John Alderman was a talented, prolific, and ubiquitous actor in numerous low-budget exploitation features who appeared in everything from 1960s softcore items to 1970s drive-in fare to 1980s hardcore porn throughout the course of his long and diverse career.
Alderman was born on June 12, 1934, in Syracuse, New York. His father was a prominent lawyer. Alderman attended Syracuse University as a theater major. He first began acting in both films and TV shows alike in the late 1950s, alternating between lead and co-starring roles. His most memorable parts include pathetic twitchy heroin addict Jimmy Devlin in the gloriously lurid The Hard Road (1973), antsy hoodlum Lattimer in This Is a Hijack (1973), a flunky for Shelley Winters in Jack Starrett's delightful blaxploitation blast Cleopatra Jones (1973), stuttering drug dealer Cockroach in The Black Godfather (1974), uptight all-girls school principal Dr. Baxter in the amusing Delinquent School Girls (1975) and coldly rational researcher Dr. Frank Rogers in the nifty sci-fi doomsday thriller The Alpha Incident (1978). Alderman appeared in four softcore movies for legendary schlockmeister David F. Friedman: Starlet! (1969), Thar She Blows! (1968), The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972) and Trader Hornee (1970). Although he primarily worked in maverick independent cinema productions, he nonetheless did manage to pop up in the occasional mainstream film like Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and The Stunt Man (1980).
In the early 1980s Alderman acted in a handful of hardcore X-rated porno films for director Gary Graver, under the pseudonym Frank Hallowell. Among the TV shows Alderman appeared on are Hunter (1984), Dynasty (1981), The Fall Guy (1981), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Iron Horse (1966), 12 O'Clock High (1964), The Lieutenant (1963), Checkmate (1960), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), Hawaiian Eye (1959), Wagon Train (1957) and Gunsmoke (1955). He directed the crime opus Lisa's Folly (1970) and co-wrote the script for the lowbrow comedy romp C.B. Hustlers (1976).
John Alderman died at age 52 of an apparent heart attack on January 12, 1987, in Hollywood, California.
