Scott Brady (born Gerard Kenneth Tierney; September 13, 1924 – April 16, 1985) was an American film and television actor best known for his roles in Western films and as a ubiquitous television presence. He played the title role in the television series Shotgun Slade (1959–1961).
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Early life
Gerard Kenneth Tierney was born in Brooklyn to Lawrence and Mary Alice (née Crowley) Tierney; his father was an Irish-American policeman who was chief of the New York City Aqueduct Police force. His older and younger brothers were fellow actors Lawrence and Edward Tierney, respectively. He took his screen name from a friend's short story in which the hero, a boxer, was named Scott Brady.
Brady was reared in suburban Westchester County, New York. He was nicknamed "Roddy" in his youth. He attended Roosevelt and St. Michael's High Schools, where he lettered in basketball, football, and track. He aspired to become a football coach or a radio announcer, but instead enlisted in the United States Navy before his graduation from high school. During World War II, he served as a naval aviation mechanic overseas on the USS Norton Sound.
Discharged in 1946, Brady headed to Los Angeles, where his older brother Lawrence was already making some progress as an actor. First working as a cab driver and a lumberjack, Brady studied at the Beverly Hills Drama School.
Brady had two brushes with scandal. In 1957, he was arrested for narcotics possession, but the charge was dropped, and he always maintained that he was framed. In 1963, he was barred by the New York State Harness Racing Commission from participation in the sport due to his association with known bookmakers. He also was involved in two lawsuits with Eagle-Lion Films in 1950. The studio sued Brady for $105,000, charging that he had failed to fulfill his contract's requirement of making two films a year for five years. Brady countersued for $510,000 in damages, saying that his career had been damaged when Eagle-Lion suspended him.
Career
In 1948, Brady made his film debut as a boxer in the programmer In This Corner (1948) and took tough-guy roles in films like He Walked by Night, Undertow, and Canon City. He was the leading man in the romantic comedy The Model and the Marriage Broker and in the cult Western drama Johnny Guitar.
From 1953 to 1956, Brady appeared four times in different roles on Lux Video Theatre and appeared five times on The Ford Television Theatre. In 1955, he portrayed Ted Slater in "Man in the Ring" of The Loretta Young Show. In 1955 and 1957, Brady appeared twice on Studio 57. Early in 1957, he was cast in "The Barbed Wire Preacher" of Crossroads.
On December 26, 1957, Brady played the frontier figure William Bent in the episode "Lone Woman" on Playhouse 90.
From 1955 to 1959, Brady appeared five times on Schlitz Playhouse, including the roles of Reno Cromwell in "Night of the Big Swamp" and Calvin Penny in "Papa Said No". The Schlitz Playhouse episode "The Salted Mine" became the pilot for Brady's own Western television series Shotgun Slade, which aired 78 episodes in syndication from 1959 to 1961.
In addition to Shotgun Slade, Brady appeared in several other television Westerns, including Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, The High Chaparral, Lancer, Dirty Sally, The Virginian (twice), and Gunsmoke (three times).
In 1958, he played the lead role of Sergeant Matt Blake in Ambush at Cimarron Pass. He dated a number of actresses in Hollywood during this period, including Kipp Hamilton, Carol Ohmart, Reiko Sato, and Shelley Winters.
In 1961, he played the roles of John Keller in "We're Holding Your Son" on General Electric Theater and Ernie Taggart in "Voyage into Fear" on Checkmate. In 1962, Brady was cast in the lead guest role as reporter/commentator Floyd Gibbons in "The Floyd Gibbons Story" of The Untouchables. The next year, he portrayed Bill Floyd in the episode "Run for Doom" of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. In 1967, Brady guest-starred on Judd, for the Defense.
Personal life
He was in a relationship with actress and dancer Gwen Verdon.
Death
On April 16, 1985, Brady died of respiratory failure caused by pulmonary fibrosis at the Motion Picture House and Hospital at the age of 60.