1956-1958: Early career In February 1956, Donahue moved to
Calabasas, California and stayed in Brady's home. He worked cutting film at Brady's company. He would later rent a garage apartment in
Malibu, near his mother and sister's new home. Later that year, Donahue was introduced to actress
Fran Bennett. Bennett introduced him to her agent
Henry Willson, who also represented movie heart-throbs
Rock Hudson,
Robert Wagner,
Tab Hunter, and
Chad Everett. Willson signed him and changed his name to Troy Donahue:At first they had
Paris, the lover of
Helen of Troy, in mind. But I guess they thought they couldn't name me Paris Donahue because there was already a
Paris, France, and
Paris, Illinois. In 1958, he appeared in
Charles F. Haas'
Summer Love and
Paul Henreid's
Live Fast, Die Young. Due to Donahue's heavy drinking and a 1958 arrest for speeding, his contract with Universal was at its end. He had spent all his money and had no work, leaving him unable to pay for his apartment. Willson was able to secure guest starring roles in several western shows, allowing Donahue to rent a slightly smaller apartment in Hollywood. The movie was released to mixed critical reception, however still managed to gain widespread popularity and became a box office hit. The film was No. 1 at the US box office for two weeks. The film and its soundtrack have been continuously noted in popular culture since the film's release - the first being in another Donahue film,
The Crowded Sky (1960) between Donahue's character and co-star
Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the popular "
Theme from A Summer Place" is heard on the restaurant sound system. Donahue became a celebrity overnight, especially among teenage audiences. In John L. Scott's
Los Angeles Times review, he wrote simply of him, "Donahue reveals promise." In 1960, he was named by
The Film Daily as one of the five "finds" of the year. He would later receive the
Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer - Male" at the
17th Annual awards. Warner Bros. immediately sent Donahue on a cross-country tour to promote the film. Journalist Joan Beck wrote in the
Chicago Tribune on October 22, 1959:To plug the movie – and sell himself, too – Troy is touring the country with press agents and studio representatives from Warner Bros., to whom he is under contract. He's lionized by reporters for high school newspapers at special teen press conferences. He talks on disk jockey radio programs, women's television shows and teenage TV dancing parties. And for a dash of glamour, he's being seen at posh restaurants and celebrity gathering spots. He's interviewed by columnists and photographed by fan magazines – which appeal almost totally to teens these days. Along with the publicity build-up, Troy has acquired several other accoutrements of a successful star. He has a top Hollywood agent. A business manager who keeps him on a $35 weekly allowance. A bachelor apartment. A
Porsche. And a circle of friends which includes many of the other rising young teen favorites of the movie colony. Now that all the proper stops have been pulled out, Hollywood's star makers expect teenagers to respond with a chorus of enthusiasm loud enough to sweep Troy into real movie stardom. They don't doubt that the tall, blue-eyed actor has what it takes to capture the all-important high school audience.He guest starred in a variety of their
western television series, including
Colt .45 (1959),
Maverick (1959),
Sugarfoot (1959),
The Alaskans (1960), and
Lawman (1960). He also had a support part in a disaster movie,
The Crowded Sky (1960). Donahue achieved good reviews for a brief, but effective part in
Douglas Sirk's
Imitation of Life (1959), playing Frankie, a young white man who beats his new girlfriend after he discovers she is black. Donahue also had a brief tenure as a recording artist at the height of his fame in the early 1960s, releasing a handful of singles for
Warner Bros. Records, including "Live Young" and "Somebody Loves Me". No recordings entered the
Billboard Hot 100 list. in the
ABC/
Warner Bros. television series Surfside 6 (1961) He was reportedly going to be cast in
Elia Kazan's 1961 American
period drama Splendor in the Grass, but missed out to
Warren Beatty. Instead Warner Bros. put him in a TV series,
Surfside 6 (1960–62), one of several spin-offs of
77 Sunset Strip, announced in April 1960. On
Surfside 6, Donahue starred with
Van Williams,
Lee Patterson,
Diane McBain, and
Margarita Sierra in the ABC series, set in
Miami Beach, Florida. The show launched him as a household name. He was sent on press junkets around the country to visit radio and television stations. Warner Bros. charged thousands for an appearance of him, yet Donahue never received a bonus. Donahue's face was plastered on merchandise - from posters to lunch boxes to board games. Donahue struggled with acting in television, believing himself to be a movie star, as opposed to a TV star. Both Donahue and Stevens expressed disinterest in the shows and their current career paths. They complained of a "mediocre pattern" and a "lack of great scripts" to journalist
Edith Efron. This unhappiness began to fuel Donahue's drinking habits. In return, criticisms began to rise concerning his acting. Journalist Rick Du Brow wrote of him, "Troy is big and strong and has the rare ability to make the most glamorous and exciting events seem colorless and flat." Donahue's career received another big break when
Joshua Logan dropped out as director of
Parrish (1961). Logan was replaced by
A Summer Place director, Delmer Daves, who brought in Donahue to star. The movie became a box office hit. Donahue would later describe the film as the most satisfying of his movies to date. "I had the best script and the best opportunity as an actor", he said. "Not too many of those came my way." Donahue and Daves reunited for another melodrama in 1961,
Susan Slade, with Connie Stevens,
Dorothy McGuire and
Lloyd Nolan also starring. They made a fourth film,
Rome Adventure (1962), a romance starring
Suzanne Pleshette,
Angie Dickinson, and
Rossano Brazzi. Donahue and Pleshette were married for six months. In 1962, he claimed he received 5,000–7,500 fan letters a week. The following year, exhibitors voted him the 20th most popular star in the US. Donahue had also gained wide popularity in
Japan, later saying: I guess because I was blond, blue-eyed, and tanned, people associated me with all those beach movies that were around then, even though I never did one. I was always the goody-goody, the guy who did what he was supposed to. His final film for Warner Bros. was the 1964 western
A Distant Trumpet, the last film of director
Raoul Walsh. Donahue later claimed:
Jack Warner called every studio I used to work for and used his muscle to keep me busted. I was blackballed and everyone in the business knew it. Please print that. I made one film in Europe playing a Victorian astronaut [1967's ''
Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon, better known by its American title, Those Fantastic Flying Fools''] but no one ever saw it. Then by the time I could get work again, it was too late because my type was already out of fashion. Reflecting on this period, he recalled: They pumped me til the well went dry. My image came out of Warner Bros. and it was one that was on its way out. I think I'm a little deeper than the roles I was given to play. I did get great exposure at Warner Bros. [but] now I'm free to call my own shots. I've made more money in two years on my own than the whole time I was under contract.Donahue appeared in a variety of smaller projects, including a
spy spoof,
Come Spy with Me (1967); and a western for
Albert Zugsmith,
The Phantom Gunslinger (1970). From 1966 to 1967, Donahue co-starred in an onstage production of
The Owl and the Pussycat on tour with his then-wife, Valerie Allen. The show had great success, resulting from Donahue's dedicated fanbase.
Terry Moore was brought in at the last minute to replace him. Donahue was sued for $200,000. On February 22, 1968, Donahue signed a long-term contract with
Universal Studios for films and TV. This lasted a year and saw him get four roles: guest shots on
Ironside (1968),
The Name of the Game (1968), and
The Virginian (1969), and an appearance in the TV movie
The Lonely Profession (1969). Due to his recent divorce from Allen and other lawsuits, Donahue was advised to file
bankruptcy by his lawyer and he reluctantly did so on October 1, 1968. He eventually lost his home and began sleeping on friends' couches. He claimed that he "spent a lot of time judging beauty contests and opening banks" during this time. Donahue was interviewed by Carol Kramer for
New York Today in May 1970. Kramer noted key differences in Donahue's appearance and demeanor, reporting that he was not the heartthrob that fans once knew and loved. She noted his love for
astrology, belief in
God and
reincarnation, and that he had tried
psychoanalysis. By 1971, Donahue blamed his inability to find work on the outdated image created for him a decade before by the studio. At the same time his agent Henry Willson retired, leaving him without representation. He defended the film, stating that:I play Moon, a religious creep who murders a lot of people, a real heavy trip. But I don't want anyone to think I'm playing it in some phony exploitation flick that takes advantage of the
Manson case to make a fast buck. I don't like many things, man, but I dig this picture... We're trying to show both sides of the problem. The Hollywood glamour society is as guilty as the depraved hippie cults. They pick up people on
Sunset Boulevard and tease them. When they made fun of Manson they picked on the wrong guy. I was up at the
Tate house. It was a freaky scene. Sure, I met Manson, at the beach playing volleyball. In the spring of 1973, Donahue traveled to the
Philippines to make the low-budget, gory action film
South Sea Massacre. The film was directed by Pablo Santiago and written by Leo Martinez. The movie was criticized for a lack of story and an abundance of nudity, rapes, beatings, decapitations, machete slayings, and machine gun attacks. The film was never released theatrically in the United States. In 1974, former classmate
Francis Ford Coppola learned of Donahue's situation. Coppola cast him in a small part in
The Godfather Part II as the fiancé of
Connie Corleone. His character was named Merle Johnson, a nod to Donahue's real name. Donahue was paid $10,000 ($63,000 in 2024) for the role for one week's work.
1974-2000: Final years He made his first television appearance in years as a guest star on
The Merv Griffin Show in August 1974. Donahue moved back to Los Angeles the same year. On March 15, 1975, he participated in the Easter Benefit Ball in
San Francisco. The proceeds from the event benefited the Easter Seals Society for Crippled Children and Adults of San Francisco. Donahue led the celebrity judge panel that included film stars
Jane Withers,
Janet Blair, and
Terry Moore. Without a studio to promote him, with no money to afford a publicist, and news agencies uninterested in covering his every move, he found it difficult to keep his name in the public eye. In the summer of 1975, he licensed his name and likeness to a marketing company called First Seen, Inc. in New York. For $5.98, the company sent a specially recorded
LP album featuring Donahue explaining how to get into show business. Advertisements appeared in tabloids around the country. Following his 1981 divorce from fourth wife, Vicki Taylor, he fell off the grid, and lost contact with most of his friends – many of whom had lost patience with him long before. His agent had let him go, professionals were not calling him, and they didn't return his calls. One friend warned him, that in his current physical state, he was uninsurable for producers. He spent months at the beach, often spending the night there in his car. By 1990 Troy Donahue was a faded name, more familiar as a bygone image than a current personality. Director
John Waters recognized Donahue's symbolizing the late 1950s and hired him for the 1990 romantic-comedy musical
Cry-Baby, paying tribute to Donahue's teen-idol days. In July 1998, he joined
Sandra Dee at the
Castro Theatre for a one-night revival of
A Summer Place. Donahue continued to act in films throughout the 1980s and into the late 1990s. However, he never regained the recognition that he had in the earlier years of his career. His final film role was in the 2000 comedy film
The Boys Behind the Desk, directed by
Sally Kirkland. ==Personal life==