in 1961 after co-starring with Jeff Chandler in Merrill's Marauders, a picture filmed in the Philippine Islands and Chandler's last acting role.

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 ("Dick Tracy" backwards) alongside Elvis Presley with whom he later appeared in Clambake.

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."

In 1966-1967, he costarred with Sandy Baron in an NBC sitcom 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. Following that he appeared as Patches the Clown in Ashton's Circus in Australia.

Hutchins, using his original name of Marshall Hutchason, currently lives in Long Island, New York, with his second wife, Barbara, and contributes articles to the online website Western Clippings, created and managed by Boyd Magers.

Major appearances:

• 1965, The Shooting (film). Monte Hellman's low-budget Western with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates.
• 1966, Spinout (film). Hutchins co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards with Elvis Presley.
• 1967, Clambake (film). Hutchins co-stars with Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, and Bill Bixby.
• 1968-1969, starred as Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip Blondie.
• 1970, Shangani Patrol (film). Co-starred as the American scout Frederick Burnham in a film based on the actual events of the Shangani Patrol, shot on location in Rhodesia.
• 1976, The Quest a short-lived NBC western starring Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson
• 1998, Gunfighter (film). A modern Western directed by Christopher Coppola. Also stars: Robert Carradine, Clu Gulager, and Martin Sheen.

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Filmography

• Lafayette Escadrille (1958)
• No Time for Sergeants (1958)
• Merrill's Marauders (1962)
• The Shooting (1966)
• Spinout (1966)
• Clambake (1967)
• Shangani Patrol (1970)
• The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)
• Magnum Force (1973)
• The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977)
• Maverick (1994) (scenes cut)
• The Romantics (2010)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]