John Howard Payne | |
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Payne in Kansas City Confidential (1952) |
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Born | May 23, 1912 Roanoke, Virginia, U.S. |
Died | December 6, 1989 Malibu, California, U.S. |
(aged 77)
Occupation | Actor, singer |
Years active | 1936–1975 |
Spouse | Anne Shirley (1937-1942) Gloria DeHaven (1944-1950) Alexandra Crowell Curtis (1953-1989) (his death) |
John Howard Payne[1] (May 23, 1912 – December 6, 1989[2][3]) was an American film actor who is mainly remembered as a singer in 20th Century Fox musical films, and for his leading roles in Miracle on 34th Street and the NBC Western television series The Restless Gun.
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Payne was born in Roanoke, Virginia. His mother, Ida Hope (née Schaeffer), a singer, graduated from the Virginia Seminary in Roanoke and married George Washington Payne, a developer in Roanoke. They lived at Fort Lewis, an antebellum mansion that became a state historic property but was destroyed by fire in the late 1950s. Payne went to Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City in the fall of 1930. He studied drama at Columbia and voice at Juilliard School. To support himself, he took on a variety of odd jobs, including wrestling and singing in vaudeville. In 1934, a talent scout for the Shubert theaters spotted Payne and gave him a job as a stock player.
Payne toured with several Shubert Brothers shows, and frequently sang on New York-based radio programs. In 1936, he landed a contract at Samuel Goldwyn, and he left New York for Hollywood. He worked for various studios until 1940, when he signed with 20th Century Fox. Fox made him a star, in 1940s musicals like Tin Pan Alley (1940), Sun Valley Serenade (1941), and Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943). In these films, he was typically cast as a supporting player in love with the likes of Sonja Henie, Betty Grable, and Alice Faye. A highlight during this period was co-starring with Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power in The Razor's Edge (1946).
Payne's most popular role may be his final film for Fox, that of attorney Fred Gailey in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). It is almost certainly his most visible role, as frequently as that film is aired during the Christmas season.
Later in his career Payne changed his image and began playing tough-guy roles in Hollywood films noir and Westerns including Kansas City Confidential (1952), 99 River Street (1953), Silver Lode (1954), Tennessee's Partner (1955) and Slightly Scarlet (1956). Payne was a contract star with Pine-Thomas Productions where he shrewdly insisted that the films he appeared in be filmed in color and that the rights to the films revert to him after several years, making him wealthy when he rented them to television.[4]
In 1955, he paid a $1,000-a-month option for nine months on the Ian Fleming James Bond novel Moonraker (he eventually gave up the option when he learned he could not retain the rights for the entire book series).
Payne also starred as Vint Bonner, an educated, commonsense gunfighter, in The Restless Gun, which aired on Monday evenings from 1957 to 1959, prior to Dale Robertson's western series Tales of Wells Fargo. Dan Blocker, James Coburn, and Don Grady made their first substantive acting forays with Payne on The Restless Gun.
On October 31, 1957, as The Restless Gun began airing, Payne guest starred on The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
In March 1961, Payne suffered extensive, life-threatening injuries when struck by a car in New York City.[5] His recovery took two years. In his later roles, facial scars from the accident can be detected in close-ups; he chose not to have them removed. One of Payne's first public appearances during this period was as a guest panelist on the popular CBS game show What's My Line?.
Payne directed one of his last films, They Ran for Their Lives (1968). His final role was in 1975, when he co-starred with Peter Falk and Janet Leigh in the Columbo episode "Forgotten Lady".
Later in life, Payne, like former Daniel Boone series star Fess Parker, became wealthy through real estate investments in Southern California.
Payne was married to actress Anne Shirley from 1937 to 1942[6]; they had a daughter, Julie Anne Payne. He then married actress Gloria DeHaven in 1944[7][8]; the union produced two children, Kathleen Hope Payne and Thomas John Payne, before ending in a divorce in 1950.[9] Payne then married Alexandra Beryl "Sandy" Crowell Curtis in 1953,[10] and remained with her until his death.
He was the father-in-law of writer-director Robert Towne, who married his oldest daughter Julie.
Payne died in Malibu, California, of congestive heart failure on December 6, 1989, aged 77.[2]
He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Year | Title | Role | Co-starring |
---|---|---|---|
1936 | Dodsworth | Harry McKee | Walter Huston |
1937 | Fair Warning | Jim Preston | Betty Furness |
Hats Off | Jimmy Maxwell | Mae Clarke | |
Love on Toast | Bill Adams | Stella Adler | |
1938 | College Swing | Martin Bates | George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, Bob Hope, and Betty Grable |
Garden of the Moon | Don Vincente | Pat O'Brien | |
1939 | Kid Nightingale | Steve Nelson aka Kid Nightingale | Jane Wyman |
Wings of the Navy | Jerry Harrington | George Brent and Olivia de Havilland | |
Indianapolis Speedway | Eddie Greer | Ann Sheridan | |
The Royal Rodeo | Bill Stevens | ||
1940 | Star Dust | Ambrose Fillmore aka Bud Borden | Linda Darnell |
Maryland | Lee Danfield | Walter Brennan | |
King of the Lumberjacks | James 'Jim'/'Slim' Abbott | Gloria Dickson | |
The Great Profile | Richard Lansing | John Barrymore and Anne Baxter | |
Tear Gas Squad | Sergeant Bill Morrissey | George Reeves | |
Tin Pan Alley | Francis Aloysius 'Skeets' Harrigan | Alice Faye and Betty Grable | |
1941 | The Great American Broadcast | Rix Martin | Alice Faye |
Sun Valley Serenade | Ted Scott | Milton Berle, Glenn Miller and Sonia Henie | |
Week-End in Havana | Jay Williams | Alice Faye | |
Remember the Day | Dan Hopkins | Claudette Colbert | |
1942 | To the Shores of Tripoli | Chris Winters | Maureen O'Hara and Randolph Scott |
Footlight Serenade | William J. 'Bill' Smith | Betty Grable | |
Springtime in the Rockies | Dan Christy | Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda | |
Iceland | Capt. James Murfin | Sonia Henie | |
1943 | Hello, Frisco, Hello | Johnny Cornell | Alice Faye |
1945 | The Dolly Sisters | Harry Fox | Betty Grable |
1946 | Wake Up and Dream | Jeff Cairn | |
Sentimental Journey | William O. Weatherly | Maureen O'Hara | |
The Razor's Edge | Gray Maturin | Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney | |
1947 | Miracle on 34th Street | Fred Gailey | Maureen O'Hara, Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood |
Larceny | Rick Mason | Shelley Winters and Dan Duryea | |
1948 | The Saxon Charm | Eric Busch | Robert Montgomery and Susan Hayward |
1949 | The Crooked Way | Eddie Rice aka Eddie Riccardi | Ellen Drew |
Captain China | Charles S. Chinnough/Capt. China | Gail Russell, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Robert Armstrong | |
El Paso | Clay Fletcher | Sterling Hayden and Gail Russell | |
1950 | Tripoli | Lt. O'Bannion | Maureen O'Hara |
The Eagle and the Hawk | Capt. Todd Croyden | Rhonda Fleming | |
1951 | Mystery Street | Law Student | |
Passage West | Pete Black | Dooley Wilson | |
Crosswinds | Steve Singleton | Rhonda Fleming and Forrest Tucker | |
1952 | Kansas City Confidential | Joe Rolfe/Peter Harris | Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand |
Caribbean | Dick Lindsay/Robert MacAllister | Arlene Dahl | |
The Blazing Forest | Kelly Hansen | Agnes Moorehead and William Demarest | |
1953 | The Vanquished | Rockwell (Rock) Grayson | Coleen Gray |
Raiders of Seven Seas | Barbarossa | Gerald Mohr, Donna Reed, and Lon Chaney, Jr. | |
99 River Street | Ernie Driscoll | Evelyn Keyes | |
1954 | Silver Lode | Dan Ballard | Lizabeth Scott |
Rails Into Laramie | Jefferson Harder | Dan Duryea and Lee Van Cleef | |
1955 | Santa Fe Passage | Kirby Randolph | Faith Domergue |
The Road to Denver | Bill Mayhew | Lee Van Cleef and Mona Freeman | |
Tennessee's Partner | Tennessee | Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray, and Ronald Reagan | |
Hell's Island | Mike Cormack | ||
1956 | Slightly Scarlet | Ben Grace | Rhonda Fleming |
Hold Back the Night | Capt. Sam McKenzie | ||
The Boss | Matt Brady | ||
Rebel in Town | John Willoughby | Ruth Roman and J. Carrol Naish | |
1957 | Hidden Fear | Mike Brent | |
Bailout at 43,000 | Maj. Paul Peterson | ||
1960 | O'Conner's Ocean | ||
1968 | They Ran for Their Lives | Bob Martin | |
1975 | Columbo: Forgotten Lady (TV) | Ned Diamond | Peter Falk and Janet Leigh |