Paul Marco (June 10, 1927 – May 14, 2006) was an American

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

who often appeared in movies made by

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novelist. In the 1950s, Wood directed several B movie, low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult c ...

, including the "Kelton Trilogy" of '' Bride of the Monster'', '' Night of the Ghouls'' and '' Plan 9 from Outer Space'', in which he played a bumbling, fearful policeman named Kelton.

Career

Born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, Marco started taking lessons in drama, singing and dancing at an early age. After graduating from Hollywood High School, he served in the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His first known movie role was a small part in the

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

film ''Sweet and Low-Down'' with

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical tr ...

, and

The Pied Pipers The Pied Pipers are an American popular singing group originally formed in the late 1930s. They had several chart hits throughout the 1940s, both under their own name and in association with Tommy Dorsey, with Johnny Mercer and with Frank Sin ...

. In the early 1950s, The Amazing Criswell predicted on national television that Paul Marco would go far in the motion picture business. Criswell introduced Marco to Ed Wood shortly thereafter. In turn, Marco introduced Wood to Bunny Breckinridge, a flamboyantly gay

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an actor who lived with Marco for a time and co-starred in Wood's ''Plan 9 from Outer Space''. Marco depended on Wood for parts, and he more or less retired as an actor as Wood's movies shifted more and more towards

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

for the last twenty years of his life. In

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

's 1994 movie ''

'', Marco was portrayed by actor Max Casella.

Later life and death

In 1995, Marco recorded a 45, "Home on the Strange", in which he reprised his Kelton character for Dionysus Records. He revived Kelton once more in the 2005 science fiction

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

/tribute film '' The Naked Monster'', which also featured actors from '' Creature from the Black Lagoon'', '' The Thing from Another World'', ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ...

'', '' Beyond the Time Barrier'', and '' The Indestructible Man'', all reprising the roles they had played in the cited earlier films. Marco hoped for a career revival with the "Dark Corner" series of shorts. He completed the first, entitled ''Kelton's Dark Corner'' (by Vasily Shumov), and was planning to shoot several scenes for the second before his death. On May 14, 2006, Paul Marco died after a battle with hip problems and chronic illness, at the age of 78.

Filmography

References

External links

Paul Marco's official website
*
Keltonsdarkcorner.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marco, Paul 1927 births 2006 deaths American male film actors American male television actors American people of Italian descent Male actors from Los Angeles United States Navy personnel of World War II Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery 20th-century American male actors

Career

Later life and death

Filmography

Further reading

References

External links