Skip Homeier

George Vincent Homeier (October 5, 1930 – June 25, 2017), known professionally as Skip Homeier, was an American actor who started his career at the age of eleven and became a child star.

Career

Child actor

Homeier was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 5, 1930. He began to act for radio shows at the age of six as Skippy Homeier. At the age of 11, he worked on the radio show ''Portia Faces Life'' as well as making "dramatic commercial announcements" on ''The O'Neills'' and '' Against the Storm''. In 1942, he joined the casts of ''Wheatena Playhouse'' and ''We, the Abbotts''. From 1943 until 1944, he played the role of Emil in the Broadway play and film '' Tomorrow, the World!''. Cast as a child indoctrinated into Nazism who is brought to the United States from Germany following the death of his parents, Homeier was praised for his performance. He played the troubled youngster in the film adaptation of '' Tomorrow, the World!'' (1944) and received good reviews playing opposite Fredric March and Betty Field as his American uncle and aunt.

Adult roles

Homeier changed his first name from Skippy to Skip when he turned eighteen. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles.

Although Homeier worked frequently throughout his childhood and adolescence, playing wayward youths with no chance of redemption, he did not become a major star; but he did make a transition from child actor to adult, especially in a range of roles as delinquent youths, common in Hollywood films of the 1950s. Some of these films were Film noir works.

He also developed a talent for playing strong character roles in war films, such as '' Halls of Montezuma'' (1950), Sam Fuller's ''Fixed Bayonets!'' (1951) and '' Beachhead'' (1954).

In 1954, he guest-starred in an episode of the NBC legal drama ''Justice'', based on cases of the Legal Aid Society of New York. He was cast later in an episode of Steve McQueen's '' Wanted Dead or Alive'', a CBS Western series. Homeier played a man sought for a crime of which he is innocent, but who has no faith in the legal system's ability to provide justice. Fleeing from McQueen's bounty hunter character Josh Randall, Homeier's character's foot slips and he accidentally falls to his death from a cliff.

He appeared in a 1955 episode of ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', with co-star Joanne Woodward entitled "Momentum". Homeier appeared as Kading in an episode of the NBC western ''Jefferson Drum'' ("The Post", 1958), starring Jeff Richards. In 1959, he appeared as a drover named Lucky in Rawhide, ''Incident of the Blue Fire.'' In 1960, Skip appeared on an episode of ''The Rifleman'': The Spoiler as Brud Evans. Then, from 1960 to 1961, he starred in the title role in ''Dan Raven'', a short-lived NBC crime drama set on Sunset Strip of West Hollywood, California, with a number of celebrities playing themselves in guest roles. The series only lasted for thirteen episodes. In the summer of 1961, he appeared in an episode of ''The Asphalt Jungle'', and later that same year, he performed as a replacement drover and temporary "ramrod" in an episode of '' Rawhide'' ("Incident of the Long Shakedown").
Homeier was also cast as “Wichita Kid “ in a Rawhide episode airing November 23, 1965 entitled Brush War at Buford.

Homeier also made two guest appearances on ''Perry Mason'', both times as the defendant. In 1961, he played Dr. Edley in "The Case of the Pathetic Patient", and in 1965, he played the police sergeant Dave Wolfe in "The Case of the Silent Six". In 1964, he guest-starred in ''The Addams Family'' episode "Halloween with the Addams Family" with Don Rickles. Also in 1964, he portrayed Dr. Roy Clinton in '' The Outer Limits'' episode " Expanding Human" (1963). In a very busy year, he also appeared in the ''Combat!'' episode "The Impostor" (1964, S3 E10). He also appeared in the ''Combat!'' episode "Night Patrol" (1963, S1 E22) as Lt. Billy Joe Cranston.

Homeier was cast as Doc Holliday in the 1964 episode, "The Quiet and the Fury" on ''Death Valley Days''. In a 1965 ''Death Valley Days'' episode, "Fighting Sky Pilot", hosted by Ronald Reagan, Homeier played a pastor, Ben Darniell, in Carson City, Nevada. In the storyline, the minister Darniell attempts to rescue a saloon girl, Claire Vernon (Carol Brewster), from her oppressive employer.

Homeier was cast in the feature film '' The Ghost and Mr. Chicken'' (1966) with Don Knotts; and he continued to be frequently cast on television as a guest star, often as a villain, including in all four of Irwin Allen's science-fiction series in the mid-to-late 1960s. He guest-starred as well on ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' in two episodes: as the Nazi-like character Melakon in " Patterns of Force" (1968), as Dr. Rota Sevrin in "The Way to Eden" (1969), and in '' Longstreet'' (1971). In 1969 he was a guest star on the TV show '' Mannix'', in the third season episode called "A Sleep in the Deep". One of his last roles was a one-liner in the television film '' The Wild Wild West Revisited'' (1979) as a senior Secret Service official. He retired from acting aged 50.

Death

Homeier died on June 25, 2017 at the age of 86 from spinal myelopathy at his home in Indian Wells, California. He is survived by his wife, Della, and his sons Peter and Michael from his first marriage (1951–1962) to Nancy Van Noorden Field.

Selected filmography

*'' Tomorrow, the World!'' (1944) - Emil Bruckner
*''Boys' Ranch'' (1946) - Skippy
*'' Arthur Takes Over'' (1948) - Arthur Bixby
*''Mickey'' (1948) - Hank Evans
*'' The Big Cat'' (1949) - Jim Hawks - Gil's Son
*''The Gunfighter'' (1950) - Hunt Bromley
*'' Halls of Montezuma'' (1951) - Pretty Boy
*'' Sealed Cargo'' (1951) - Steve
*''Fixed Bayonets!'' (1951) - Whitey
*'' Sailor Beware'' (1952) - Mac
*'' Has Anybody Seen My Gal?'' (1952) - Carl Pennock
*'' The Last Posse'' (1953) - Art Romer
*'' Beachhead'' (1954) - Reynolds
*''The Lone Gun'' (1954) - Cass Downing
*''Dawn at Socorro'' (1954) - Buddy Ferris
*'' Black Widow'' (1954) - John Amberly
*''Cry Vengeance'' (1954) - Roxey Davis
*'' Ten Wanted Men'' (1955) - Howie Stewart
*''The Road to Denver'' (1955) - Sam Mayhew
*'' At Gunpoint'' (1955) - Bob Dennis
*'' Stranger at My Door'' (1956) - Clay Anderson
*''Dakota Incident'' (1956) - Frank Banner
*''Thunder Over Arizona'' (1956) - Tim Mallory
*''The Burning Hills'' (1956) - Jack Sutton
*'' Between Heaven and Hell'' (1956) - Pvt. Swanson - Co. G
*'' The Human Barrier (1957) - Capt. Gene Lipton
*''No Road Back'' (1957) - John Railton
*''The Tall T'' (1957) - Billy Jack
*'' Day of the Badman'' (1958) - Howard Hayes
*''Plunderers of Painted Flats'' (1959) - Joe Martin
*''Comanche Station'' (1960) - Frank
*''The Rifleman'' (1960, TV Series) - Brud Evans
*''Stark Fear'' (1962) - Gerald Winslow
*'' The Virginian'' (1963) - Detective Bohannon (1965) The Brazos Kid
*''Showdown'' (1963) - Caslon
*''Combat!'' (1963 episode - "Night Patrol") - Billy Joe
*''Bullet for a Badman'' (1964) - Pink
*''Combat!'' (1964 episode - "The Imposter") - Sgt. Morgan
*'' The Outer Limits'' (1964 episode - " Expanding Human") - Dr. Roy Clinton
*'' The Ghost and Mr. Chicken'' (1966) - Ollie Weaver
*''Combat!'' (1967 episode - "Entombed") - Lt. Karl Mauer
*" Patterns of Force" (''Star Trek'' episode, 1968) - Deputy Führer Melakon
*"The Way to Eden" (''Star Trek'' episode, 1969) - Dr. Rota Sevrin
*'' Tiger by the Tail'' (1970) - Deputy Sheriff Laswell
*''Starbird and Sweet William'' (1973) - Ranger
*'' Helter Skelter'' (1976, television movie) - Judge Older
*'' The Greatest'' (1977) - Major
*'' The Incredible Hulk'' (1979) - Dr. Robert Stanley
*''Showdown at Eagle Gap'' (1982) - Alexander Kirk (final film role)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Homeier, Skip
1930 births
2017 deaths
American male child actors
American male film actors
American male radio actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Male actors from Chicago
Male actors from Los Angeles
20th-century American male actors