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Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California, He worked as a band vocalist and trombone player, then gained a small amount of stage experience. Initially billed by Paramount Pictures as Glenn Erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in Westerns. Erickson made his film debut in two 1933 band films with Betty Grable before starting a string of Buster Crabbe Westerns based on Zane Grey novels. Erickson took four years off to serve in World War II and was twice wounded.
Erickson appeared in films such as College Holiday (1937), Conquest (1937), Ride a Crooked Mile (1938), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), The Snake Pit (1948), Fourteen Hours (1951), Invaders from Mars (1953), On the Waterfront (1954), Twilight for the Gods (1958), A Gathering of Eagles (1963), Roustabout (1964) and The Carpetbaggers (1964).
Perhaps his most notable role was as Deborah Kerr's macho husband in the stage and film versions of Tea and Sympathy. He also played the role of Pete, the vindictive boat engineer, in the 1951 screen remake of the famed musical Show Boat. Erickson appeared frequently on television, having been cast with Bette Davis and Sandy Descher in the 1959 episode "Dark Morning" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson. He had a lead role as patriarch Big John Cannon in the television series The High Chaparral from 1967 until 1971. His wife, Victoria, was played by Linda Cristal, and his screen son from a previous marriage, Billy Blue Cannon, by Mark Slade. He made few films after 1965 and retired from the screen after 1977.
Erickson was married to actress Frances Farmer from 1936 until 1942. The same day his divorce from Farmer was finalized, June 12, 1942, he married actress Margaret Hayes – however, they divorced a month later. He married Ann Diamond in 1945. They had two children, William (Bill) Leif (1946) and Susan Irene (1950). His son Bill died in a car accident in 1971. Leif Erickson died from cancer in Pensacola, Florida on January 29, 1986, aged 74.
Good actors I've worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.
Bette Davis
It was no accident that Leif Erickson was cast as the stalwart father of The High Chaparral. Producer David Dortort had spied him years earlier playing God in a Bonanza episode, and his performance made such an impression that no one else was even considered for the part of John Cannon.
Leif Erickson
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William Anderson
27 October 1911, Alameda, California
29 January 1986, Pensacola, Florida
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