Stack attained the rank of full lieutenant. His Navy service was another link in the traditional chain of Stack family history, following nine relatives in the Navy, including a cousin who bore the rank of Rear Admiral and an uncle who was a commander. After his tour of duty, Stack returned to Hollywood and appeared in A Dale with Judy (1947), with Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Powell.ĭuring World War II, Stack’s work was that of an aerial gunnery instructor. He enlisted in the Navy at the outset of WWII, served as an aerial gunnery instructor both at home and overseas, and became a lieutenant. Seduced by the theater in high school, Stack quit college at USC to enroll in the Henry Duffy School of Theatre and was signed by Universal Studios after graduation for the leading role in First Love (1939), with Deanna Durbin. Most of the brilliant names of the entertainment world were guests of his family during his childhood years – so it was natural that his first and only ambition was to follow in the pattern of these people whom he had come to regard as the most colorful personalities in the world. Stack grew up among motion picture, concert, opera, and radio favorites. When they returned, he could speak French and Italian fluently at the age of six, but very little English. Langford Stack, who once entertained prohibition officers in his “library” in the late 1920s, and coined the well known Schlitz advertising slogan, “The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous,” Stack’s earliest years found him in Europe with his family. Through Stack’s portrayal, Eliot Ness became an instant all-American hero virtually overnight and propelled an accomplished film star into the national limelight as no prior theatrical engagement had.Ī fifth-generation Los Angeles native, World War II Navy veteran, and son of West Coast legend J.
He would be no ordinary peace officer with badge and gun, but rather the entire United States federal government, conveying to all concerned the illusion that confronting him was futile, possibly suicidal.
Signing on to spite his agent, Stack would bring to the character of Eliot Ness a measure of reinforced concrete.
A blue-eyed, imposingly good-looking leading man in theatrical films beginning in 1939, Stack once feared that any role in television, leading or otherwise, would be viewed as heralding the downside of his career, and he at first refused the role.