Don Durant, 72; TV Cowboy Composed, Sang Show’s Theme

Don Durant, who sang with Ray Anthony and His Orchestra in the 1950s and starred in the short-lived TV Western “Johnny Ringo,” has died. He was 72.

Durant, who had been battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia since 1992, died March 15 at his home in Monarch Beach, Calif., said his family.

As the gunfighter-turned-lawman in “Johnny Ringo,” a half-hour series that ran on CBS from 1959 to 1960, Durant had the distinction of being the only prime-time TV cowboy to not only sing but compose -- both lyrics and music -- the theme for his own show.

In a television era in which many Western series heroes brandished gimmick firearms, Durant’s fast-drawing Johnny Ringo wielded a LeMat handgun that had an additional barrel that fired a shotgun round.

Although it ran only one season, the Aaron Spelling-produced “Johnny Ringo” generated about 100 toys and other items -- including Johnny Ringo board games, character puppets, gun sets and canteens.

The show, which continues in syndication, also spawned what is considered to be the single most valuable TV Western toy collectible ever -- the “Johnny Ringo Western Frontier Play Set,” featuring miniature figures, horses and wagons. In 2001, a play set sold on EBay for $8,998.

In close bidding against five others at the end, Durant himself had the winning bid. It was placed through his friend, Jacquelyn Patterson, a childhood fan from Knoxville, Tenn., who owns a website devoted to “Johnny Ringo.”

“He was my hero,” Patterson, who was 7 when the show first aired, told The Times on Wednesday.

“The reason I fell in love with him is because he sang to a little girl in the show who had been orphaned,” she said of an episode that aired on Christmas Eve 1959. “He tucked her into bed and sang her to sleep with ‘A Child’s Prayer.’ ”

Durant, who wrote the song, also sang different songs in two other episodes.

Singing came naturally to Durant, who toured as lead vocalist with Tommy Dorsey and Frankie Carle in the mid-’50s. He sang at the Sands and the Sahara in Las Vegas and headlined at the Hollywood Bowl and the Mocambo nightclub in West Hollywood.

Durant was a regular on the 1956-57 ABC musical-variety series “The Ray Anthony Show,” and he recorded the four-song Capitol Records EP “Ray Anthony and His Orchestra Introducing Don Durant.”

Born Donald Allison Durae in Long Beach in 1932, Durant spent part of his youth in Riverside and on a cattle ranch in Elko, Nev. While in high school in Riverside, he hosted a radio program on KPRO. He later served in the Naval Reserve and Army.

After launching his acting career touring with a theater group, Durant signed with CBS as a bit player and singer in 1954 and appeared on such shows as “The Jack Benny Show,” “The Red Skelton Show” and “General Electric Theater.”

His first leading role was in director Roger Corman’s 1958 low-budget adventure film “She Gods of Shark Reef.”

After guest spots on TV shows such as “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,” “Perry Mason,” “Maverick” and “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” Durant was cast as Johnny Ringo in a pilot that aired on “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater.”

After “Johnny Ringo” was canceled, Durant made guest appearances on “The Twilight Zone,” “The Virginian” and “Wagon Train.” He left acting in 1964 and began a second career in real estate and financial management.

He helped develop Lago de Palmas, a housing area in Palm Desert, and owned retail and industrial centers and mobile home parks. He served for many years as president and chairman of the political action committee of the Western Mobile Home Park Owners’ Assn.

As an arts supporter, Durant was involved in building Chapman University’s School of Film and Television. In his later years, he appeared at autograph shows and Western film festivals, where he would strap on his famous LeMat.

He is survived by his wife of 46 years, former actress and model Trudy Wroe; daughter Heidi; son Jeffrey; and two grandchildren.

His family suggests contributions be made to the Lymphoma Research Foundation, 111 Broadway, 19th floor, New York, N.Y. 10006.