Howard Christie; Film and TV Producer

Howard Christie, a film producer whose more than 40 movies featured actors as disparate as Bud Abbott and Rock Hudson, has died at his Ventura County home.

His son, John, said Thursday that his father was 79 when he died Wednesday night in Oakview of what he described as a long illness.

Christie was born in San Francisco and started out as an actor after attending UC Berkeley. His earliest films as a producer, mainly for Universal-International, included “Lady on a Train” with Deanna Durbin and Ralph Bellamy, and “Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.”

His other films included “Away All Boats,” “Comin’ Round the Mountain,” “The Purple Mask,” “Seminole” (with Hudson and Anthony Quinn), “Sword of Ali Baba” and several other Abbott and Costello pictures.

His TV credits included the Westerns “Wagon Train,” “Laredo” and “The Virginian.”