Soldiers of Fortune (TV series)

This article is about the 1955 American TV show. For the TVB Hong Kong drama, see Soldier of Fortune (1982 TV series). For other uses, see Soldier of Fortune (disambiguation).

Soldiers of Fortune is a syndicated half hour American television adventure series that ran from 1955 to 1957. It starred John Russell as Tim Kelly, and Chick Chandler as his sidekick Toubo Smith, who were international adventurers. Episodes take place in different countries.^[1] Many of the film crew had worked at Republic Pictures studios with the show filmed on Republic's backlot^{[citation needed]} then used by television's Revue Productions.^[2] The series ran for 52 episodes,^[3] and was constantly rerun on American television into the 1960s.

Soldiers of Fortune
Genre	Adventure
Starring	John Russell Chick Chandler
Theme music composer	Paul Dunlap
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company	Revue Studios
Original release
Network	Syndication
Release	January 10, 1955 (1955-01-10) – March 10, 1957 (1957-03-10)

Cast

Main

• John Russell as Tim Kelly
• Chick Chandler as Toubo Smith

Guest stars

• Frances Bavier
• Andy Clyde in "Hate at Forty Fathoms" (1955)
• Carol Thurston as Nari in "Massacre in Mokhara" (1956)
• Uncredited actors include Filipino Hollywood actor Rudy Robles acting on various roles.^{[citation needed]}

Production

The series began as a television pilot called Adventure in Java that was shown on the Chevron Theatre on 10 February 1953.^{[citation needed]} The show starred Tim Holt^[4] and Charles Bronson then credited as Charles Buchinsky.^[5]

The show was sponsored for two years by 7 Up soft drink with the firm also sending the stars out on national publicity tours.^[6]

One year after Soldiers of Fortune was cancelled, John Russell went on to star as Marshal Dan Troop in the successful ABC/Warner Brothers western series Lawman.^[7]

DVD release

Timeless Media Group (TMG) released a Region 1 five disc DVD set titled Soldiers of Fortune: The Complete Television Series on November 30, 2010. It includes all 29 episodes of Season 1 and all 23 episodes of Season 2.^[8]