Deep Six (1958). He also appeared in episodes of Cheyenne, The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna and Colt .45. In 1958 he appeared (credited as Edward Byrnes) as Benji Danton on Cheyenne in the episode titled "The Last Comanchero." When Tab Hunter refused a role in the war film Darby's Rangers (1958), Byrnes stepped in instead. He was wanted for Baby Face Nelson (1957), but Warners would not loan him out. Byrnes also appeared in the romantic drama Marjorie Morningstar (1958) and Life Begins at 17 (1958). He appeared as a guest star in Maverick, The Deputy, and Sugarfoot, in the latter with John Russell, Rodolfo Hoyos Jr., and Will Wright in the 1958 season-premiere episode "Ring of Sand." He was in another war film titled Up Periscope (1959). 77 Sunset Strip Byrnes was cast in Girl on the Run, a pilot for a detective show starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Byrnes played contract killer Kenneth ("Kookie") Smiley, who continually combed his hair – Byrnes said this was an idea of his which the director liked and kept in. Around this time Byrnes decided to change his acting name from "Edward" to "Edd". "I just dreamed it up one day", he said. "Edward is too formal and there are lots of Eddies." The show aired in October 1958 and was so popular Warners decided to turn it into a TV series: 77 Sunset Strip. Byrnes' character became an immediate national teen sensation, prompting the producers to make Byrnes a regular cast member. They transformed Kookie from a hitman into a parking valet at Dino's Lodge who helped as a private investigator. Zimbalist Jr. explained the situation to the audience: Kookie's recurring character—a different, exciting look that teens of the day related to—was the valet-parking attendant who constantly combed his piled-high, greasy-styled teen hair, often in a windbreaker jacket, and who worked part-time at the so-called Dean Martin's Dino's Lodge restaurant, next door to a private-investigator agency at 77 Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Kookie frequently acted as an unlicensed, protégé detective who helped the private eyes (Zimbalist and Roger Smith) on their cases, based upon "the word" heard from Kookie's street informants. Kookie called everybody "Dad" (as in "Sure thing . . . Dad") and was television's homage to the "Jack Kerouac" style of cult-hipster of the late 1950s. The show became the most popular one in the country. To the