Seamon Glass: Movies & Box Office

Seamon Glass (September 26, 1925 – July 12, 2016) was an American actor and author whose life blended gritty military service, rugged boxing, and a modest yet memorable Hollywood career. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he lost his father at age eleven and soon after his family relocated to California, where his mother raised him while he attended Santa Monica Junior College on the G.I. Bill. There he became the heavyweight boxing champion of the college, a triumph that launched him into amateur and professional bouts, including a brief pro record of 1–2 in 1960. His wartime service in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II saw him stationed in British Samoa and the Marshall Islands, where a Japanese bombing raid caused permanent hearing loss and earned him a disability pension. After the war he wore many hats—seaman with the Merchant Marine, high‑school teacher and guidance counselor at Fairfax High, bartender, newspaper columnist for the Santa Monica Independent, and even bodyguard for Darryl F. Zanuck’s daughter. These varied experiences, especially his work as a boxing instructor for actors, opened doors to the film industry where he was discovered by producer‑director Fred Gadette.

Glass’s on‑screen debut came as the lead in This Is Not a Test (1962), a Cold‑War thriller in which he portrayed a lawman racing against an impending nuclear strike. He later appeared in the iconic Star Trek episode “Mudd’s Women” (1966) as Benton, and delivered a chilling performance as the menacing “First Griner” in John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972). Despite these notable roles, Glass often chose the stability of teaching and seafaring over the uncertain whims of Hollywood, even turning down extra work on films like Kid Galahad and Captain Newman, M.D.. In the late 1970s he returned to education, teaching abroad in China, while continuing to write, publishing the memoir Half‑Assed Marines in 2010. He spent his later years patrolling the Santa Monica Harbor at night, a job that afforded quiet hours for his writing and column work, before passing away in Los Angeles at the age of 90.