LOS ANGELES -- Actor Scott Brady, a rugged '50s leading man in such Westerns and film comedies as 'Battle Flame' and 'Operation Bikini,' has died of respiratory failure. He was 60.
Brady died Wednesday at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, a spokesman said. He had been treated for some time for respiratory problems.
Brady's most recent film appearances were in 'China Syndrome' and 'Gremlins,' in which he played a befuddled policeman done in by the vicious little creatures.
He starred in dozens of Westerns including 'Battle Flame,' 'Red Tomahawk,' 'Kansas Raiders,' 'Maverick Queen' and 'The Law vs. Billy the Kid.'
His other films included 'Gentlemen Marry Brunettes,' 'The Model and the Marriage Broker,' 'He Walked By Night,' 'Perilous Journey,' 'Johnny Guitar,' 'Cain's Way' and 'Doctors Wives.'
Brady also had the title role in the TV series 'Shotgun Slade,' where he portrayed an odd mixture of a swinging private eye and Western hero working on horseback for banks, insurance companies and saloon owners. The series aired from 1959 to 1961.
Born Gerald Tierney in Brooklyn, N.Y., Brady was a former lumberjack and Navy boxing champion, is survived by his wife, Lisa, their two sons, and his brother, actor Lawrence Tierney, who played the title role in the 1945 gangster movie 'Dillinger.'
A tough looking Irishman, Brady had a reputation as one of Hollywood's most ardent bachelors until his marriage in 1967. Before that Brady was noted for his caustic advice to fellow bachelors.
'The first thing to remember is never date the same girl twice,' was one of his warnings.
Another went, 'When a dame mentions marriage, turn on the Jack Paar show and cry along with him.'
An ardent fan of the Notre Dame football team, Brady once drew on his love of the Irish to describe the only way he would ever be tempted to the altar.
'I mean if a great Notre Dame all-American like Bronco Nagurski had a daughter,' he quipped, 'I would marry her.'
Brady's Irish sympathies were somewhat misplaced -- Nagurski played for Minnesota.
In 1957 Brady also made headlines when he and his publicist were arrested during a police raid on his home in the Hollywood Hills. Officers said they found two marijuana cigarettes, but Brady claimed they had been planted, and the charges were later dropped for insufficient evidence.
