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Mike Kellin was born on
April 26, 1922. Mike was the son of an
English immigrant clothier and then he
decided that he wanted to become an actor
in the second grade after watching a
school production of A Christmas
Carol. After school he brieflt
attended three colleges before serving in
the Navy in World War II. He flunked out
of Yale Drama School and
headed to New York where he studied
acting under Lee Strassberg,
Sanford Meisner and Stella
Adler. Kellin then had his big
break by playing a role of the abrasive
sergeant in the 1949 Broadaway comedy
production of At War with the
Army and would reprise his role
in the 1950 motion picture version which
starred Martin and Lewis. He also went on
to win the Tony award for his performance
in the 1956 production of Rogers and
Hammerstein's musical production of Pipe
Dream. He also had regular roles
in the TV shows Bonino
and Honestly Celeste! He
was noted for his role as Chief Mate Jack
MacCarthy in the motion picture comedy The
Wackiest Ship in the Army
starring Jack Lemmon and Ricky Nelson
which led to a short-lived TV series as
Kellin reprised his role for the series.
He also had supporting roles in many
other film's mainly playing tough guy
roles like in Hell is for Heroes
(Starring Steve McQueen), The
Boston Strangler (Starring Tony
Curtis, Henry Fonda and George Kennedy), The
People Next Door, Fools'
Parade (Starring James Stewart,
George Kennedy and Anne Baxter), The
Last Porno Flick, Freebie
and the Bean (Starring Alan
Arkin, James Caan and Loretta Swit) and Next
Stop Greenwich Village (Starring
Shelly Winters, Lois Smith and
Christopher Walken). He also guest
starred in many epsiodes of the
Alfred Hitchcock Hour and an
episode of the Twilight Zone.
He landed a
supporting role in 1976 as a Deputy
Police Officer in his first horror flick
by Larry Cohen titled God Told Me
To of a series of motiveless
murders committed by various New York
residents. The only consistent pattern to
the crimes involves the perpetrators calm
admissions of guilt, explaining,
"God told me to." Mike's
character with Tony LeBianco (Who is the
head detective named Lt. Peter J.
Nicholas) are increasingly troubled by
the evidence of a Christ-like figure
named Bernard Phillips (Richard Lynch)
who appeared to each of the killers and
can't seem to shake the feeling that his
own fate is somewhat linked to this
mysterious being. As they comes closer to
the truth, his worst fears are confirmed.
In 1981 he
had another supporting role in his second
horror flick which was a summer camp
slasher film titled Just Before
Dawn which was almost a
combination of the films Friday
the 13th, Texas Chainsaw
Massacre and The Hills
Have Eyes. In this one, Mike
plays a drunk named Ty who goes on a
mountain hike with his nephew. They go to
an abandoned church house and a hulking
mountain killer slays his nephew and
destroys his vehicle. Ty runs away and
tries to warn a young group of people
that travel up to the mountains of a
property that they bought warning them
about demons but they think he's crazy.
He later notifies the forest ranger named
Roy McLean (George Kennedy) about demons
in the mountains after Roy sees him
drinking out of his horses drinking tub.
When
cancer struck him, he starred in his last
film which was another slasher camp
horror flick in 1983 titled
Sleepaway Camp as the lead role
named Mel who was a crazed an obnoxious
person. Two kids go to his camp known as
Camp Arawak and one of the kids is being
micked and tormented by bullies. The
bullies are murdered for their nasty
deeds and Mel tries to cover it up saying
that they were just terrible accidents to
keep his reputation good at his
campground. The writer/director Robert
Hiltzik was a graduate from film school
while making this cheesy horror flick
which years later became a cult classic
as it was an independent film and said he
was fortunate to have a name like him in
his film and helped it get off the ground
because of him. While the flick was
wrapping up in it's in post-production
run, Mike sadly passed away from cancer
on August 26, 1983 in Nyack, New York and
he sadly never had a chance to see it
when the film hit the theatre's on
November 18, 1983. He was a remembered
name in the film nevertheless. |