# John Agar
**John Agar** (John George Agar Jr.; January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002) was an American film and television actor whose career began with leading roles in [John Ford](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-ford)'s cavalry Westerns of the late 1940s and settled, from the mid-1950s onward, into lead parts in low-budget science fiction and horror films. His 1945 marriage to the child star [Shirley Temple](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-temple) propelled him into acting; after their divorce his career declined, and he became identified with the B science fiction movies of the 1950s and 1960s, a connection he later embraced at fan conventions.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | January 31, 1921, Chicago, Illinois; April 7, 2002, Burbank, California, of emphysema[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) |
| Breakthrough | Film debut as Lt. Michael Shannon O'Rourke in John Ford's *Fort Apache* (1948), opposite John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Temple[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/85026-John-Agar) |
| Signature Westerns | *She Wore a Yellow Ribbon* (1949) and *Sands of Iwo Jima* (1949), both with John Wayne[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) |
| Science fiction leads | About two dozen lead roles in 1950s and 1960s science fiction films, including *Tarantula* (1955), *Revenge of the Creature* (1955), *The Mole People* (1956), and *The Brain from Planet Arous* (1957)[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) |
| Marriages | Shirley Temple, September 19, 1945 to 1949 (one daughter, Linda Susan); Loretta Barnett Combs, from 1951 until her death in 2000 (two sons)[3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000730/bio/) |
| Honors | Golden Boot Award (1991) for Western work; Life Career Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1981)[4](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/john-agar/bio/3030239102/) |
| Filmography size | 52 titles listed in the AFI Catalog filmography[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/85026-John-Agar) |
## Early life and marriage to Shirley Temple
Agar was born in Chicago, the oldest of four children of John G. Agar, a meatpacker, and Lillian R. Agar. His father died in 1935, and the family later moved to Los Angeles.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) He attended the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago and graduated from Pawling Prep in Pawling, New York.[5](https://www.johnagar.com/)
During World War II he served in the [United States Army Air Corps](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-army-air-corps) as a sergeant and physical training instructor, and was honorably discharged in 1945.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) • [6](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/john-agar-obituary?id=28136412) Through his sister, a classmate of Shirley Temple at the Westlake School for Girls, he met the 17-year-old star at a pool party at her family's Beverly Hills home, and the two married on September 19, 1945, at the Wilshire Memorial Church in Los Angeles.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000730/bio/) The wedding made international headlines; the *Guardian* obituary describes the couple marrying before gossip columnists from around the world and thousands of fans.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews)
After Agar returned to civilian life, the producer [David O. Selznick](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-o-selznick), who held Temple under exclusive contract, offered him a movie contract at $150 a week, acting lessons included.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) The *Washington Post* account notes that the weekly rate was nearly double his military pay.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/04/10/actor-john-agar/44aacb7d-0825-4ad8-854b-05a14565c79a/)
## The John Ford Westerns and early career
Agar made his film debut in 1948 as a young lieutenant in *Fort Apache*, the first film of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy," starring [John Wayne](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-wayne), Henry Fonda, and Temple, who played Agar's love interest.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) In the plot, Fonda's martinet colonel refuses to allow his daughter to marry Agar's Lieutenant O'Rourke, though the on-screen romance blossoms.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews)
In 1949 he appeared in three releases: *She Wore a Yellow Ribbon*, the second film of Ford's cavalry trilogy and the only one shot in color, in which he and [Harry Carey Jr.](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-carey-jr) played rival lieutenants vying for the hand of [Joanne Dru](https://www.edgepedia.org/joanne-dru); the Temple comedy *Adventure in Baltimore*; and the war drama *Sands of Iwo Jima*, again with Wayne, in which he played a cocky recruit who leads his men forward after Wayne's character dies.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews) • [9](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26100-SHE-WORE-A-YELLOW-RIBBON) The *Washington Post* called these first roles his best.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/04/10/actor-john-agar/44aacb7d-0825-4ad8-854b-05a14565c79a/)
The same year, his four-year marriage to Temple, which had produced a daughter, Linda Susan, ended in divorce.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) The *Guardian* reports that Temple filed after her husband's excessive drinking, including an arrest for drunken driving, and his philandering.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews) Agar joined [Alcoholics Anonymous](https://www.edgepedia.org/alcoholics-anonymous), remarried, and continued acting.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews)
## The science fiction years
Agar's career slid into low-budget genre work after the divorce. In 1951 he appeared with [Kirk Douglas](https://www.edgepedia.org/kirk-douglas) in *Along the Great Divide* and co-starred opposite [Lucille Ball](https://www.edgepedia.org/lucille-ball) in *The Magic Carpet*, a low-budget Arabian Nights adventure that the *Los Angeles Times* identifies as the first of a series of minor fantasy and science fiction films he made in that period.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
Under contract to Universal in the mid-1950s, he appeared in four films, all B science fiction pictures except the Western *Star in the Dust* (1956).[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) He told the interviewer and film historian Tom Weaver, who profiled him for *Fangoria* and *Starlog*, that "I never turned anything down," fearing he would lose work if he rejected roles.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) By 1956, after *The Mole People*, generally considered the weakest of Universal's 1950s science fiction output, he was tired of being typecast and left the studio when his contract option came up for renewal.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
The move did not help. As Weaver put it, once Agar became a freelancer, "the cheapo monster movie makers came to him, so he ended up right back in the science fiction stuff again."[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) Across the 1950s and 1960s he played leads in about two dozen science fiction films, including *Revenge of the Creature* and *[Tarantula](https://www.edgepedia.org/tarantula-1955-film)* (both 1955), *The Mole People* (1956), *The Brain from Planet Arous* (1957), *Attack of the Puppet People* (1958), *Journey to the Seventh Planet* (1962), and, later, *Zontar: The Thing from Venus* and *Curse of the Swamp Creature* (both 1966).[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) • [7](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/85026-John-Agar) Weaver called him "one of the top science fiction heroes" on the strength of *Revenge of the Creature* and *Tarantula*, which he described as high-profile and very profitable movies.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
The *Irish Times* obituary placed this work in context: Agar "achieved cult status as the exceptionally handsome but bland and stolid leading man in 1950s science-fiction classics such as Tarantula, Revenge of the Creature, Brain from Planet Arous and a dozen others," while by 1966 he was appearing in films like *Zontar the Thing from Venus* and *Women of the Prehistoric Planet*.[10](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/john-agar-1.282206)
## Later career and the fan circuit
John Wayne, his co-star from the Ford films, helped Agar get small parts in *The Undefeated* (1969), *Chisum* (1970), and *Big Jake* (1971).[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/04/10/actor-john-agar/44aacb7d-0825-4ad8-854b-05a14565c79a/) Agar appeared in the 1976 remake of *[King Kong](https://www.edgepedia.org/king-kong-1976-film)* as a New York City official who supervised the blasting of Kong off the World Trade Center.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) In the 1980s and 1990s, filmmakers who had grown up watching his movies cast him in small parts in films such as *[Miracle Mile](https://www.edgepedia.org/miracle-mile-film)* (1989), *[Nightbreed](https://www.edgepedia.org/nightbreed)* (1990), and *Body Bags* (1993), and his last screen appearance was in *The Naked Monster* (2005).[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) • [11](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/john-agar/)
To supplement an acting income from small film and television parts, Agar sold insurance and for many years promoted Brunswick's senior bowling program.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) From the 1970s onward he was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions and autograph shows, and his son Martin recalled that he would stay until the last person in line received an autograph.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
He did not resent the association. "No, I don't resent being identified with them at all -- why should I?" he told Weaver in 1986 of the B science fiction films. "Even though they were not considered top of the line, for those people that like sci-fi, I guess they were fun. My whole feeling about working as an actor is, if I give anybody any enjoyment, I'm doing my job, and that's what counts."[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
## Assessment
Obituaries framed Agar's career as a fall and a second life. The *Washington Post* described him as "often a tall, handsome and static male hero, a secondary male lead" to Wayne, Fonda, and Kirk Douglas, and noted that some derisively called him "Mr. Shirley Temple."[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/04/10/actor-john-agar/44aacb7d-0825-4ad8-854b-05a14565c79a/) The producer A.C. Lyles, who used Agar in Paramount Westerns in the 1960s and early 1970s, offered a different view: "Although he got into pictures because of Shirley Temple, he became a very good professional actor, whether in big pictures or small pictures."[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) Western fans, Weaver noted, "like to lay claim to him too," citing his early Ford roles and his later work with Wayne.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
Agar died of emphysema on April 7, 2002, at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, at age 81. He was survived by his daughter Linda, sons [John III](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-iii) and Martin, two brothers, and four grandchildren.[1](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html) • [6](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/john-agar-obituary?id=28136412)
## References
1. [John Agar, 81; Starred in Westerns, Sci-Fi Movies, Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2002](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-09-me-agar9-story.html)
2. [John Agar filmography, AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/85026-John-Agar)
3. [John Agar Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000730/bio/)
4. [John Agar Biography, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/john-agar/bio/3030239102/)
5. [The Official John Agar Website](https://www.johnagar.com/)
6. [John Agar Obituary, Legacy.com / Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2002](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/john-agar-obituary?id=28136412)
7. [John Agar obituary, The Guardian, April 13, 2002](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews)
8. [Actor John Agar, The Washington Post, April 9, 2002](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/04/10/actor-john-agar/44aacb7d-0825-4ad8-854b-05a14565c79a/)
9. [She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/26100-SHE-WORE-A-YELLOW-RIBBON)
10. [John Agar, The Irish Times, February 17, 2001](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/john-agar-1.282206)
11. [John Agar, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/john-agar/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Film people and crafts › Film actors and performers › Character actors, B-movie and genre-circuit performers › American performers, early era*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license