Kirby Grant

Grant was killed in a road accident on October 30, 1985 while on his way to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral. He was to be honored by the shuttle astronauts for his achievements.

After the show ended, Kirby traveled with the Carson and Barnes Circus and retired in 1970.

Sky King (1951) was a Television series where Kirby played a wealthy gentleman rancher who used his twin engine Cessna to capture the evil ones. As everyone knows, the plane was called the "Song Bird", his ranch was "the Flying Crown Ranch", located near "Grover, Arizona", and he had a niece named Penny and a nephew named Clipper.

He was chosen as the male winner of Jesse L. Lasky's "Gateway to Hollywood" radio talent search in July, 1939. His reward was membership in the Screen Actor's Guild and the stage name "Robert Stanton", which he used for several years before reverting to his birth name. The female winner of the same contest was a woman named Dorothy Howe who became Virginia Vale.

As a child, Kirby received a scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Kirby won the scholarship as a violinist and singer, but he also dabbled as a sculptor. He would play a violinist in the film, I Dream Too Much (1935), which starred Henry Fonda. While his movie career was less than spectacular, he did have the lead in a number of low- budget westerns and also played a Canadian Mountie in low-budget adventures. But it would be Television, where Kirby would gain the kind of fame that would follow him for the rest of his life. "Out of the blue of the western sky comes Sky King".

Kirby was a lifelong flying enthusiast taught to fly by barnstormers in the 1920's. "Sky King" was a huge success and Kirby made approximately 130 episodes which guaranteed syndication.