Alan Curtis

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Alan Curtis (July 24, 1909 - February 2, 1953) was an American film actor appearing in over 50 films.

Born Harry Ueberroth in Chicago, Illinois, he began his career as a model before becoming an actor, appearing in local newspaper ads. His looks did not go unnoticed in Hollywood. He began appearing in films in the late 1930s (including a Technicolor appearance in the Alice Faye-Don Ameche film Hollywood Cavalcade and a memorable role in High Sierra (1941). He is probably best known as one of the romantic leads in Abbott and Costello's first hit movie Buck Privates.

His chance for leading-man stardom came when he replaced the unwilling John Garfield in the 1943 production Flesh and Fantasy. Curtis played a ruthless killer opposite Gloria Jean. Unfortunately for both actors, the studio removed their performances from the final film. The footage was later expanded into a B-picture melodrama Destiny. The film failed to establish Curtis as a major-name star, but it did typecast him in hardbitten roles, like the man framed for murder in Phantom Lady (1944) and the detective Philo Vance.