Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

'Tristram Coffin' (1909–1990), also known as 'Tris Coffin', was a movie and TV actor from the late-1930s through the late-1970s, usually in westerns or other action-adventure films. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jeff King in Republic Studios' King of the Rocket Men, the first of three serials starring the "Rocketman" character, who would later be paid homage to through the character of The Rocketeer, which was adapted into a Disney film in 1992. He had several guest roles throughout the series Adventures of Superman, sometimes playing a "good guy", sometimes a "bad guy". He also had a role in the very first TV episode of The Lone Ranger, as Captain Reid of the Texas Rangers, the older brother of the man who would become The Lone Ranger after his brother and four other comrades were murdered by outlaws. Coffin also played the lead as Captain Tom Rynning in the TV series "26 Men". "26 Men" was based on the true official files of the Arizona Rangers in the final days of taming the "old west" before Arizona became a State in 1912. He committed a noted blooper on television, in The Long Goodbye, in which he didn't realize he was still on frame and walked off camera, despite the fact that his character was supposed to be dead. He also appeared in another episode of Climax!, Escape From Fear, in 1955.