Leon Janney

Leon Janney
Janney as Spud in Bear Shooters (1930)
Born	Laon Ramon (1917-04-01)April 1, 1917 Ogden, Utah, U.S.
Died	October 28, 1980(1980-10-28) (aged 63) Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Other names	Donald Janney
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1920–1980
Spouse(s)	Jessica Pepper (1936) Dorothy Janney (? – 1980)

Donald Janney (April 1, 1917 – October 28, 1980) was an American actor and radio personality between 1920 to 1980.

Career

Born Leon Ramon in Ogden, Utah, Janney made his first theatrical appearance at age two before an audience at the Pantages Theatre in his hometown. He spent the next several years in vaudeville, and also made his first appearance on radio in 1926, making the leap to legitimate theater soon after.^[1]

Janney's movie debut came with Victor Sjöström's The Wind starring Lillian Gish. He soon began appearing in a string of movies portraying the boyhood incarnations of such actors as Ricardo Cortez, Reginald Denny, and Conrad Nagel. Producer Hal Roach took notice of Janney and hired him to appear in the Our Gang comedy Bear Shooters as "Spud". However, Roach realized that he was too old to gel with the other members of the gang, and Bear Shooters marked his only appearance as a Little Rascal.^[1] In 1931 Janney starred in the second film adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Penrod and Sam.

By the mid-1930s, Janney was considered the quintessential male juvenile star. As he entered his teenage years, he turned to radio and worked on the series The Parker Family, playing all-American boy Richard Parker. Though he preferred theater work, his radio work allowed him to become a master dialectician.^[2] After serving in World War II as a translator, he continued working in radio and theatre. Though blacklisted in the 1950s, Janney continued to work regularly due to his preference for theatrical work, appearing in such plays as The School for Scandal and The Gazebo.^[1]

By the 1960s, Janney appeared in bit roles on such television shows as Car 54, Where Are You?, The Defenders and The Jackie Gleason Show. He also made his first film appearance in more than a decade, playing a sympathetic guard in The Last Mile. Janney was also the spokesman for the New York Mets in their Rheingold Beer commercials for the team's first two seasons (1962-1963). In his final years, he was a regular the television shows Another World and The Edge of Night.^[1]

Death

Janney died of cancer on October 28, 1980, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Selected filmography

• Penrod and Sam (1931)

References

External links

• Leon Janney at the Internet Movie Database
• Leon Janney at AllRovi