He played quiet, thoughtful teens in Universal's feature films, including a lead opposite singing star Gloria Jean in Reckless Age, earning $350 weekly.

He became a freelance actor during the 1950s and worked for various studios on a variety of pictures, including the horror and science fiction films Cult of the Cobra (1955), Fiend Without a Face (1958), and First Man Into Space (1959), as well as Audie Murphy's To Hell and Back (1955).

The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) was one of the two genre films that later inspired the plot for director Ridley Scott's 1979 big-budget feature Alien.

The drama follows Mel Hunter, a U. S. counter-espionage agent, accidentally miniaturized to just six inches in height, who must live in a dollhouse when not on missions.

He co-starred with the Belgian-born Annie Fargé in the 33-episode CBS sitcom Angel (1960–1961)[6] about an American architect with a charming but scatterbrained French wife, who often got into zany, Lucy Ricardo-esque situations, caused in part by her lack of fluency in the English language.

In 1965 he returned to MGM to play the lead in the Ivan Tors produced comedy-adventure film Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965).