Tris Coffin

Tristram "Tris" Coffin
Tristram Coffin in Dangerous Money (1946)
Born	(1909-08-13)August 13, 1909 Mammoth, Utah, U.S.
Died	March 26, 1990(1990-03-26) (aged 80) Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Occupation	Film and television actor
Years active	1939-1977
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Coffin

Tristram Coffin (August 13, 1909–March 26, 1990), also known as Tris Coffin, was a film and television actor from the latter 1930s through the 1970s, usually in westerns or other action-adventure productions.

Coffin was born in the gold and silver mining community of Mammoth in Juab County in central Utah and reared in the state capital of Salt Lake City. He began acting while he was in high school and thereafter joined traveling stock companies. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech from the University of Washington at Seattle, Washington. He worked as a news analyst and sportscaster until spotted by a Hollywood talent scout. His stolid looks were said to have served him well in his later roles.

In 1940, Coffin appeared as Phillips, along with Milburn Stone, later of Gunsmoke, and I. Stanford Jolley, in Chasing Trouble, a comedy espionage film. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jeff King in Republic Pictures' King of the Rocket Men, the first of three serials starring the "Rocketman" character, who would later be paid homage to through the Dave Stevens-created comic book character The Rocketeer, which was adapted into a Walt Disney film in 1992. During the 1940s and into the early 1950s Coffin appeared in many other movie serials, including Mysterious Dr. Satan, Sky Raiders, Holt of the Secret Service, Perils of Nyoka, Federal Agents vs. the Underworld, Radar Patrol vs. Spy King, and Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere.