[1] During the Great Depression, his family moved to California, where he acted in amateur theatre as a teenager, until he was old enough to enlist in the United States Army late in World War II.
[1] He was shot in the shoulder during the Battle of Okinawa, and spent the rest of his life telling the story that he knew he was destined to become an actor when he realized he was responding to the injury like a character in a John Wayne film.
[1] After the end of the war, he went to New York City to study acting under Erwin Piscator at the Dramatic Workshop, where he was a classmate of Harry Belafonte, Tony Curtis and Rod Steiger.
[13] Following the end of that show's run, most of the cast returned to Canada, although Creley remained in London to take a role as Mr. Staines in the film Dr.
[16] He directed a musical revue, The Decline and Fall of the Entire World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter, in 1965 and 1966, and when he stepped in for several shows in the absence of lead performer Louis Negin, it was his first time singing on stage since the end of Clap Hands in 1963.
[2] They also had a widespread reputation among actors as being excellent hosts of parties; performers such as Vivien Leigh, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Bea Arthur and Billy Dee Williams were frequent houseguests of the couple.