Paul Fix, 1901-1983

Paul Fix as Marshal Micah Torrance from TV's "The Rifleman

Today marks the birth anniversary of actor Paul Fix. Fix might be best known for playing Micah Torrance, the marshal in North Fork, on the Chuck Connors TV show The Rifleman. It's on AMC and MeTV, on of the nostalgia digital sub-channels, so there are a lot of chances to catch the show.

But Fix had a proflific film career throughout the 1930s and 1940s, mostly if not entirely as a supporting character. A few months back when TCM had the spotlight on prison movies, I mentioned Fix in The Last Mile, an early talkie about death row. He's also apparently one of the expectant fathers in Life Begins, a Loretta Young drama about the patients in a maternity hospital.

There are more well-known pictures, too; Fix has small roles in Red River, Tycoon, Island in the Sky, Hondo and The High and the Mighty, all with John Wayne. And he was also the judge in To Kill a Mockingbird, yet another fact I didn't remember.