Kelley was delivered by his uncle at his parents' home in Atlanta, the son of Clora (née Casey) and Ernest David Kelley, who was a Baptist minister of Irish and Southern ancestry.

DeForest was named after the pioneering electronics engineer Lee De Forest, and later named his Star Trek character's father "David" after his own. Kelley was delivered in their home by his uncle, a prominent local physician. Kelley had an older brother, Ernest Casey Kelley. As a child, he often played outside for hours at a time. Kelley was immersed in his father's mission in Conyers and promised his father failure would mean "wreck and ruin". Before the end of his first year at Conyers, Kelley was introduced into the congregation to his musical talents and often sang solo in morning church services. Eventually, this led to an appearance on the radio station WSB AM in Atlanta, Georgia. As a result of his radio work, he won an engagement with Lew Forbes and his orchestra at the Paramount Theater.

In 1934, the family left Conyers for the community of Decatur. He attended the Decatur Boys High School where he played on the Decatur Bantams baseball team. Kelley also played football and other sports. Before his graduation, Kelley got a job as a drugstore car hop. He spent his weekends working in the local theatres. Kelley graduated in 1938.

During World War II, Kelley served as an enlisted man in the United States Army Air Forces between March 10, 1943, and January 28, 1946, assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit. After an extended stay in Long Beach, California, Kelley decided to pursue an acting career and relocate to southern California permanently, living for a time with his uncle Casey. He worked as an usher in a local theater in order to earn enough money for the move. Kelley's mother encouraged her son in his new career goal, but his father disliked the idea. While in California, Kelley was spotted by a Paramount Pictures scout while doing a United States Navy training film.

Career 

Kelley's acting career began with the feature film Fear in the Night in 1947. The low-budget movie was a hit, bringing him to the attention of a national audience and giving Kelley reason to believe that he would soon become a star. His next role, in Variety Girl, established him as a leading actor and resulted in the founding of his first fan club. Kelley did not become a leading man, however, and he and his wife, Carolyn, decided to move to New York City. He found work on stage and on live television, but after three years in New York, the Kelleys returned to Hollywood. In California, he received a role in an installment of You Are There, anchored by Walter Cronkite. He played ranch owner Bob Kitteridge in the 1949 episode "Legion of Old Timers" of the TV series The Lone Ranger. This led to an appearance in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as Morgan Earp (brother to Burt Lancaster's Wyatt Earp). This role was a source for three movie offers, including Warlock with Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn. In 1957, he had a small role as a Southern officer in "Raintree County", a Civil War film directed by Edward Dmytryck, alongside Lee Marvin, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance.

Kelley also appeared in episodes of The Donna Reed Show, Perry Mason, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Boots and Saddles, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, Death Valley Days,Riverboat, Lawman, Bat Masterson, and Laredo. He appeared in the 1962 episode of Route 66, "1800 Days to Justice", and "The Clover Throne" as Willis. He had a small role in the movie The View from Pompey's Head.

For nine years, Kelley primarily played villains. He built up an impressive list of credits, alternating between television and motion pictures. However, he was afraid of typecasting, so he broke away from villains by starring in Where Love Has Gone and a television pilot called 333 Montgomery. The pilot was written by an ex-policeman named Gene Roddenberry, and a few years later Kelley would appear in another Roddenberry pilot, Police Story (1967), that was again not developed into a series.

Kelley also appeared in at least one Old Time Radio program. Guest starring on Suspense, in the episode "Flesh Peddler," Kelley portrays a booking agent trying to book a ventriloquist act he finds at a traveling carnival. Becoming obsessed with finding out why the ventriloquist rejects his offer to leave a carnival for the higher class venues, the "flesh peddler" offers (and after the cryptic warnings of the ventriloquist's fellow carnies), Kelley's character nearly loses his life before learning the truth. The episode aired on August 4, 1957 and is available for free download at a variety of OTR websites. At the beginning of the episode, series producer William M Robson introduced Kelley as "a bright new luminary in the Hollywood firmament, who is presently being seen as Morgan Earp in "Gunfight at OK Corral."

Death 

Kelley died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1999. His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Source: Wikipedia