Actor Howard Duff, radio's original hard-boiled detective Sam Spade who went on to play ruthless wheeler-dealers on "Knots Landing" and other prime-time soap operas, died Monday of a heart attack. He was 72.
Duff was pronounced dead at 1:13 a.m. in the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital of Santa Barbara. His wife, Judy, was at the hospital.Jean Mangus, a spokeswoman at St. Francis, said the actor was stricken at home and arrived by ambulance at the hospital about 1 a.m.
Born in Bremerton, Wash., on Nov. 24, 1917, Duff was first taken with acting while still in high school in Seattle and financed acting lessons by working at a local radio station.
After serving in World War II as a correspondent for Armed Forces Radio, Duff landed the role in 1946 of Dashiell Hammett's crusty detective Sam Spade.
During his three years on radio as Spade, he began his successful movie career. His first film role came in 1947 in the prison feature "Brute Force."
In 1951, he married actress Ida Lupino, with whom he co-starred in the 1957 television series "Mr. Adams and Eve." Duff and Lupino had a daughter, Bridget. Their marriage, rekindled several times after separations, ended in divorce.
His film career included many supporting roles in major features as well as leads in "B" movies. In the 1950s, he began appearing on the small screen, most frequently on television drama anthologies, among them "Ford Theatre," "Rheingold Theatre" and "Science Fiction Theater."
In the 1960s and 1970s, Duff was seen frequently as the veteran cop on "Felony Squad" and in guest roles on many other series, particularly crime shows.
Duff's other movie credits included "Naked City," "All My Sons," "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass," "Sierra Stranger," "Panic in the City," "Oh God! Book II," and "Kramer vs. Kramer."