Franchot Tone

Infobox actor
bgcolour = silver
name = Franchot Tone


caption = Franchot Tone in "Dangerous" (1935)
birthname = Stanislas Pascal Franchot Tone
birthdate = birth date|1905|2|27|mf=y
location = Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.
deathdate = death date and age|1968|9|18|1905|2|27|mf=y
deathplace = New York City, New York, U.S.
othername =
yearsactive = 1932 - 1968
spouse = Joan Crawford (October 11, 1935 - April 11, 1939) (divorced)
Jean Wallace (1941 - 1948) (divorced) 2 children
Barbara Payton (1951 - 1952) (divorced)
Dolores Dorn (1956-1959) (divorced)

Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor.

Biography

He was born Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the president of the Carborundum Company, and his wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot. [http://www.wargs.com/family/ancestry.html] He was of French Canadian, Irish, English and Basque ancestry.

Tone attended Cornell University, where he was President of the Dramatic Club and was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. He gave up the family business to pursue an acting career in the theatre. After graduating, he moved to Greenwich Village, New York, and got his first Broadway role in the 1929 Katharine Cornell production of "The Age of Innocence".

The following year, he joined the Theatre Guild and played Curly in their production of "Green Grow the Lilacs" (later to become the famous musical "Oklahoma!"). He later became a founding member of the famed Group Theatre, together with Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, and others, many of whom had worked with the Theatre Guild. Strasberg had been a castmate of Tone's in "Green Grow the Lilacs." These were intense and productive years for him: among the productions of the Group he acted in were "1931" (1931) and "Success Story" (1932). Franchot Tone was universally regarded by the critics as one of the most promising actors of his generation. Gary Cooper called Tone the best actor he had ever worked with.The same year, however, Tone was the first of the Group to turn his back on the theatre and go to Hollywood when MGM offered him a film contract. Nevertheless, he always considered cinema far inferior to the theatre and recalled his stage years with longing. He often sent financial support to the Group Theatre, which often needed it. He eventually returned to the stage from time to time after the 1940s. His screen debut was in the 1932 movie "The Wiser Sex". He achieved fame in 1933, when he made seven movies that year, including "Today We Live", written by William Faulkner, where he first met his future wife Joan Crawford, "Bombshell", with Jean Harlow (with whom he co-starred in three other movies), and the smash hit "Dancing Lady", again with Crawford and Clark Gable. In 1935, probably his best year, he starred in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor), "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" and "Dangerous" opposite Bette Davis, with whom he was rumored to have had an affair.

He worked steadily through the 1940s without breaking through as a major star. He was beginning to be type-cast as the wealthy cafe-society playboy and very few of the films of this period are notable. One conspicuous exception was "Five Graves to Cairo" (1943), the third film by the young Billy Wilder, a World War II espionage story, starring Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff and Erich von Stroheim as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

In the 1950s, he moved to television and returned to Broadway. In 1957, he appeared on Broadway in "A Moon for the Misbegotten" with Wendy Hiller. He co-starred in the "Ben Casey" medical series from 1965 to 1966 as Casey's supervisor. He also starred in, directed, and produced his first film, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" (1957) with then wife Dolores Dorn. He appeared as a disheartened traveling pereacher named "Malachi Hobart" in an early episode of NBC's "Wagon Train".

Personal life

He was married October 11 1935 in New Jersey to actress Joan Crawford; they were divorced in 1939. They made seven films together: "Today We Live" (1933), "Dancing Lady" (1933), "Sadie McKee" (1934), "No More Ladies" (1935), "The Gorgeous Hussy" (1936), "Love On The Run" (1936) and "The Bride Wore Red" (1937).

He married and divorced three more times: to fashion model turned actress Jean Wallace (1941–48, with whom he had two sons), actress Barbara Payton (1951–52), and finally to the much younger actress Dolores Dorn (1956–59).

Death

A chain smoker, Tone died of lung cancer in New York City at the age of 63. Joan Crawford was moved by Tone's plight during his illness and was reported to have taken him into her home to care for him. His remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered.

Franchot Tone has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6558 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

*"The Wiser Sex" (1932)
*"Today We Live" (1933)
*"Gabriel Over the White House" (1933)
*"Midnight Mary" (1933)
*"Bombshell" (1933)
*"Dancing Lady" (1933)
*"Moulin Rouge" (1934)
*"Sadie McKee" (1934)
*"The Girl from Missouri" (1934)
*"The World Moves On" (1934)
*"Gentlemen Are Born" (1934)
*"The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" (1935)
*"No More Ladies" (1935)
*"Reckless" (1935)
*"Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935)
*"Dangerous" (1935)
*"The Unguarded Hour" (1936)
*"Suzy" (1936)
*"The Gorgeous Hussy" (1936)
*"Love on the Run" (1936)
*"Quality Street" (1937)
*"The Bride Wore Red" (1937)
*"Three Comrades" (1938)
*"Three Loves Has Nancy" (1938)
*"Fast and Furious" (1939)
*"Five Graves to Cairo" (1943)
*"Pilot #5" (1943)
*"Dark Waters" (1944)
*"Phantom Lady" (1944)
*"That Night With You" (1945 film with Susanna Foster)
*"I Love Trouble" (1948)
*"Every Girl Should Be Married" (1948)
*"Without Honor" (1949)
*"Jigsaw" (1949)
*"The Man on the Eiffel Tower" (1950) (also producer)
*"Here Comes the Groom" (1951)
*"Uncle Vanya" (1957) (also director and producer)
*"Advise and Consent" (1962)
*"See How They Run" (1964) (TV)
*"In Harm's Way" (1965)

Television

*"Bonanza" Denver McKee Series (1960)
*"The Twilight Zone" playing "Archie Taylor" in episode "The Silence", (April 28, 1961)
*Wagon Train In the Malachi Hobart Story. Aired on 24 January 1962 (Season 5, Episode 17)
*"Ben Casey" playing "Dr. Daniel Niles Freeland" (1965-1966)

tage career

* "Bicycle Ride to Nevada" (1963)
* "Strange Interlude" (1963)
* "Mandingo" (1961)
* "A Moon for the Misbegotten" (1957)
* "Oh, Men! Oh, Women" (1953)
* "Hope for the Best" (1945)
* "The Fifth Column" (1940)
* "The Gentle People" (1939)
* "Success Story" (1932)
* "A Thousand Summers" (1932)
* "Night Over Taos" (1932)
* "1931" (1931)
* "The House of Connelly" (1931)
* "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1931)
* "Pagan Lady" (1930)
* "Hotel Universe" (1930)
* "Cross Roads" (1929)
* "Uncle Vanya" (1929)
* "The Age of Innocence" (1929)
* "The International" (1928)
* "Centuries" (1927)
* "The Belt" (1927)

References

External links

*
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* [http://www.franchot-tone.com Urbane Rebel: The Franchot Tone Story]
* [http://classicmoviefavorites.com/tone/index.html Franchot Tone at Classic Movie Favorites]
* [http://www.altfg.com/blog/archives/2007/03/06/franchot-tone-biographer-lisa-burks-discusses-the-1930s-mgm-leading-man/ Interview with Franchot Tone biographer]
*
* [http://franchot.exblog.jp/ FRANCHOT TONE:BLack & White]

Persondata
NAME= Tone, Franchot
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Tone, Stanislas Pascal Franchot
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= 1905-2-27
PLACE OF BIRTH= Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH= 1968-9-18
PLACE OF DEATH= New York City, New York, U.S.