Howard Duff Collection

Howard Duff
(1913 – 1990)

For generations it has been considered bad form to wish an actor "good luck" before a performance. Instead, actors encourage each other to "break a leg", which is supposed to bring good luck. The career of radio’s greatest Sam Spade, Howard Duff, has been characterized by a series of lucky breaks, beginning with his leg!

Duff was born in Bremerton, Washington, and grew up in Seattle. While attending Roosevelt High School, his promising basketball career was cut short by a freak accident which shattered his leg. His future in athletics cut short, Howard began to focus his artistic talents towards performing. His artistic eye also led to a job as a department store window dresser, a job which he in fact hated. It did lead to connections with a local radio station, which he joined soon after graduating high school.

While making spot announcements and commercials on the small radio station, he found time to apprentice with the Seattle Repertory Community Theater Company. He gained enough stage experience that when he was drafted for WWII, he was assigned to the Army Air Corps AFRS Division. After serving for six months in the Marianas Islands, he was reassigned State-side to the main AFRS Studios in California. Here he became a primary announcer for several productions as well as doing voice over of deleted commercial content of network content.

Honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant, Duff had plenty of connections in the civilian radio market. Unfortunately, so did hundreds of other vets who were competing for a limited number of jobs. He played small guest roles on Burns and Allen, The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Program, Cavalcade of America, Big Town, Duffy’s Tavern, The Jack Benny Program and others, but it was mostly a hand to mouth existence. Duff developed a flippant attitude as a result of showing up for audition after audition with a hundred or more competitors. As luck would have it, this was exactly the characteristic that producer/director William Spier was looking for to star in his new project, tentatively titled "Sam Spade, Detective".

Dashiell Hammett’s hard boiled character had been around since first appearing in the pulp pages of Black Mask in 1930, and had been seen on the screen in three different versions, including Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon(1941). Spier’s vision for the character was a combination Bogey’s toughness with a healthy dose of self-deprecation. Just the bad attitude that Duff displayed at the audition.

Duff’s big break at landing the lead in The Adventures of Sam Spade went beyond just finding steady work. With shows like Suspense, The March of Time, Duffy’s Tavern and others to his credit, Spier was one of the hottest producers in radio. Also signed onto the project was Lurene Tuttle, "the First Lady of Radio", to play Spade’s secretary and part time love interest, Effie Perrine. Under their combined tutelage, Duff became a full-fledged radio star.  The show led what was to be a wave of popular Hard Boiled Detective shows in the post War era.

Sam Spade’s success brought Duff to the attention of screen producers as well, and he soon found himself in a series of noir roles. He also caught the eye of a number of starlets, and he was noted for affairs with Yvonne DeCarlo and Ava Gardner. He dated and eventually married his co-star from Woman In Hiding(1950), Ida Lupino. Although he was nearly 40, it was Duff’s first marriage. It was Lupino’s third.

Ida Lupino was called "Queen of the B’s" because she refused studio demands to appear in roles which were "beneath her dignity". She spent her periods of suspension learning about the craft of making movies, and became a pioneering lady director. Before they were married in 1951, Duff was listed in Red Channels as a Communist subversive, which would have been the death of his career if not for his new wife’s influence.

The short-lived blacklisting was enough to cause the cancellation of Sam Spade, which had played uninterrupted on three networks from 1946-1950. (The show would be back for a season with Steve Dunne in the lead.) Among Ida Lupino’s directing projects was the 1958 TV sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve. Duff and Lupino co starred as Hollywood stars. The stories on the program were largely taken from the couple’s life in Hollywood, and despite high ratings in its first season, interest dropped off during the second and it was not renewed.

Although they were professionally successful together, Lupino and Duff had a volatile relationship with several periods of separation. They permanently split in 1973, although they would not divorce until 1983. Duff’s movie career had a small resurgence with roles in A grade films like Kramer vs Kramer, No Way Out and Oh God! Book 2. Howard Duff succumbed to a heart attack in 1990. He was 76 years old.

Two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1724 Vine St and 6821 Hollywood Blvd honor Ida Lupino. Howard Duff has a Star at 1623 Vine St for his contributions to Television.