Actor Albert Salmi, Wife Found Shot to Death

Albert Salmi, who became established as an actor with a moving portrayal of Bo Decker in the 1955 Broadway production of “Bus Stop” and then worked regularly in Hollywood in TV series and films, was found shot to death in the same house with his estranged wife, police in Spokane, Wash., said Tuesday.

Salmi apparently shot his wife and then killed himself, said police spokesman Lt. Robert Van Leuven. He was 62 and his wife, Roberta, was 55.

A neighbor who had gone to check on Mrs. Salmi on Monday night saw her body on the kitchen floor through a window and called police. Officers forced their way into the home and found Salmi’s body in an upstairs den, Van Leuven told the Associated Press.

Salmi apparently shot his wife with a small-caliber handgun and used a larger-caliber gun to shoot himself, Van Leuven said.

He added that the couple had been separated and that Mrs. Salmi had been living in the house alone. “I don’t know whether they were in the process of a divorce or not, but it appears there had been some domestic problems,” he said.

Salmi, who took up acting after World War II service and trained at the Dramatic Workshop of the American Theater Wing and at Lee Strasberg’s Actors’ Studio, had roles in at least 20 feature films, more than 150 television dramas and several Broadway plays.

Salmi’s portrayal of Decker, the simple cowboy who falls for a cafe singer, established his professional credentials.

It earned him several major awards and led to his being offered the part in the film version, which starred Marilyn Monroe. Salmi turned it down because--like most of his friends in Strasberg’s studio--he disdained film work.

But within three years he had changed his mind, appearing as Smerdyakov in “The Brothers Karamazov” and later in “Wild River,” “The Outrage,” “Lawman,” “Viva Knievel” and “Brubaker,” among other pictures.

In 1956 he and Paul Newman had starred in one of television’s most heralded programs, a U.S. Steel Hour production of “Beat the Drum Slowly.” He became a regular on TV in 1964, portraying Yadkin, Fess Parker’s companion in “Daniel Boone,” and also was seen on “Petrocelli” in the mid-1970s.

Salmi became a regular on “Gunsmoke” and was honored with a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his portrayals on that show and for guest appearances on such other TV Westerns as “Wagon Train,” “Man Called Shenandoah,” “Bonanza,” “The Virginian” and “Have Gun, Will Travel.”

In 1975 Salmi was seen on Public Television as the philandering butcher in the critically acclaimed Center Theatre Group-Mark Taper Forum production of “Who’s Happy Now?”

Police said the Salmis had moved to Spokane in the 1980s. He formerly was married to actress Peggy Ann Garner.