Lang Jeffries

Lang Jeffries (June 7, 1930—February 12, 1987) was a Canadian-American actor of television and film who was married from 1960 to 1962 to actress Rhonda Fleming.

Jeffries was born in Ontario, Canada. He was living in Michigan at the time he procured his Social Security number. Jeffries served in the United States Army during the Korean War and was among only three survivors of his 177-man unit that landed in Inchon, South Korea, in the fall of 1950, in a mass landing conducted by General Douglas MacArthur.

From 1958 to 1960, Jeffries procured his first and most successful acting role, that of Skip Johnson, in all seventy-four episodes of the syndicated adventure television series Rescue 8, with co-star Jim Davis as Wes Cameron. The Screen Gems program offered heart-warming accounts of difficult rescues completed by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Davis was later cast as the indomitable Jock Ewing of CBS's prime time soap opera Dallas.

In 1960, Jeffries and John McIntire, later of Wagon Train, guest starred in the episode "The Most Dangerous Gentleman" in the short-lived NBC western series, Overland Trail starring William Bendix and Doug McClure.

On October 9, 1961, only three months before their divorce, Jeffries and wife Rhonda Fleming appeared as themselves, married for sixteen months, with Helen O'Connell in the interview program, Here's Hollywood. Jeffries, seven years Fleming's junior, was the third of her six husbands.

Jeffries starred as Vibio in the foreign film, La Rivolta degli schiavi, or The Revolt of the Slaves, with Rhonda Fleming cast as Fabiola. In the film, Fabiola gives the order that Vibio be whipped on the back. In a 1962 film, Alone Against Rome, or Vengeance of the Gladiator, Jeffries, in the role of Brenno, was again whipped on the back.

In 1962, after the breakup of his marriage, Jeffries guest starred in the episode "Elegy of a Hero" in the syndicated series Ripcord starring Larry Pennell and Ken Curtis, who was later cast as Festus Haggen on CBS's Gunsmoke.

From 1964-1971, Jeffries appeared in nearly twenty films in France, Spain, the former West Germany, Italy, and Romania. He played science fiction hero Perry Rhodan in Mission Stardust (1967). He made several Eurospy films such as Agente X 1-7 operación Océano (Italy, 1965), Z7 Operation Rembrandt (Germany-Italy, 1966), Spies Strike Silently (Italy, 1966), The Beckett Affair (France-Italy, 1966), Special Code: Assignment Lost Formula (Spain-Italy, 1966), The Killer Lacks a Name (Spain-Italy, 1966), and Mexican Slayride (Spain-Italy, 1967).

His last three American film appearances were in Mean Mother (1974), as Arthur Wheeler in The Junkman (1982), and as Lieutenant Arthur in Deadline Auto Theft (1983).

In 1966, while living in Rome, Jeffries married Gail Harris, the mother of John Paul Getty III. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Jeffries managed an art gallery in Huntington Beach, in Orange County, California, owned with his third wife, Mary. Jeffries died in 1987 at the age of fifty-six in Huntington Beach.