He was the infamous "dead man walking" from early television, an often-told tale about the "corpse" who got up and walked out of a scene on live TV. The incident was so well known that Los Angeles Times ran an article a few days after the incident, saying, "It seems that on the new high-budgeted CBS dramatic series, Climax! (1954), which had its debut on KNXT (2) Thursday night, actor Tristam Coffin was lying under a blanket and Detective Dick Powell was talking about having the body removed when the actor arose from the dead and strolled off scene. Powell and the other actors went right on talking as if nothing had happened. And the show went on and the private eye finally solved the murder, leaving televiewers a little perplexed. CBS blushingly explained yesterday that Coffin thought the scene was over and that he was off-camera when he took his macabre stroll". However, Coffin vigorously refuted the description (see Personal Quote below).

[about his more than 300 film and TV appearances] A lot of my films I can't remember the titles or having ever worked in them. You made so many, it was almost like being on a roller-skate going from one studio to another. On a couple of occasions I was working in two pictures on the same lot at the same time.