Don Terry

Biography

Best remembered by many cliffhanger fans of the 30s and 40s as staunch, gung-ho hero Don Winslow, athlete-turned-actor Don Terry identified quite well with his alter-ego. An adventurer at heart, he was born and christened Donald Prescott Loker on August 8, 1902. His parents were of Old English background. He enlisted in the Marines as a teenager but honorably discharged less than a year later due to a disability. Don attended Harvard and played freshman football, basketball and baseball, working in coal yards to pay his tuition. Joining the Reading Keys in the International Baseball League, he later played pro football in Boston and Providence as part of the Steamrollers team. Along the way he fought under the name of "Bobbie Dinsmore" in the boxing arena and circled the globe on cargo ships. Somehow the wanderlust Don Loker managed to migrate to Hollywood and there found a curiosity in movie-making. He gave himself the stage name of Don Terry and started in movie bits. Occasionally finding virile leads in action dramas, he slowly built up a stalwart reputation in this area. His first serial was as a hard-nosed reporter in The Secret of Treasure Island (1938). Universal Studios showed interest in his work and signed him up in 1941, becoming one of their more popular serial players in the early 40s. Don Winslow of the Navy (1942) became his signature role. Terry played the grim, tenacious Winslow with a set determination and gritty sense of purpose that thrilled war-time audiences at the time. In the story the Winslow character is assigned to Navy intelligence to battle the unscrupulous Scorpion organization. More staunch heroics would come his way with the sequel Don Winslow of the Coast Guard (1943). After that role Terry himself enlisted in the Naval Reserve and was made Lieutenant Commander in the Pacific. He was awarded the Purple Heart in 1944. By the time he left the service in 1946, he left movies as well and turned to business ventures. Married twice, he became a noted philanthropist in later years. Don Terry (aka Don Winslow) died in 1988 in Oceanside, California.