A local Los Angeles boy (born 1934), John Papiro was named Race Gentry by the same beefcake specialist, super agent Henry Willson, that also conjured up Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Troy Donahue and Ty Hardin. Like Hudson, Gentry came out of the Universal-International charm school and actually played Rock's character as a teenager in his screen debut, THE LAWLESS BREED (1953). The name, according to Universal publicity, was chosen because of the young man's off screen fondness for cars and car racing. He later appeared in the stock car melodrama THUNDER IN CAROLINA (1960), but by then he had dropped the silly moniker and was now billed as John Gentry.
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