Rory Calhoun worked at a number of odd jobs. In 1943, while riding horseback in the Hollywood Hills, he met actor Alan Ladd, whose wife, Sue Carol was an agent. She landed Calhoun a one-line role in a Laurel and Hardy comedy, The Bullfighters, credited under the name Frank McCown. Shortly afterwards, the Ladds hosted a party attended by David O. Selznick employee Henry Willson, an agent known for his assortment of young, handsome and marginally talented actors to whom he gave new, unusual names. Willson signed McCown to a contract and it was soon changed to “Rory Calhoun”. Willson carefully groomed his new client. Calhoun’s first public appearance in the film capital was as Lana Turner’s escort to the premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945), a Selznick production. The glamorous blonde and her handsome companion attracted the paparazzi, and photos appeared in newspapers and fan magazines. Selznick then began loaning his contract player to other studios; subsequently, Calhoun appeared in Adventure Island with Rhonda Fleming, The Red House with Edward G. Robinson, and That Hagen Girl with Shirley Temple. As Calhoun’s career gained momentum, he next appeared in several westerns, musicals and comedies, including Way of a Gaucho with Gene Tierney, With a Song in My Heart with Susan Hayward, How to Marry a Millionaire (as the love interest of Betty Grable) and River of No Return. The last two films featured Marilyn Monroe. Willson maintained careful control over his rising star, arranging his social life and ending his engagement to French actress Corinne Calvet. In 1955, Willson disclosed information about Calhoun’s years in prison to Confidential magazine in exchange for the tabloid not printing an exposé about the secret homosexual life of Rock Hudson, another Willson client. The disclosure had no negative effect on Calhoun’s career and only served to solidify his “bad boy” image.

In 1955, Rory Calhoun and Julie Adams co-starred in the film The Looters (it), the story of a plane crash in the Rocky Mountains. Part of the picture was filmed about Tarryall Creek in Park County in central Colorado. The advertising poster reads: “Five desperate men … and a girl who didn’t care … trapped on a mountain of gale-lashed rock!” In 1957, Calhoun formed Rorvic, a production company with his partner, Victor Orsatti, to make and star in the films The Hired Gun, The Domino Kid and Apache Territory. In 1958, on the recommendation of studio boss Desi Arnaz, Sr., Calhoun co-produced and starred in the CBS western television series, The Texan, which aired on Monday evenings until 1960. While filming The Texan, Calhoun would continue to produce and write screenplays throughout his career. The Texan could have filmed a third year had not Calhoun desired to concentrate on films. On March 26, 1959, he appeared as himself in the episode “Rory Calhoun, The Texan” on the CBS sitcom December Bride, starring Spring Byington, a series then in its fifth and final season of production. After The Texan ended, Calhoun was considered for the lead of James West in the 1965-1969 CBS series, The Wild Wild West, but the producers were not impressed with his screen test and instead chose Robert Conrad. Like many American actors, Calhoun also made a variety of films in Europe, notably starring in Sergio Leone’s first film, The Colossus of Rhodes.

Rory Calhoun continued to appear in both television and film throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including Thunder in Carolina, Rawhide, Gilligan’s Island, Hawaii Five-O, Alias Smith and Jones and Starsky and Hutch. In 1982, Calhoun had a regular role on the soap opera Capitol, having been persuaded to accept the role by his family after his regret over turning down a part on CBS’s Dallas. He stayed with the series until 1987. Calhoun became known to a new generation for several roles in cult films such as Night of the Lepus (1972), Motel Hell, Angel (1984) and its sequel Avenging Angel (1985), as well as Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987). His final role was that of grizzled family patriarch and rancher Ernest Tucker in the 1992 film Pure Country. Rory Calhoun died in Burbank, California, at the age of 76 from complications resulting from emphysema and diabetes.