He was born Alan Herskovitz on April 22, 1933 in Chicago,
Illinois. He started his career first appearing on several television shows.
Known then as Mark Harris he signed a contract with 20th Century Fox and their
Regal Pictures affiliate and changed his name to Mark Damon. He appeared in
such films as “Between Heaven and Hell” (1956) and “Young and Dangerous”
(1957).
During the 1960s he was featured in Roger Corman's “House
of Usher”. In an attempt to boost his career, he relocated to Italy, where he
starred in several spaghetti westerns and B-movies, playing either the hero or
the antagonist. He was the only actor to appear in both “The Longest Day” and
“The Shortest Day” (both 1962). Mark appeared in 10 Euro-westerns from “Johnny
Yuma” (1966) to “The Great Treasure Hunt” (1972).
He eventually gave up acting in the mid-1970s to become a
film producer. His production and releasing company Producers Sales
Organization (1977) distributed several American films such as “The Final
Countdown” (1980) and “Prizzi's Honor” (1985) in foreign markets and
distributed “Das Boot” (1981) in the United States. As a production company
Damon's company helped finance “Never Say Never Again” (1983) and “Once Upon a
Time in America” (1984). Mark now heads the production company Vision
International Co. established in 1987.
Today we celebrate one of the leading actors of the
Euro-western Mark Damon on his 80th birthday.
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