Toward the end of the Korean Campaign he joined the Navy and served for nearly four years, from the beginning of 1954 until mid 1957, and was honorably discharged. He the attended San Diego State College.
Because of my height, I did most of my own stunts. Only once, doing a lead in Hong Kong on a film called "Savage in the City" with Victor Buono, did I seriously injure myself. John Shadow, the director, asked me to jump from a wall. It was twelve feet, and the surface I had to land on was concrete. I fractured my ankles, but somehow managed to finish the film. It took roughly two years to recover, and I don't and won't do that anymore.