Richard Denning

Originally studied business management in Los Angeles but decided to break into acting instead. He won a radio contest called “Do You Want to Be an Actor”, and was awarded a Warner Bros. screen test. Warner rejected him, but Paramount took him on the condition that he change his name to Denning. (Studio execs worried that “Denninger” sounded too much like gangster John Dillinger). He went on to appear in films like “North West Mounted Police” (1940), “The Glass Key” (1942), “Black Beauty” (1946), “No Man of Her Own” (1950), “Creature From The Black Lagoon” (1954), and “An Affair To Remember” (1957). He also worked in radio, most notably alongside Lucille Ball in “My Favorite Husband”, becoming one of the most popular male leads in radio. He hoped continue this role in television, but Ball wanted to work with her then husband Desi Arnaz. Denning married Evelyn Ankers, an actress famous for horror pictures in 1942, and they had one child, a daughter. During World War II he served in the military. He later played the recurring role of the Hawaiian Governor in the popular television series “Hawaii five-0”. Ankers passed away in 1985, and in 1986 Denning married Patricia Leffingwell. He died of a heart attack in Escondido, California, and was interred beside his first wife in Maui Veterans cemetery.