Glen Vernon

Glen Vernon (October 27, 1923 – October 27, 1999) was an American actor.

Glen Vernon
Born(1923-10-27)October 27, 1923
Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedOctober 27, 1999(1999-10-27) (aged 76)
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1944-1999

Born Glenn Vernon in Fall River, Massachusetts,[1] Vernon pursued a dramatic career upon graduation from high school. By 1944 he was established as a Broadway juvenile, and he was recruited by RKO Pictures to play a sensitive Russian soldier in the film Days of Glory. Signed to a term contract, Vernon went on to play featured roles in dramas, comedies, and musicals, among them Youth Runs Wild, Those Endearing Young Charms, Bedlam, Riverboat Rhythm, and The Woman on the Beach.[2] Vernon usually underplayed his roles, lending his portrayals a natural charm.

The RKO studio often offered its own version of another studio's popular property. When Universal Pictures had Abbott and Costello, RKO's answer was Brown and Carney. In the musical-comedy field, Universal had Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan while Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. RKO teamed its popular young players Glenn Vernon and Marcy McGuire. This pairing resulted in two features, the second being Glenn Vernon's only leading role: a hapless jazz clarinetist who can't read music, in the Hollywood-themed feature Ding Dong Williams (filmed in 1945). After McGuire angrily petitioned her bosses for her own starring vehicles, RKO released her from the payroll and dissolved the Vernon-McGuire series. RKO waited for almost a year for the public to forget the Vernon-McGuire team, and finally released Ding Dong Williams in the spring of 1946.

When tycoon Howard Hughes bought the RKO studio, many of the resident contract players were dismissed; Vernon left the studio in 1947. He returned to the stage, playing in Los Angeles-area productions. He made a brief screen comeback in 1950, now billed as "Glen Vernon," as a song-and-dance man in the vaudeville revue Hollywood Varieties and as a drunken wastrel in Lucky Losers with The Bowery Boys. His movie career never regained its wartime momentum, but he continued to play small roles in motion pictures and television. One of his fellow players from Ding Dong Williams, Tommy Noonan, remembered Vernon's calm screen demeanor and cast him as an Army chaplain in his 1959 production The Rookie.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Vernon was cast as quaint old men, in films (So I Married an Axe Murderer) and television (Doogie Howser, M.D.,The Golden Girls).

Today's audiences may recognize Glenn Vernon from a movie he never actually made: near the beginning of the famous RKO feature It's a Wonderful Life, when the bereaved pharmacist Mr. Gower gazes at a picture of his deceased son, it's a photo of Glenn Vernon.

Death

Vernon died on October 27, 1999, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, from complications of a stroke.[3] He was 76 years old.[1]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1944Days of GloryMitya
1944Marine RaidersMarine in Recording BoothUncredited
1944Step LivelyBellboyUncredited
1944Youth Runs WildFrankie Hauser
1945Those Endearing Young CharmsRadioman 1st Class William Zantifar
1945Mama Loves PapaDelivery BoyUncredited
1945Sing Your Way HomeJimmy McCue
1946Riverboat RhythmJohn Beeler
1946Ding Dong WilliamsDing Dong Williamsfilmed 1945
1946BedlamThe Gilded Boy
1946The Bamboo BlondeShorty Parker
1947The Devil Thumbs a RideJack Kenny, Gas Station Attendant
1947The Woman on the BeachKirk
1948Heart of VirginiaBud Landeen
1948Beyond GloryYearling in Mess HallUncredited
1949ImpactEd
1949Sands of Iwo JimaMarineUncredited
1950Hollywood VarietiesMinstrel act with partner Eddie Ryan
1950Lucky LosersAndrew Stone III
1951Belle Le GrandBellboy
1951The Wild Blue YonderCrewmanUncredited
1952The Rose Bowl StoryStudent ManagerUncredited
1952Flat TopSailorUncredited
1952ThunderbirdsDriverUncredited
1953The Stars Are SingingBit RoleUncredited
1956Miracle in the RainMaster of CeremoniesUncredited
1958I Bury the LivingStuart DrexelUncredited
1959The RookieArmy ChaplainUncredited
1961Breakfast at Tiffany'sReporterUncredited
1965I Saw What You DidJohn Adams
1969The Love God?MayorUncredited
1974Airport 1975PassengerUncredited
1990Spaced InvadersOld Guy #1
1993So I Married an Axe MurdererUncle Angus
1999Eating L.A.Street Preacher
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gollark: They don't actually specify what LM they use, weird.
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References
  1. Lentz, Harris M. III (2000). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 1999: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. p. 224. ISBN 9780786409198. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  2. "Overview for Glen Vernon". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  3. "Glen Vernon". Variety. 5 November 1999. Retrieved 1 October 2014.


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