Frank Lovejoy

Frank Andrew Lovejoy Jr. (March 28, 1912 – October 2, 1962) was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He is perhaps best remembered for appearing in the film noir The Hitch-Hiker and for starring in the radio drama Night Beat.

Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy in 1960
Born(1912-03-28)March 28, 1912
Bronx, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 2, 1962(1962-10-02) (aged 50)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver City
OccupationActor
Years active1948–1962
Spouse(s)
Frances Williams
​
(
m. 1939; div. 1940)

​
(
m. 1940; died 1962)
Children2

Early life

He was born in the Bronx, New York, but grew up in New Jersey. His father, Frank Andrew Lovejoy, Sr., was a furniture salesman from Maine. His mother, Nora, was born in Massachusetts, to Irish immigrant parents.[1]

Radio

A successful radio actor, Lovejoy played Broadway Harry on the Gay Nineties Revue[2] and was heard on the 1930s crime drama series Gang Busters. Lovejoy was a narrator (during the first season) for the show This Is Your FBI.

In radio soap operas, Lovejoy played Dr. Christopher Ellerbe in Valiant Lady,[3] Sam Foster in This Day Is Ours,[4] and he had the roles of Brad Forbes on Brave Tomorrow and Larry Halliday in Bright Horizon.[5] He also played the title character on the syndicated The Blue Beetle in 1940, several episodes of The Whistler, and starred in the later newspaper drama series Night Beat in the early 1950s and in episodes of Suspense in the late 1950s. He also starred as John Malone in The Amazing Mr. Malone.

Films
Lovejoy in 1958

In films of the 1940s and 1950s, Lovejoy mostly played supporting roles. Appearing in movies such as Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) with Joan Crawford, and The Hitch-Hiker (1953) directed by Ida Lupino, Lovejoy was effective playing the movie's everyman in extraordinary situations. He was in several war movies, notably Stanley Kramer's Home of the Brave (1949), Breakthrough (1950), Joseph H. Lewis's Retreat, Hell! (1952) which portrayed the United States Marine Corps' withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir (Changjin Reservoir) during the Korean War and as a Marine sergeant again in Beachhead (1954), and Strategic Air Command (1955) with James Stewart. In 1950, he had the lead role in “Try and Get Me[6]”, (aka “Sound of Fury”) as a struggling out of work man who fell to crime to support his family; in a film noire combining crime and murder with social injustice, an irresponsible newspaper and equally criminal public mob reactions. In 1951, he had the title role in I Was a Communist for the FBI with co-stars Ron Hagerthy, Paul Picerni, and Philip Carey.

Television

Lovejoy starred in two short-run TV series, Man Against Crime and Meet McGraw. Episodes of these two series have never been released commercially on DVD or VHS and never aired as reruns. Meet McGraw episodes were screened at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention.

Lovejoy's final television performances include the episode "County General" (March 18, 1962) on the ABC series Bus Stop with Marilyn Maxwell in the role of Grace Sherwood. That same season, he appeared on the ABC crime drama Target: The Corruptors! about the efforts of a New York City reporter to expose organized crime.

Personal life

Lovejoy was first married to Frances Williams, but divorced in the late 1930s. In 1940, Lovejoy married actress Joan Banks, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

On October 2, 1962, Frank Lovejoy died of a heart attack in his sleep at his residence in New York City. His wife, Joan Banks, called for medical help after she was unable to wake him. The couple had been appearing in a New Jersey production of the Gore Vidal play The Best Man.

Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1948Black BartMark Lorimer
1949Home of the BraveSergeant Mingo
1950In a Lonely PlaceDetective Sergeant Brub Nicolai
South Sea SinnerDoc
Three SecretsBob Duffy
BreakthroughSgt. Pete Bell
Try and Get Me!Howard Tyleraka The Sound of Fury
1951I Was a Communist for the FBIMatt Cvetic
Goodbye, My FancyMatt Cole
Force of ArmsMajor Blackford
I'll See You in My DreamsWalter Donaldson
StarliftHimself
1952Retreat, Hell!Lieutenant Colonel Steve L. Corbett
The Winning TeamRogers Hornsby
1953She's Back on BroadwayJohn Webber
The Hitch-HikerGilbert Bowen
House of WaxLieutenant Thomas "Tom" Brennan
The SystemJohn E. 'Johnny' Merrick
The Charge at Feather RiverSergeant Charlie Baker
1954BeachheadSgt. Fletcher
Men of the Fighting LadyLieutenant Commander Paul Grayson
1955The AmericanoBento Hermany
Strategic Air CommandGeneral Ennis C. Hawkes
Top of the WorldMaj. Brad Cantrell
Mad at the WorldPolice Capt. Tom Lynn
Finger ManCasey Martin
Shack Out on 101Professor Bastion
The Crooked WebStanley Fabian
1956JulieDetective Lieutenant Pringle
1958Cole Younger, GunfighterCole Younger
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1957–1958Meet McGrawMcGraw
1957Cavalcade of AmericaInspector Ed McCookEp. 'Chicago 2-1-2'[7]
Radio
Year Title Role Notes
1948The Blue Beetle
1948Box 13Various support roles-
1950EscapeEpisode: "Danger at Matecumbe"[8]
1950–1952Night BeatRandy Stone
1952Gang Busters
1952Hollywood Sound StageEpisode: "One Way Passage"[9]
1952SuspenseJoe BroadyEpisode: "The Wreck of the Old 97"[10]
1952SuspenseBilly the KidEpisode: "The Shooting of Billy the Kid"[11]
1954SuspenseMr. KedmanEpisode: "The Man from Tomorrow"[12]
gollark: Yes, praise osmarksßsystemd™.
gollark: ALL are to use osmarksßsystemd™, which is written in Rust, uses TOML for unit files, and is eventually to use SQLite for something or other.
gollark: (it can't actually switch users either; this is a minor detail)
gollark: See, osmarksßsystemd™ doesn't do this.
gollark: At one point its builtin DNS resolver thing had a flaw allowing denial of service.

References
  1. US Census 1920, Woodridge, Bergen Co., New Jersey, enumerator's district 125, sheet 18A
  2. "Saturday's Highlights" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 13 (4): 52. February 1940. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  3. Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). The Big Broadcast: 1920–1950. The Viking Press. ISBN 978-0810829572. p. 249.
  4. Senseney, Dan (September 1940). "What's New from Coast to Coast" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 14 (5): 36–37, 72. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  5. Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. pp. 111, 119. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.
  6. "The Sound of Fury (film) - Wikipedia". en.m.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  7. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0537681/
  8. "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 40 (1): 40–41. Winter 2014.
  9. Kirby, Walter (February 10, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 38. Retrieved June 2, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Kirby, Walter (March 16, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 44. Retrieved May 23, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Kirby, Walter (April 27, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 48. Retrieved May 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Suspense 1957 - Single Episodes" (MP3). Retrieved March 4, 2018 – via archive.org.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.