Don Dubbins (
June 28,
1928 -
August 17,
1991), originally
Donald Dubbins, was an
American actor of
film and
television who in his early career usually played younger military roles, particularly in such classic pictures as
From Here to Eternity (1953) and
The Caine Mutiny (1954). Screen giant
James Cagney took a liking to Dubbins and procured roles for him in two 1956 films,
These Wilder Years and
Tribute to a Bad Man. In the former, Dubbins played Cagney's long-lost adopted son; in the latter, he was an unlikely romantic triangle with
cattle boss Cagney for the affections of a
senorita. In 1957, Dubbins played a callow young
United States Marines private in
Jack Webb's
The D.I., meaning "Drill Instructor". In 1958, Dubbins was cast in
From the Earth to the Moon, a
science fiction picture based on
Jules Verne's
novel of the same title.
As Dubbins matured, he appeared in such films as
The Prize in 1963,
The Illustrated Man (based on a
Ray Bradbury novel) in 1969, and
Death Wish II in 1976.
Dubbins appeared in many television roles, including four episodes each of
CBS's
Gunsmoke and
Perry Mason. In 1960, Dubbins appeared in the episode "
Elegy" of CBS's
The Twilight Zone. That same year he guest starred with
Mel Torme in
NBC's
crime drama Dan Raven starring
Skip Homeier. In 1961, he played a
deputy who inadvertently killed his outlaw-brother in an episode of
Stagecoach West, a
Four Star Television series on
ABC. He later appeared on the CBS
anthology The Lloyd Bridges Show, and with
Walter Brennan in ABC's
The Guns of Will Sonnett. He appeared in the 1965 pilot episode of
I Dream of Jeannie, and returned for one of the series' final episodes (as a different character) in 1970. In 1966, Dubbins appeared with
Robert F. Simon as guest stars in the episode "Long Journey to
Leavenworth" in the NBC series
The Road West, starring
Barry Sullivan,
Andrew Prine, and
Glenn Corbett.
Dubbins appeared twice on NBC's
Little House on the Prairie with
Michael Landon and five times on CBS's
Barnaby Jones crime drama with
Buddy Ebsen. Dubbins appeared in several episodes of Jack Webb's
Dragnet 1967 series on NBC. Dubbins played the part of Billy Carter in "The Incident of the Dog Days" on
Rawhide.
Dubbins' last TV roles were in episodes of CBS's
Knots Landing (1979), ABC's
Dynasty (1981), and NBC's
Highway to Heaven (1984).
The
Brooklyn-born Dubbins retired to
Greenville, South Carolina, where his last acting was at the Warehouse Theater as
Willy Loman in
Death of a Salesman. He succumbed to
cancer at the age of sixty-three.