Tim McIntire

The son of actors, Tim McIntire was himself an actor and composer whose brief career ran from the early 1960s to the early '80s. He followed his father, John McIntire, to the office for one of his first television roles, in 1963, as a guest on the western "Wagon Train," on which John was one of the leads. In 1965, the younger McIntire landed a supporting part in the James Stewart-starring, Civil War-based western, "Shenandoah," before joining dad again later in the '60s, on another TV Western, "The Virginian." But McIntire's more substantial work came in film, including everything from starring with Liza Minnelli in the Oscar-nominated comedy "The Sterile Cuckoo" (1969) to a key part in the prison drama "Brubaker," with Robert Redford in the title role. He composed the music for "A Boy and His Dog," the 1975 sci-fi cult comedy which starred Don Johnson as a young man who communicates telepathically with his dog, Blood (voiced by McIntire). His most resonant role, though, was as early rock and roll Cleveland D.J. Alan Freed in the 1978 music drama "American Hot Wax," which co-starred then-unknowns Fran Drescher and Jay Leno. Like Freed, McIntire also died young, in his early 40s from heart failure related to alcohol and drug problems.