Earl Hammond began acting in radio at the age of 7 and continued working in that venue throughout his life. In the 1940s, he had a regular role as a young lawyer on a radio soap opera. From 1974 to 1982, he acted on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, appearing in 189 episodes -- more than 12% of the entire run of the 1,399 episodes of that radio series. Hammond started his television career in the early 1950s, his first major role being as a regular called Sergeant Lane on the DuMont police drama "Inside Detective" (aka "Rocky King Detective," st…