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Biography
Early life
Stack was born in Los Angeles, California but spent his early childhood growing up in Europe. He became fluent in French and Italian at an early age, but he did not learn English until returning to Los Angeles. Raised by his mother, Mary Elizabeth Wood, Stack's parents divorced when Stack was 1 and his father, James Langford Stack, a wealthy advertising agency owner, died when Stack was 9. Stack always spoke of his mother with the greatest respect and love. When he wrote his autobiography Straight Shooting, he included a picture of him and his mother. He captioned it "Me and my best girl." Stack's grandfather was an opera singer from Illinois named Charles Wood, who went by the name Modini.
Career
Stack took drama courses at the University of Southern California. His deep voice and good looks attracted producers in Hollywood. When Stack visited the set of Universal Studios at age 20, producer Joe Pasternak offered him an opportunity to enter the business. Recalled Stack, "He said 'How'd you like to be in pictures? We'll make a test with Helen Parrish, a little love scene.' Helen Parrish was a beautiful girl. 'Gee, that sounds keen,' I told him. I got the part." Stack's first film teamed him with popular starlet Deanna Durbin. He was the first actor to give Durbin an on screen kiss. As hard to believe today, this film was considered controversial at the time. Stack won acclaim for his next role, the 1940 film The Mortal Storm. He played a young man who joins the Nazi party. This film was one of the first to speak out against Hitler. As a youth, Stack admitted that he had a crush on Carole Lombard and in 1942 he appeared with her in To Be or Not To Be. He admitted he was terrified going into this role. He credits Lombard with giving him many tips on acting and with being his mentor. Sadly, Lombard was killed in a plane crash shortly after the film was released.
During World War II, Stack served as gunnery instructor in the United States Navy. He continued his movie career and appeared in such films as Fighter Squadron (1948), A Date With Judy (1948) and The Bullfighter And The Lady (1951). In 1954, Stack was given his most important movie role. He appeared opposite John Wayne in The High and the Mighty. Stack played the pilot of an airliner who comes apart under stress after the airline encounters engine trouble.
In 1957, Stack was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Written on the Wind. He starred in more than 40 films, including The Iron Glove (1954); Good Morning Miss Dove (1955) and Is Paris Burning? (1966). Known for his steadfast, humorless demeanor, he made fun of his own persona in comedies such as 1941 (1979), Airplane! (1980), Transformers: The Movie (1986), Caddyshack II (1988), the animated Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996), and Baseketball (1998).
Stack depicted the crimefighting Eliot Ness in the television drama The Untouchables from 1959 to 1963. The show portrayed the ongoing battle between gangsters and federal agents in a Prohibition-era Chicago. His role on the show brought Stack a best actor Emmy Award in 1960. The Untouchables was one of the first "realistic" cop shows much like Dragnet. Stack also starred in three other series, rotating the lead with Tony Franciosa and Gene Barry in the lavish The Name of the Game (TV series) (1968-1971), Most Wanted, (1976) and Strike Force (1981).
He began hosting Unsolved Mysteries in 1988, where his serious, ominous voice and stoic facial expressions lent an authentic gravitas to the program's dark subject matter. Reportedly, he had an enormous interest in the unexplained—psychic phenomena, ghosts and the like—because he himself had had an unusual experience of this nature. However, he also said that he valued the storytellers above the stories themselves and did not necessarily believe every case of this nature that he presented. He thought very highly of the interactive nature of the show, saying that it created a "symbiotic" between viewer and program, and that the hotline was a great crime-solving tool.
Private life
Stack had undergone radiation therapy for prostate cancer in October 2002. He died of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles in May, 2003, aged 84. He was survived by his wife of 42 years, Rosemarie, and their two children, Elizabeth and Charles.
He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.
