Troy Donahue was, in name and screen image, an emblem of the late-'50s teen male movie heartthrob, cinematic cousin to the "teen idol" recording star. Born Merle Johnson Jr. in New York City, he was the son of a General Motors executive. While attending Columbia University in the mid-'50s, he happened to play some roles in summer stock when he was spotted by a talent agent. This was just at a time when performers such as James Dean, Tab Hunter, and Robert Wagner had established an audience — mostly among adolescent and post-adolescent girls — for young male teen (and post-teenage) romantic leads, and he was brought out to Hollywood. Merle Johnson Jr. was renamed Troy Donahue by Harry Wilson, the same studio executive who had suggested that a certain Roy Fitzgerald adopt the name Rock Hudson, and he was initially signed to Universal Studios. Donahue appeared in small, uncredited roles in such pictures as Man Afraid, Man of a Thousand Faces, and The Monolith Monsters before getting his first major role in Douglas Sirk's The Tarnished Angels…  » Read more