Ricky Newton (actor)

Ricky Newton (March 29th, 1939 -- August 15th, 1980) was an American actor who is best remembered for appearing in a handful B-movies in the late 1960s and the 1970s.

Biography
Newton was born in the Bronx section of New York City. His father was a former Vaudeville performer while his mother was a former chorus girl. By his own recollection, Newton was a troubled youth who, in his teenaged years, belonged to a street gang and spent time in a juvenile reformitory. He dropped out of school when he was 17 years old and, after a year of working various odd jobs and occasionally committing a petty theft or two to survive, Newton began working as a television stuntman on the set of TV westerns like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and ''The Big Valley. ''It was while working on an episode of Bonanza that he first met the actor Dan Blocker who, impressed with Newton's personal charisma, helped Newton first get an agent and land his first few dramatic roles.

Career
With his tough guy image, Newton carved a niche for himself playing villians and henchmen in various B-movies. He was best known for his appearances in various biker films, including Renegade Angels (1966; his debut film), Outlaw On The Road (1967), The Wild Outlaws (1968), Hell On Rubber (1968), Burning Engines (1968), The Kill Gang (1969), and Hard Rider (1970). He also played memorable villians in non-biker films like El Hombre (1969), The Elite One (1973), The Hard Duo (1976), and The Visiting (1978).

In interviews, Newton often complained that he was never given a chance to break typecasting. However, he occasionally played a few less threatening characters. He was a student protestor in the anti-Viet Nam war flop Stanley Hopper Is Alive And Well North Of the Border (1972), an honest (and doomed) cop in Placaccio (1976), and an idealistic reporter in The Big Scoop (1977).

His final film was also his only lead role. In Evergreen (filmed in 1979 but not released until 1982), he plays a widower who falls in love with a younger woman.

Legal Troubles
In 1973, Newton was arrested in Taos, New Mexico after getting into what was described as a "bar brawl." He charged with assaulting a local man, Carlos Esteme, who later claimed to have been blinded as a result of Newton smashing a chair over his head. Though it was ruled that Esteme could not prove that Newton was responsible for his loss of vision, Newton was still convicted of misdemeanor assault and spent six weeks in jail. Newton would later say that his career never recovered.

Personal
Newton married DebraLee Owens in 1964. They had one daughter, Marion, who is currently a hairdresser living in Idaho. Ricky and DebraLee Newton were divorced in 1971.

Death
In 1980, Ricky Newton died in Denver, Colorado. He had been battling lung cancer since February of 1979. He was 40 years old.