Biography

August 13, 1909 · Mammoth, Utah, USA

March 26, 1990 · Santa Monica, California, USA (lung cancer)

6′ (1.83 m)

He was the infamous "dead man walking" from early television, an often-told tale about the "corpse" who got up and walked out of a scene on live TV. The incident was so well known that Los Angeles Times ran an article a few days after the incident, saying, "It seems that on the new high-budgeted CBS dramatic series, Climax! (1954), which had its debut on KNXT (2) Thursday night, actor Tristam Coffin was lying under a blanket and Detective Dick Powell was talking about having the body removed when the actor arose from the dead and strolled off scene. Powell and the other actors went right on talking as if nothing had happened. And the show went on and the private eye finally solved the murder, leaving televiewers a little perplexed. CBS blushingly explained yesterday that Coffin thought the scene was over and that he was off-camera when he took his macabre stroll". However, Coffin vigorously refuted the description (see Personal Quote below).

He appeared on TV in episodes with two classic superhero's. In 4 episodes with George Reeves as Superman and 2 episodes with Adam West as Batman.

He was one of the dependable actors of the poverty row era and was in high demand for crime films, serials and westerns. As the industry transitioned from poverty row features to television productions, he continued to be in high demand for low budget features and numerous appearances on episodic television. His forty-plus year career resulted in a very prolific output of hundreds of roles.

[about his more than 300 film and TV appearances] A lot of my films I can't remember the titles or having ever worked in them. You made so many, it was almost like being on a roller-skate going from one studio to another. On a couple of occasions I was working in two pictures on the same lot at the same time.

[on why he played so many "heavies"] I asked for it. I pleaded for it, and fought for it. I was doing leading man and romance roles but I loved westerns. I talked to [Scott R. Dunlap], who was producing westerns at Monogram, and asked him if I could do some heavies. He said, "Tris, you're too dignified. You're strictly a leading man and romance type. You can't work in westerns as a heavy". I said, "Scotty, have you ever gone to a state penitentiary and looked at some of the inmates? There are lawyers, doctors, and motion picture producers; they're not all mugs". So he said, "Well, maybe you've got a point. I've got a script with a heavy that can be played smooth". So he gave me the part and that was my start playing heavies and I've always loved doing them. I've played many villains and have been so mean that in one picture they even tried to give me to the Indians and they wouldn't take me.

The corpse walks off the stage. It certainly was I. But the whole story was a damn lie. I never got off of my belly. There were even stories in "Time" magazine. "The character was seen to get down from a stretcher and walk nonchalantly off the set." There never was a stretcher. I was on a blanket underneath, on my belly, and on a cue, I had to scramble like a snake out of the way of a dolly camera coming across to pick up Dick Powell so dialogue could continue in the scene. It was just a mess up with a cue guy. It never happened. Dick Powell has used this on his show I guess half a dozen times. The truth has never been told. The fact that my name was Coffin, they played this real, real fun, you know, had fun with it, the corpse walking off the set. It never happened. Johnny Carson, "Time" magazine, and newspapers all across the country picked it up. They played it because they had a lot of fun with it, and it didn't happen the way they all have said it did. I was never seen. What was seen we didn't know it at the time, because it was done live, we didn't see it [until\ we got home that night and watched the show later, it was done on kinescope in those days. All you see, at the bottom of the screen they had covered me with a blanket, because I had been killed, and the autopsy people, Dick Powell had a line of dialogue, "You better remove the body," and you see the blanket right at the very bottom of the screen, you see the blanket kind of move off, and that was me crawling off on my belly. They hadn't raised the camera up high enough, from the cue being too early, the camera hadn't gotten up off of me enough, so they picked up Dick Powell and Horace MacMahon coming in through the door across the set, picking up their dialogue. It was just a fraction of a second too soon, and all you saw was just the blanket moving just as Powell says "You better have your men remove the body." You see the blanket moving off the set, about a quarter-inch at the bottom of the screen. That was where they said, "The corpse was seen to get down off a stretcher and walk nonchalantly off the set." There never was a stretcher in the place. I called Dick Powell the next day after it happened and said, "Gee, I'm sorry to see a thing like that happen." Of course, in those days in live television, everything would happen. People would walk across carrying a ladder, a prop man would walk across a set, a lot of funny things. He said, "Tris, don't be upset about it. The only way that you and I can get any publicity today is to get wound up on some kind of cocaine or dope or something." That is what actually happened. It was a fun thing for some of the correspondents to write about it. Johnny Carson has at least five or six times said it on his show, they'll be talking about funny things that happened in live television. One time I sent Johnny a telegram and I said, "Johnny"--I've known Johnny since before he was doing this thing--"Have blanket, will travel." I got a nice response from him.