Nathan Roderick Cox, better known as Rod Cameron, was a 6'4" Canadian-born actor born on December 7, 1910, in Alberta. He was raised in Alberta and initially aspired to become a Royal Canadian Mountie, but he decided to pursue a career in acting instead.
Cameron began his acting career in New York, working as a laborer on the Holland Tunnel project in Manhattan. When he failed to make progress in his acting career, he moved to California, where he made his film debut in an unbilled bit in the 1939 film "The Old Maid." However, his scene was deleted from the final cut.
Cameron found work as a stand-in for stars such as Fred MacMurray at Paramount Pictures and appeared in several films, including "Christmas in July" (1940) and "North West Mounted Police" (1940). He also played leading man in the studio's screen tests for starlet wanna-bes and fulfilled his early wish by playing a Mountie in the 1940 film "North West Mounted Police."
Cameron's breakout year was 1943, when he played the role of Agent Rex Bennett in the Republic serial cliffhangers "G-Men vs. The Black Dragon" and "Secret Service in Darkest Africa." He was then signed by Universal to appear in a flurry of low-budget westerns with Fuzzy Knight as his comic sidekick.
Cameron's roles often featured him as a rough-hewn hero, but he occasionally showed a softer side for the ladies, such as in the films "Salome, Where She Danced" (1945),"Frontier Gal" (1945),and "River Lady" (1948). He also appeared in a few non-action films, including the swing-era musical "Swing Out, Sister" (1945).
Throughout the 1950s, Cameron continued to appear in westerns, including "Brimstone" (1949),"Stampede" (1949),"Dakota Lil" (1950),and "San Antone" (1953). He also starred in the TV series "City Detective" (1953) and "State Trooper" (1956),and guest-starred on popular western series such as "Bonanza" (1959),"Laramie" (1959),and "The Virginian" (1962).
In the early 1960s, Cameron's film career began to fade, and he appeared in a few spaghetti westerns in Spain. He also appeared in a couple of low-budget westerns, including "Requiem for a Gunfighter" (1965) and "The Bounty Killer" (1965).
Cameron's personal life was marked by a scandalous divorce and remarriage to his ex-wife's mother, Dorothy, who was a few years older than him. He passed away in 1983 at the age of 73 due to an extended battle with cancer.
