Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1959 - May 1960)

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COY DONAHUE « . ✓ — /f »1 » \v V " h » / , /IX \ Hot weather jw^^Jl^y^' All good things come to him when it is hot and sunny is the belief of rising new star, Troy Donahue 1 ROY DONAHUE'S FAVORITE season is summer, a real hot one, because, he says, "you always think something exciting is going to happen. And a lot of times it actually does. You sort of get • to expecting things . . ." Well, a good many exciting things have happened to Troy recently, summer or no, and he is the lad to appreciate and enjoy them. Blond and blue-eyed, Troy looks younger than he really is, although he is still pretty young — 23. But don't let that mild expression fool you, or his soft voice, either. Take note of that stubborn chin. "I am stubborn, you know," he says, frankly. "I want my own way and I am likely to fight until I get it. I usually get it." In a short year he has reached some sort of pinnacle of Hollywood success. Producers are vying for him, pretty girls are ogling him, prominent hostesses are pursuing him for their parties. All this is heady stuff, coming so swiftly, and Troy is the first to admit it. He says, quite simply, "I love it." As who wouldn't? Troy was born January 27, 1937, in New York City. Not a hot summer day, at all, but a cold blustery one. His father was Merle Johnson, of the motion picture division of General Motors Corp. His mother, Edith Johnson, a stage actress, had retired after her marriage. Troy"s father died when Troy was 14, leaving a void in his life and many scars on his soul. Then bad luck began to dog him. By HELEN LOUISE WALKER He attended Bayport High School on Long Island for two years and then the New York Mili tanAcademy, hoping for an appointment to West Point. But a severe knee injury suffered during a track meet disqualified him for that. However, he went on later to win letters in football, track and basketball. The stubbornness was already beginning to show. Then Columbia University, some classes in journalism, and studying acting with Ezra Stone. After that, a variety of jobs, the usual things, messenger, waiter, counselor at a camp and as a singer with a Long Island dance band. But the bad luck hadn't left him, or maybe the weather was too cool. He came to Hollywood at the behest qf Darrell Brady, an old friend of his fathers and he was almost "discovered", a la Lana Turner, when Producer William Asher and Director James Sheldon saw him in a diner and invited him for a test. What a break! But . . . that evening he was in an automobile accident and when the time came for his test, his head was shaved to a most humiliating baldness. He couldn't do it. But while he was convalescing a hot day came along and so did an actress friend, Fran Bennett, who introduced him to her agent, Henry Willson. That . . . and the hot weather, we guess . . . did it. Anyhow, his name was changed forthwith from Merle Johnson, Jr. to Troy Donahue and the next thing he knew he was co-starring with pretty Sandra Dee as the young romantic lead in "'A Summer continued on page 36 COLD weather snap in California causes Troy to bundle up against hated Jack Frost. 35