Kathy Pinna
Body of Actor Tom Pittman Found in Car
The body of Tom Pittman, one of Hollywood's most promising young actors, was found yesterday in his wrecked sports racing car deep in Benedict Canyon. Missing since early on the morning of Nov. 1, Pittman apparently failed to make a curve in the 2800 block of Benedict Canyon Drive and plunged end-over-end 300 feet down an embankment. The powerful automobile was lying on its side and Pittman's body was found on the floor.
NOTICES RAIL: Officer Roy Kerton spotted the vehicle after noticing a smashed guard rail on the highway above the wreckage. An 8-foot length of the rail still penetrated the windshield. Pittman had been the object of a search since Nov. 1 when he failed to return to his West Hollywood home from a party in San Fernando Valley. A missing persons report was filed with the Sheriff's office a week later by hi father, Television and Radio Actor Frank Alten.
LIKE JAMES DEAN: Pittman was likened to the late actor, James Dean - both in life and death. Like Dean, he was moody, a habitué of coffee houses with but one love: speed. And, like Dean, Pittman was the proud owner of a super-fast Porsche Spyder. Pittman's car, a coupe, was custom built in Switzerland. Both met death in these powerful race cars.
Pittman, 26, had just completed his most important movie role in the soon-to-be released film "Verboten," produced at RKIO by Sam Fuller. "We lost a great talent with the death of Tom," Fuller said yesterday. "You will hear a great deal about this last picture of his. I am terribly shocked over his death."
In the picture, as in real life, young Pittman meets a violent death. Friends said Pittman was divorced and the father of a small boy.
- This contemporaneous article was published in The Los Angeles Times on Thursday, November 20, 1958 on Page 2.
NOTICES RAIL: Officer Roy Kerton spotted the vehicle after noticing a smashed guard rail on the highway above the wreckage. An 8-foot length of the rail still penetrated the windshield. Pittman had been the object of a search since Nov. 1 when he failed to return to his West Hollywood home from a party in San Fernando Valley. A missing persons report was filed with the Sheriff's office a week later by hi father, Television and Radio Actor Frank Alten.
LIKE JAMES DEAN: Pittman was likened to the late actor, James Dean - both in life and death. Like Dean, he was moody, a habitué of coffee houses with but one love: speed. And, like Dean, Pittman was the proud owner of a super-fast Porsche Spyder. Pittman's car, a coupe, was custom built in Switzerland. Both met death in these powerful race cars.
Pittman, 26, had just completed his most important movie role in the soon-to-be released film "Verboten," produced at RKIO by Sam Fuller. "We lost a great talent with the death of Tom," Fuller said yesterday. "You will hear a great deal about this last picture of his. I am terribly shocked over his death."
In the picture, as in real life, young Pittman meets a violent death. Friends said Pittman was divorced and the father of a small boy.
- This contemporaneous article was published in The Los Angeles Times on Thursday, November 20, 1958 on Page 2.
Amanda S. Stevenson 
