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Richard Cromwell (actor)
Encyclopedia
Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh (8 January 1910 – ), was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel (1938
) with Bette Davis
and Henry Fonda
and again with Fonda in John Ford
's Young Mr. Lincoln
(1939
). Cromwell's fame was perhaps first assured in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
(1935
), where he shared top billing with Gary Cooper
and Franchot Tone
. That film was the first major effort directed by Henry Hathaway
and it was based upon the popular novel by Francis Yeats-Brown
. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
earned Paramount Studios a nomination for Best Picture
in 1935, though Mutiny on the Bounty
instead took the top award at the Oscars that year.
Leslie Halliwell
in The Filmgoer's Companion, summed up Cromwell's enduring appeal when he described him as "a leading man, [the] gentle hero of early sound films."
on 8 January 1910, the second-born in a family of five children. His father Ralph R. Radabaugh, an inventor. Cromwell's father Ralph R. Radabaugh's claim to fame was his patented invention of the "amusement park
swing" ride, called the "Monoflyer", of which a variation can still be seen in use at most carnival
s today. Ralph died suddenly from influenza
during the Spanish flu
pandemic
in 1918, when Cromwell was still in grade school.
While helping his young widowed mother, Fay B. Stocking Radabaugh, to support the family with odd-jobs, Cromwell enrolled as a teenager in the Chouinard Art Institute
in Los Angeles on a scholarship. The Institute was the precursor of what later became California Institute of the Arts
, and one of Cromwell's then-classmates would also eventually rise to fame as costume designer Edith Head
. Cromwell ran a shop in Hollywood where he sold pictures, made lampshades and designed colour schemes for houses. As Cromwell developed his talents for lifelike mask-making and oil-painting, he curried friendships in the late 1920s with various then-starlets who posed for him and collected his works including Tallulah Bankhead
, Joan Crawford
, Anna Q. Nilsson
, Greta Garbo
, Claire Dubrey, Ann Southern, and even Marie Dressler
(whom he would later share top-billing with in 1932's Emma
). Other patrons of Cromwell's life masks included Broadway actresses Lilyan Tashman
, Katharine Cornell
, and Beatrice Lillie
.
(1930), along with Paul Whiteman
and his band. On a whim, friends encouraged Roy to audition in 1930 for the remake of the Richard Barthelmess
silent: Tol'able David
(1930). Radabaugh won the role over thousands of hopefuls, and in storybook fashion, Harry Cohn
gave him his screen name and launched his career. Cromwell earned $75 per week for his work on Tol'able David. Noah Beery, Sr.
and John Carradine
co-starred in the film. Later, Cohn signed Cromwell to a multi-year contract based on the strength of his performance and success in his first venture at the box-office. Amidst the flurry of publicity during this period, Cromwell toured the country, even meeting President Herbert Hoover
in Washington, D.C.
Cromwell by then had maintained a deep friendship with Marie Dressler
, which continued until her death from cancer in 1934. Dressler was nominated for a second Best Actress
award for her 1932 portrayal of the title role in Emma
. With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound generosity to other performers: Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast Cromwell on a loan-out in the lead opposite her — it was another break that helped sustain his rising status in Hollywood. Emma also starred Myrna Loy
in one of her earliest screen performances. After production on Emma was completed, Director Clarence Brown
tested Cromwell for the male lead in his next feature: The Son-Daughter, which was set to star Helen Hayes
. However, the part of the oriental prince ultimately went to Ramón Novarro
, and Cromwell never again worked at MGM.
Cromwell's next role in 1932 was on loan-out to RKO and was as Mike in Gregory La Cava
's, The Age of Consent co-starring Eric Linden and Dorothy Wilson. Cromwell is also remembered during this period in Hoop-La
(1933), where he is seduced by Clara Bow
. This film is considered the swan song of Bow's career. Next, the much in demand Cromwell starred in Tom Brown of Culver that year, as well.
Around this period in his career in the early to mid-30s, Cromwell also did some print ads and promotional work for Lucky Strike
brand cigarettes. According to his niece, Joan Radabaugh, Cromwell was a very heavy smoker. Nevertheless, at his home he was always the gracious host, as his niece related, and as such he took great care to empty the ashtrays regularly, almost to the point of obsession (Interview with Joan Radabaugh by Bill Keane, June 2007).
Next up, was an early standout performance by Cromwell in the role as the leader of the youth gang in Cecil B. DeMille
's now cult-favorite, This Day and Age (1933
). To ensure that Cromwell's character used current slang, DeMille asked high school student Horace Hahn
to read the script and comment (at the time, Hahn was senior class president at Los Angeles High School).
While again on loan from Columbia, Cromwell's by then salary of $200 per week was paid by Paramount Pictures
, DeMille's studio. Diana Serra Cary
, in her biography of Jackie Coogan
, relates an episode on the set wherein Cromwell came to the aid of actress Judith Allen: "I watched as he (DeMille) systematically reduced ingenue...Allen to screaming hysterics by calling her every insulting name in the book in front of company and crew simply to bring on tears...Cromwell was the only man on the set who dared confront the tryannical DeMille. White with rage, Cromwell stopped the scene and threatened to deck him if he didn't let up on the devastated girl. He (Cromwell) then drove her home himself. After that courageous act the chivalric "...Cromwell was unanimously praised as a veritable dragon slayer by everyone who had witnessed that scene."
After a promising start, Cromwell's many early pictures at Columbia Pictures
and elsewhere were mostly inconsequential and are largely forgotten today. Cromwell starred with Will Rogers
in Life Begins at 40 for Fox Film Corporation in 1935, it was one of Rogers' last roles and Poppy for Paramount in 1936 wherein Cromwell played the suitor of W.C. Fields' daughter, Rochelle Hudson
. In 1937, he was the young bank-robber in love with Helen Mack
and on the lam from Lionel Atwill
in The Wrong Road for RKO.
for the chance to star as an evil cadet in an original play by Joseph Viertel, entitled, So Proudly We Hail. The military drama was directed by future film director Charles Walters
, co-starred Edward Andrews
and Eddie Bracken
, and opened to much fanfare. The reviews of the play at the time called Cromwell's acting "a striking portrayal" (New York Herald Tribune
) and his performance an "astonishing characterization" (New York World Telegram). The New York Times said that in the play, Cromwell "ran the gamut of emotions". However, the play closed after only 14 performances at the 46th Street Theater.
By now, Cromwell had shed his restrictive Columbia
contract, with its handsome $500 per week salary, and pursued acting work as a free-lancer in other media as well. On July 15, 1937 Cromwell guest-starred on The Royal Gelatin Hour hosted by Rudy Vallee
, in a dramatic skit opposite Fay Wray
.
Enjoying the experience, Cromwell had his agent secure for him an audition for the role of Kit Marshall, on the soap opera
Those We Love, first on NBC Radio and then CBS Radio
. As a regular on the Monday night program which ran from 1938 until 1942, Cromwell played opposite Nan Grey
who played Kit's twin sister Kathy. Cromwell as Kit was later replaced by Bill Henry. Other members of the drama series ensemble included Helen Wood in the role of Elaine, Kit's girlfriend, and Francis X. Bushman
, as John Marshall the father of the twins. Rounding out the cast, long before their own respective film and television stardom, was Robert Cummings
of Dial M for Murder
; and even Gale Gordon
, who later became a fixture on The Lucy Show
.
, in order to capitalize on the success of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
. Aside from the aforementioned standout roles in Jezebel and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
, Cromwell did another notable turn as defendant Matt Clay to Henry Fonda
's title-performance in Young Mr. Lincoln
(1939
).
During this period, Cromwell was continuing to enjoy the various invitations coming his way as a member of the A-list Hollywood social circuit. According to Bob Thomas, in his biography of Joan Crawford
, Cromwell was a regular at the Saturday Night dinner parties of his former co-star Franchot Tone
and then-wife Crawford. Other guests whom Cromwell dined with there included Barbara Stanwyck
and then-husband Frank Fay
, and William Haines
and Jimmy Rogers. During the freewheeling heyday of West L.A. nightlife in the late 30s, Cromwell is said by author Charles Higham
to have carried on a sometime, though obviously very discreet, affair with aviator and businessman Howard Hughes
.
In 1939, Cromwell again tried his luck on the stage in a regional production of Sutton Vane
's play Outward Bound
featuring Dorothy Jordan
as his co-star. The cast of the production at the Los Angeles Biltmore Theater also included Cora Witherspoon
and Reginald Denny
.
, along with fellow actor and enlistee Cesar Romero
. Actor Gig Young
was also a member of this branch of the service during the war.
During this period, Cole Porter
rented Cromwell's home in the Hollywood Hills, where Porter worked at length on Panama Hattie
. Director James Whale
was a personal friend, for whom Cromwell had starred in The Road Back
(1937
), the ill-fated sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front.
With the war's end, and upon returning to California from the Pacific after nearly three years of service with the Coast Guard, Cromwell acted in local theater productions. He also signed on for live performances in summer stock
in the East during this period.
When in town, Cromwell was a fixture within the Hollywood social scene. According to the book Cut! Hollywood Murders, Accidents and Other Tragedies (New Hauppage, New York: Barrons Press, 2006), Cromwell was a regular at George Cukor
's "boys nights".
for good, Cromwell was married once, briefly from 1945–1946, to the British-born actress Angela Lansbury
, when she was 19 and Cromwell was 35. Cromwell and Lansbury eloped and were married in a small civil ceremony on September 27, 1945, in Independence, California
.
In her authorized biography, Balancing Act, Lansbury recounts her life with Cromwell, as well as the couple's close friendship with Zachary Scott
and his first wife, Elaine. Lansbury and Cromwell have stars within walking distance of each other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
.
Cromwell made just one statement to the press regarding his wife of nine months and one of her habits: "All over the house, tea bags. In the middle of the night she'd get up and start drinking tea. It nearly drove me crazy."
According to the biography: Angela Lansbury, A Life on Stage and Screen, Lansbury stated in a 1966 interview that her first marriage, "was a mistake" and that she learned from it. She stated, "I wouldn't have not done it", and, "I was too young at nineteen. [The marriage] shouldn't have happened." The National Enquirer did a story in the 1990s about Lansbury and "the secret of her first husband". The magazine alluded to Cromwell's sexuality as the real reason his marriage to Lansbury failed, implying that he was bisexual or gay.
Cromwell and Lansbury remained friends until his death in 1960.
released Enemy Agent starring Cromwell as a draftsman who thwarts the Nazis. The film co-starred Helen Vinson
, Robert Armstrong
, Marjorie Reynolds
, and Jack La Rue
. In 1942 he then went on to appear in marginal but still watchable fare such as Baby Face Morgan
, which co-starred Mary Carlisle
and was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation
, one of the "Poverty Row
" studios. Cromwell enjoyed a career boost, if not a critically acclaimed performance, in the film adaptation of the hit radio serial: Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943), opposite Gale Storm
. Next up at Monogram Pictures
he was cast as a doctor working covertly for the police department to catch the mobsters in the very forgettable, though endearing Riot Squad, wherein his "fiancee", Rita Quigley, breaks their engagement. Cromwell's break from films due to his stint in the Service meant that he was not much in demand after the War's end. Cromwell finally retired from films after his comeback fizzled: his last role was in a noir
flick of 1948, entitled Bungalow 13. In fact, it was the second feature in which he starred with Margaret Hamilton
, though the film did not help her star to re-shine brightly either. All told, Cromwell's film career spanned 39 films.
In the 1950s, Richard Cromwell went back to artistic roots and studied ceramics. He built a pottery studio at his home. The home still stands today and is located in the hills above Sunset Boulevard
on North Miller Drive. There, he successfully designed coveted decorative tiles for himself and for his industry-friends, which, according to his niece, Joan Radabaugh, he marketed under his stage name. Around this time, Baby Peggy Montgomery, aka Diana Serra Cary
, who had appeared in This Day and Age with Cromwell many years earlier, recalls visiting Cromwell at his home along with her late husband during this period to see his "beautiful ceramic screen which had won him a prize at the L.A. County Fair." Radabaugh's original tiles as well as his large decorative art deco
-style wall paintings of Adam and Eve
can still be seen today in the mezzanine off the balcony of the restored Pantages Theatre
in Hollywood, which is today considered a noted architectural landmark.
During this period, Cromwell entertained regularly. Cromwell was a gourmet cook. According to Kim King, of Carlsbad, California, many a wonderful dinner party was enjoyed by her parents Mr. and Mrs. King in the 1950s at Cromwell's home. For example, once in particular, The Kings enjoyed Roy's specially prepared delicacy of Frogs' Legs in the French-style. (King interviewed by Bill Keane in Spring of 2006 re: her father's friendship with Cromwell. Mr. King served in the Coast Guard with R.C.)
As Radabaugh, he also wrote extensively, producing several published stories and an unfinished novel in the 1950s. After years of heavy drinking with a social circle of friends that included the likes of Christopher Isherwood
, Cromwell ultimately changed his ways and became an early participant and supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous
in the Los Angeles Area. Cromwell continued with his ceramics production business, with noted corporate clients during this period including The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where many of his Aztec
-styled objets d'art were displayed.
's planned production of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, co-starring Jimmie Rodgers
, Bob Dix (son of Richard Dix
), and Neil Hamilton who replaced Cromwell in the film. Cromwell became ill and died on October 11, 1960 in Hollywood of complications from liver cancer
, at the age of 50. He is interred in Santa Ana, California
. Cromwell was survived by his four siblings, including Opal Radabaugh Putnam.
Cromwell's legacy is preserved today by his nephew Dan Putnam, and his cousin Bill Keane IV, both of the Conejo Valley
in Southern California
, as well as the family of his late niece, Joan Radabaugh, of the Central Coast. In 2005, Keane donated materials relating to Cromwell's radio performances to the Thousand Oaks Library's Special Collection, "The American Radio Archive". In 2007, Keane donated memorabilia relating to Cromwell's film career and ceramics work to the AMPAS Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills.
Cromwell was mentioned in Gore Vidal
's satirical novel Myra Breckinridge
(1968) as "the late Richard Cromwell, so satisfyingly tortured in Lives of a Bengal Lancer".
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
) with Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
and Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and again with Fonda in John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...
(1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
). Cromwell's fame was perhaps first assured in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 American adventure film loosely adapted from the 1930 book of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown. The plot of the movie, which bears little resemblance to Yeats-Brown's memoir, concerns British soldiers defending the borders of India against rebellious...
(1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
), where he shared top billing with Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
and Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
. That film was the first major effort directed by Henry Hathaway
Henry Hathaway
Henry Hathaway was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring John Wayne.-Background:...
and it was based upon the popular novel by Francis Yeats-Brown
Francis Yeats-Brown
Major Francis Charles Claypon Yeats-Brown, DFC was an officer in the British Indian army and the author of the celebrated memoir The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, for which he was awarded the 1930 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Life and career:Yeats-Brown was born in Genoa, the son of a British...
. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 American adventure film loosely adapted from the 1930 book of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown. The plot of the movie, which bears little resemblance to Yeats-Brown's memoir, concerns British soldiers defending the borders of India against rebellious...
earned Paramount Studios a nomination for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
in 1935, though Mutiny on the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, and directed by Frank Lloyd based on the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the Bounty.The film was one of the biggest hits of its time...
instead took the top award at the Oscars that year.
Leslie Halliwell
Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film encyclopaedist and television impresario who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work...
in The Filmgoer's Companion, summed up Cromwell's enduring appeal when he described him as "a leading man, [the] gentle hero of early sound films."
Early life
Cromwell was born in Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
on 8 January 1910, the second-born in a family of five children. His father Ralph R. Radabaugh, an inventor. Cromwell's father Ralph R. Radabaugh's claim to fame was his patented invention of the "amusement park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
swing" ride, called the "Monoflyer", of which a variation can still be seen in use at most carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
s today. Ralph died suddenly from influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
during the Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
pandemic
Pandemic
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
in 1918, when Cromwell was still in grade school.
While helping his young widowed mother, Fay B. Stocking Radabaugh, to support the family with odd-jobs, Cromwell enrolled as a teenager in the Chouinard Art Institute
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
in Los Angeles on a scholarship. The Institute was the precursor of what later became California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
, and one of Cromwell's then-classmates would also eventually rise to fame as costume designer Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
. Cromwell ran a shop in Hollywood where he sold pictures, made lampshades and designed colour schemes for houses. As Cromwell developed his talents for lifelike mask-making and oil-painting, he curried friendships in the late 1920s with various then-starlets who posed for him and collected his works including Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
, Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Quirentia Nilsson was a Swedish born American actress who achieved success in American silent movies.-Background:...
, Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, Claire Dubrey, Ann Southern, and even Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 in Min and Bill.-Early life and stage career:...
(whom he would later share top-billing with in 1932's Emma
Emma
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively 'comedy of manners' among...
). Other patrons of Cromwell's life masks included Broadway actresses Lilyan Tashman
Lilyan Tashman
Lilyan Tashman was a Brooklyn-born Jewish American vaudeville, Broadway, and film actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses and the bitchy 'other woman'...
, Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
, and Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
.
Overnight stardom and early film career
The young Roy Radabaugh, as he was then known, had just two days in film extra work on the side, and can be seen in King of JazzKing of Jazz
King of Jazz is a 1930 motion picture starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The film's title was taken from Whiteman's controversial, self-conferred appellation...
(1930), along with Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
and his band. On a whim, friends encouraged Roy to audition in 1930 for the remake of the Richard Barthelmess
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
silent: Tol'able David
Tol'able David
Tol'able David is a 1921 American silent film based on the Joseph Hergesheimer short story. It was adapted to the screen by Edmund Goulding and directed by Henry King for Inspiration Pictures....
(1930). Radabaugh won the role over thousands of hopefuls, and in storybook fashion, Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures.-Career:Cohn was born to a working-class German-Jewish family in New York City. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage...
gave him his screen name and launched his career. Cromwell earned $75 per week for his work on Tol'able David. Noah Beery, Sr.
Noah Beery, Sr.
Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor, who appeared in films from 1913 to 1945.-Early life:His parents originally came from Switzerland. Beery was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He and his brothers William C. Beery and Wallace Beery became Hollywood actors...
and John Carradine
John Carradine
John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
co-starred in the film. Later, Cohn signed Cromwell to a multi-year contract based on the strength of his performance and success in his first venture at the box-office. Amidst the flurry of publicity during this period, Cromwell toured the country, even meeting President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
in Washington, D.C.
Cromwell by then had maintained a deep friendship with Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 in Min and Bill.-Early life and stage career:...
, which continued until her death from cancer in 1934. Dressler was nominated for a second Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
award for her 1932 portrayal of the title role in Emma
Emma (1932 film)
Emma 1932 is a feature film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Marie Dressler and directed by Clarence Brown.Inventor Frederick Smith's wife dies during the birth of their fourth baby, Ronnie, leaving the family in the care of their faithful housekeeper Emma...
. With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound generosity to other performers: Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast Cromwell on a loan-out in the lead opposite her — it was another break that helped sustain his rising status in Hollywood. Emma also starred Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
in one of her earliest screen performances. After production on Emma was completed, Director Clarence Brown
Clarence Brown
Clarence Brown was an American film director.-Early life:Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to a cotton manufacturer, Brown moved to the South when he was 11. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of...
tested Cromwell for the male lead in his next feature: The Son-Daughter, which was set to star Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
. However, the part of the oriental prince ultimately went to Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro was a Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino...
, and Cromwell never again worked at MGM.
Cromwell's next role in 1932 was on loan-out to RKO and was as Mike in Gregory La Cava
Gregory La Cava
Gregory La Cava was an American film director best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door....
's, The Age of Consent co-starring Eric Linden and Dorothy Wilson. Cromwell is also remembered during this period in Hoop-La
Hoop-La
Hoop-La is a 1933 drama film notable as both a pre-code film and as the final appearance of actress Clara Bow. It was directed by Frank Lloyd and released by Fox Film Corporation, with Preston Foster, Richard Cromwell, and Minna Gombell also in the cast...
(1933), where he is seduced by Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
. This film is considered the swan song of Bow's career. Next, the much in demand Cromwell starred in Tom Brown of Culver that year, as well.
Around this period in his career in the early to mid-30s, Cromwell also did some print ads and promotional work for Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
brand cigarettes. According to his niece, Joan Radabaugh, Cromwell was a very heavy smoker. Nevertheless, at his home he was always the gracious host, as his niece related, and as such he took great care to empty the ashtrays regularly, almost to the point of obsession (Interview with Joan Radabaugh by Bill Keane, June 2007).
Next up, was an early standout performance by Cromwell in the role as the leader of the youth gang in Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
's now cult-favorite, This Day and Age (1933
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....
). To ensure that Cromwell's character used current slang, DeMille asked high school student Horace Hahn
Horace Hahn
Horace L. Hahn was an American best known for working with Cecil B. DeMille on several films as a young man, including a supporting role in This Day and Age . He also served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, and assisted Justice Robert H...
to read the script and comment (at the time, Hahn was senior class president at Los Angeles High School).
While again on loan from Columbia, Cromwell's by then salary of $200 per week was paid by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, DeMille's studio. Diana Serra Cary
Diana Serra Cary
Diana Serra Cary , best known as Baby Peggy, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie....
, in her biography of Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan
John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
, relates an episode on the set wherein Cromwell came to the aid of actress Judith Allen: "I watched as he (DeMille) systematically reduced ingenue...Allen to screaming hysterics by calling her every insulting name in the book in front of company and crew simply to bring on tears...Cromwell was the only man on the set who dared confront the tryannical DeMille. White with rage, Cromwell stopped the scene and threatened to deck him if he didn't let up on the devastated girl. He (Cromwell) then drove her home himself. After that courageous act the chivalric "...Cromwell was unanimously praised as a veritable dragon slayer by everyone who had witnessed that scene."
After a promising start, Cromwell's many early pictures at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and elsewhere were mostly inconsequential and are largely forgotten today. Cromwell starred with Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
in Life Begins at 40 for Fox Film Corporation in 1935, it was one of Rogers' last roles and Poppy for Paramount in 1936 wherein Cromwell played the suitor of W.C. Fields' daughter, Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
. In 1937, he was the young bank-robber in love with Helen Mack
Helen Mack
Helen Mack was an American actress. Mack started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving on to Broadway plays, and touring the vaudeville circuit. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s...
and on the lam from Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most...
in The Wrong Road for RKO.
Broadway and network radio performances
In 1936, Cromwell took a detour in his career to BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
for the chance to star as an evil cadet in an original play by Joseph Viertel, entitled, So Proudly We Hail. The military drama was directed by future film director Charles Walters
Charles Walters
Charles Walters was a Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies in from the 1940s to the 1960s....
, co-starred Edward Andrews
Edward Andrews
Edward Andrews was an American actor, one of the most recognizable character actors on television and films between the 1950s and the 1980s...
and Eddie Bracken
Eddie Bracken
Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
, and opened to much fanfare. The reviews of the play at the time called Cromwell's acting "a striking portrayal" (New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
) and his performance an "astonishing characterization" (New York World Telegram). The New York Times said that in the play, Cromwell "ran the gamut of emotions". However, the play closed after only 14 performances at the 46th Street Theater.
By now, Cromwell had shed his restrictive Columbia
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
contract, with its handsome $500 per week salary, and pursued acting work as a free-lancer in other media as well. On July 15, 1937 Cromwell guest-starred on The Royal Gelatin Hour hosted by Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, in a dramatic skit opposite Fay Wray
Fay Wray
Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...
.
Enjoying the experience, Cromwell had his agent secure for him an audition for the role of Kit Marshall, on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Those We Love, first on NBC Radio and then CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
. As a regular on the Monday night program which ran from 1938 until 1942, Cromwell played opposite Nan Grey
Nan Grey
Nan Grey was an American film actress. She was born Eschal Loleet Grey Miller on July 25, 1918 in Houston, Texas.-Career:...
who played Kit's twin sister Kathy. Cromwell as Kit was later replaced by Bill Henry. Other members of the drama series ensemble included Helen Wood in the role of Elaine, Kit's girlfriend, and Francis X. Bushman
Francis X. Bushman
Francis Xavier Bushman was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. His matinee idol career started in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife, but it did not survive the silent screen era....
, as John Marshall the father of the twins. Rounding out the cast, long before their own respective film and television stardom, was Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
of Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American thriller film adapted from a successful stage play by Frederick Knott, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie was released by the Warner Bros...
; and even Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon
Gale Gordon was an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show...
, who later became a fixture on The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
.
Later film and theatrical career
In the late 1930s, Cromwell appeared in Storm Over Bengal, for Republic PicturesRepublic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
, in order to capitalize on the success of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 American adventure film loosely adapted from the 1930 book of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown. The plot of the movie, which bears little resemblance to Yeats-Brown's memoir, concerns British soldiers defending the borders of India against rebellious...
. Aside from the aforementioned standout roles in Jezebel and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 American adventure film loosely adapted from the 1930 book of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown. The plot of the movie, which bears little resemblance to Yeats-Brown's memoir, concerns British soldiers defending the borders of India against rebellious...
, Cromwell did another notable turn as defendant Matt Clay to Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
's title-performance in Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...
(1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
).
During this period, Cromwell was continuing to enjoy the various invitations coming his way as a member of the A-list Hollywood social circuit. According to Bob Thomas, in his biography of Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Cromwell was a regular at the Saturday Night dinner parties of his former co-star Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
and then-wife Crawford. Other guests whom Cromwell dined with there included Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
and then-husband Frank Fay
Frank Fay (American actor)
Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
, and William Haines
William Haines
Charles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality...
and Jimmy Rogers. During the freewheeling heyday of West L.A. nightlife in the late 30s, Cromwell is said by author Charles Higham
Charles Higham
Charles Higham may refer to:*Charles Higham , British archaeologist, specialising in the archaeology of Southeast Asia*Charles Higham , biographer and poet...
to have carried on a sometime, though obviously very discreet, affair with aviator and businessman Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
.
In 1939, Cromwell again tried his luck on the stage in a regional production of Sutton Vane
Sutton Vane
Sutton Vane was a British playwright best known work for Outward Bound , which was filmed twice and was still being performed eight decades after its premiere.- Career as actor :...
's play Outward Bound
Outward Bound (play)
Outward Bound is a 1923 play written by Sutton Vane.The play is about a group of seven passengers who meet in the lounge of an ocean liner at sea and realize that they have no idea why they are there, or where they are bound...
featuring Dorothy Jordan
Dorothy Jordan (film actress)
Dorothy Jordan was an American movie actress who had a short but successful career beginning in talking pictures in 1929.-Early career:...
as his co-star. The cast of the production at the Los Angeles Biltmore Theater also included Cora Witherspoon
Cora Witherspoon
Cora Witherspoon was an American actress who played supporting roles in films from the 1930s until the 1950s....
and Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny (actor)
Reginald Denny was an English stage, film, and television actor. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.-Acting career:...
.
U.S. military service
Cromwell served during the last two years of World War II with the United States Coast GuardUnited States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
, along with fellow actor and enlistee Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
. Actor Gig Young
Gig Young
Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
was also a member of this branch of the service during the war.
During this period, Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
rented Cromwell's home in the Hollywood Hills, where Porter worked at length on Panama Hattie
Panama Hattie
Panama Hattie is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. It is also the title of a 1942 MGM musical based upon the play...
. Director James Whale
James Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
was a personal friend, for whom Cromwell had starred in The Road Back
The Road Back (film)
The Road Back is a 1937 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale. The screenplay is by Charles Kenyon and R.C. Sherriff from the eponymous novel by Erich Maria Remarque.The novel on which the film is based was banned during Nazi rule...
(1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....
), the ill-fated sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front.
With the war's end, and upon returning to California from the Pacific after nearly three years of service with the Coast Guard, Cromwell acted in local theater productions. He also signed on for live performances in summer stock
Summer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...
in the East during this period.
When in town, Cromwell was a fixture within the Hollywood social scene. According to the book Cut! Hollywood Murders, Accidents and Other Tragedies (New Hauppage, New York: Barrons Press, 2006), Cromwell was a regular at George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's "boys nights".
Personal life
Back in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for good, Cromwell was married once, briefly from 1945–1946, to the British-born actress Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
, when she was 19 and Cromwell was 35. Cromwell and Lansbury eloped and were married in a small civil ceremony on September 27, 1945, in Independence, California
Independence, California
Independence is the county seat of Inyo County, California. Independence is located south-southeast of Bishop, at an elevation of 3930 feet . The population of this census-designated place was 669 at the 2010 census, up from 574 at the 2000 census....
.
In her authorized biography, Balancing Act, Lansbury recounts her life with Cromwell, as well as the couple's close friendship with Zachary Scott
Zachary Scott
Zachary Scott was an American actor, most notable for his roles as villains and "mystery men".-Life and career:...
and his first wife, Elaine. Lansbury and Cromwell have stars within walking distance of each other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
.
Cromwell made just one statement to the press regarding his wife of nine months and one of her habits: "All over the house, tea bags. In the middle of the night she'd get up and start drinking tea. It nearly drove me crazy."
According to the biography: Angela Lansbury, A Life on Stage and Screen, Lansbury stated in a 1966 interview that her first marriage, "was a mistake" and that she learned from it. She stated, "I wouldn't have not done it", and, "I was too young at nineteen. [The marriage] shouldn't have happened." The National Enquirer did a story in the 1990s about Lansbury and "the secret of her first husband". The magazine alluded to Cromwell's sexuality as the real reason his marriage to Lansbury failed, implying that he was bisexual or gay.
Cromwell and Lansbury remained friends until his death in 1960.
Film career ends; Artistic career begins anew
Prior to World War II, in the early 1940s, Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
released Enemy Agent starring Cromwell as a draftsman who thwarts the Nazis. The film co-starred Helen Vinson
Helen Vinson
Helen Vinson was an American film actress, who appeared in 40 films between 1932 and 1945.-Early life:...
, Robert Armstrong
Robert Armstrong (actor)
Robert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end...
, Marjorie Reynolds
Marjorie Reynolds
Marjorie Reynolds was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 70 films.Born Marjorie Goodspeed, in Buhl, Idaho, as her parents made the cross-country trip from Maine to settle in California, she was featured as a child actressin silent films such as Scaramouche...
, and Jack La Rue
Jack La Rue
Jack La Rue was an American film and stage actor.Born as Gaspere Biondolillo, he worked on the New York stage from 1923 to 1931. He moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in numerous films...
. In 1942 he then went on to appear in marginal but still watchable fare such as Baby Face Morgan
Baby Face Morgan
Baby Face Morgan is a 1942 American comedy-drama film directed by Arthur Dreifuss. The film was a notable "B" effort for PRC . Jack Schwarz was producer, and Leon Fromkess, was listed as "in charge of production."...
, which co-starred Mary Carlisle
Mary Carlisle
Mary Carlisle was an American actress and singer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she was a star of Hollywood films in the 1930s, having been one of thirteen girls selected as "WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1932. The archetypal blonde, Mary Carlisle was brought to Hollywood at the age of four by her...
and was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more lower-end Hollywood film studios on Poverty Row from the late '30s to the mid-'40s. PRC, as it was commonly known, made low-budget B-movies for the lower-half of a double bill. A few of its films have gained a respectable reputation over the...
, one of the "Poverty Row
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used in Hollywood from the late silent period through the mid-fifties to refer to a variety of small and mostly short-lived B movie studios...
" studios. Cromwell enjoyed a career boost, if not a critically acclaimed performance, in the film adaptation of the hit radio serial: Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943), opposite Gale Storm
Gale Storm
Gale Storm was an American actress and singer who starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show.-Early life:...
. Next up at Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
he was cast as a doctor working covertly for the police department to catch the mobsters in the very forgettable, though endearing Riot Squad, wherein his "fiancee", Rita Quigley, breaks their engagement. Cromwell's break from films due to his stint in the Service meant that he was not much in demand after the War's end. Cromwell finally retired from films after his comeback fizzled: his last role was in a noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
flick of 1948, entitled Bungalow 13. In fact, it was the second feature in which he starred with Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
, though the film did not help her star to re-shine brightly either. All told, Cromwell's film career spanned 39 films.
In the 1950s, Richard Cromwell went back to artistic roots and studied ceramics. He built a pottery studio at his home. The home still stands today and is located in the hills above Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
on North Miller Drive. There, he successfully designed coveted decorative tiles for himself and for his industry-friends, which, according to his niece, Joan Radabaugh, he marketed under his stage name. Around this time, Baby Peggy Montgomery, aka Diana Serra Cary
Diana Serra Cary
Diana Serra Cary , best known as Baby Peggy, was one of the three major American child stars of the Hollywood silent movie era along with Jackie Coogan and Baby Marie....
, who had appeared in This Day and Age with Cromwell many years earlier, recalls visiting Cromwell at his home along with her late husband during this period to see his "beautiful ceramic screen which had won him a prize at the L.A. County Fair." Radabaugh's original tiles as well as his large decorative art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
-style wall paintings of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
can still be seen today in the mezzanine off the balcony of the restored Pantages Theatre
Pantages Theatre (Hollywood)
The Pantages Theatre, formerly known as RKO Pantages Theatre, is located at Hollywood and Vine , Hollywood, California, USA. Designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca, it was the last theater built by the vaudeville impresario Alexander Pantages...
in Hollywood, which is today considered a noted architectural landmark.
During this period, Cromwell entertained regularly. Cromwell was a gourmet cook. According to Kim King, of Carlsbad, California, many a wonderful dinner party was enjoyed by her parents Mr. and Mrs. King in the 1950s at Cromwell's home. For example, once in particular, The Kings enjoyed Roy's specially prepared delicacy of Frogs' Legs in the French-style. (King interviewed by Bill Keane in Spring of 2006 re: her father's friendship with Cromwell. Mr. King served in the Coast Guard with R.C.)
As Radabaugh, he also wrote extensively, producing several published stories and an unfinished novel in the 1950s. After years of heavy drinking with a social circle of friends that included the likes of Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
, Cromwell ultimately changed his ways and became an early participant and supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
in the Los Angeles Area. Cromwell continued with his ceramics production business, with noted corporate clients during this period including The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where many of his Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
-styled objets d'art were displayed.
Death and legacy
In July 1960, Cromwell signed with producer Maury Dexter for 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
's planned production of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, co-starring Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer)
James Frederick "Jimmie" Rodgers is an American singer. He is not related to the country singer of the same name.-Career:...
, Bob Dix (son of Richard Dix
Richard Dix
Richard Dix was an American motion picture actor who achieved popularity in both silent and sound film. His standard on-screen image was that of the rugged and stalwart hero.-Early life:...
), and Neil Hamilton who replaced Cromwell in the film. Cromwell became ill and died on October 11, 1960 in Hollywood of complications from liver cancer
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection or cirrhosis .Compared to other cancers, HCC is quite a rare tumor in the United States...
, at the age of 50. He is interred in Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
. Cromwell was survived by his four siblings, including Opal Radabaugh Putnam.
Cromwell's legacy is preserved today by his nephew Dan Putnam, and his cousin Bill Keane IV, both of the Conejo Valley
Conejo Valley
The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both southeastern Ventura County and northwestern Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States...
in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, as well as the family of his late niece, Joan Radabaugh, of the Central Coast. In 2005, Keane donated materials relating to Cromwell's radio performances to the Thousand Oaks Library's Special Collection, "The American Radio Archive". In 2007, Keane donated memorabilia relating to Cromwell's film career and ceramics work to the AMPAS Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills.
Cromwell was mentioned in Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
's satirical novel Myra Breckinridge
Myra Breckinridge
Myra Breckinridge is a 1968 satirical novel by Gore Vidal written in the form of a diary. It was made into a movie in 1970. Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western world in the late 1960s and...
(1968) as "the late Richard Cromwell, so satisfyingly tortured in Lives of a Bengal Lancer".
Selected filmography
| Year | Movie | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 1930 in film -Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism... |
King of Jazz King of Jazz King of Jazz is a 1930 motion picture starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The film's title was taken from Whiteman's controversial, self-conferred appellation... |
cowboy (walk-on) | Cromwell can be seen in the Song of the Dawn number. |
| 1930 | Tol'able David Tol'able David Tol'able David is a 1921 American silent film based on the Joseph Hergesheimer short story. It was adapted to the screen by Edmund Goulding and directed by Henry King for Inspiration Pictures.... |
David | Directed by John Blystone, starred opposite Noah Beery Sr. Silent star Richard Barthelmess Richard Barthelmess Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut... , who gave his blessing to Cromwell's portrayal, was the original David in the 1921 classic directed by Henry King Henry King (director) Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the... . Gary Cooper Gary Cooper Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made... was also originally offered this role and very interested but Adolph Zukor Adolph Zukor Adolph Zukor , born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:... at Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still... refused to loan out his top star to Columbia, then perceived as a "lower-class" studio (according to Larry Swindell's bio of Cooper, The Last Hero, Doubleday, 1980). |
| 1931 1931 in film -Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... |
Fifty Fathoms Deep | x | First of several pairings with Jack Holt Jack Holt (actor) Jack Holt was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.-Early life:... for Columbia Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies... . |
| 1931 | Shanghaied Love Shanghaied Love -Cast:* Richard Cromwell as The Boy* Sally Blane as Mary Swope* Noah Beery as Captain 'Black Yankee' Angus Swope* Willard Robertson as Newman* Sidney Bracey as The Rat* Richard Alexander as Eric* Ed Brady as Fitzgibbons* Erville Alderson as Deaken... |
x | Third feature for Columbia, co-starred Sally Blane Sally Blane Sally Blane was an American actress. Blane was the sister of actresses Polly Ann and Loretta Young, and half-sister to actress Georgiana Young, the wife of actor Ricardo Montalban... and again, Noah Beery Sr. |
| 1931 | Maker of Men Maker of Men Maker of Men is a 1931 American melodramatic sports film directed by Edward Sedgwick and written by Howard J. Green and Edward Sedgwick. The film starred Jack Holt, Richard Cromwell, and Joan Marsh, and featured a young John Wayne in a supporting role... |
x | Jack Holt Jack Holt (actor) Jack Holt was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.-Early life:... co-starred and a very young Marion Morrison aka John Wayne John Wayne Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height... appeared with his Trojan Football teammates; Gridiron scenes filmed at USC University of Southern California The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university... . |
| 1932 1932 in film -Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released.... |
The Age of Consent | Mike | Cromwell's first loanout to RKO; this film was directed by Gregory LaCava and was the screen debut for Mildred Shay Mildred Shay Mildred Helen Shay was an American film actress, most famous for her 1930s off-camera exploits. The five-foot-two actress was dubbed "Pocket Venus" by gossip columnist Walter Winchell.-Life and career:... . |
| 1932 | Emma Emma (1932 film) Emma 1932 is a feature film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Marie Dressler and directed by Clarence Brown.Inventor Frederick Smith's wife dies during the birth of their fourth baby, Ronnie, leaving the family in the care of their faithful housekeeper Emma... |
Ronnie | Cromwell was on loan out to MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer... for director Clarence Brown Clarence Brown Clarence Brown was an American film director.-Early life:Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to a cotton manufacturer, Brown moved to the South when he was 11. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of... ; this production's cast also included Jean Hersholt Jean Hersholt Jean Pierre Hersholt was a Danish-born actor who lived in the United States, where he was a leading film and radio talent, best known for his 17 years starring on radio in Dr. Christian and for playing Shirley Temple's grandfather in Heidi... . |
| 1932 | Tom Brown of Culver | x | Universal Universal Studios Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios.... 's William Wyler William Wyler William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture... directed Cromwell here along with H.B. Warner, Slim Summerville Slim Summerville Slim Summerville was an American film actor, best known as a comedy performer.-Life and career:Born George Joseph Summerville in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Summerville began his career as a "Keystone Kop" in 1912... , Tom Brown Tom Brown (actor) Thomas Brown was an American child model, and later a film and television actor.... , Ben Alexander, and Sidney Toler Sidney Toler Sidney Hooper Toler was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. Of primarily Scottish ancestry, he was the second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan.-Early life and career:... . Also, Tyrone Power Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,... 's first onscreen appearance is as a bit player in a scene opposite Cromwell in this film. |
| 1932 | The Strange Love of Molly Louvain | James "Jimmy" Cook, the bellhop | Director: Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész... for Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,... , with Ann Dvorak Ann Dvorak Ann Dvorak was an American film actress.Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told The Literary Digest: "My name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent... , Lee Tracy Lee Tracy William Lee Tracy was an American actor.- Early life :Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia.After graduating from Western Military Academy in 1918 he studied electrical engineering at Union College, and then served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor... , Guy Kibbee Guy Kibbee Guy Bridges Kibbee was an American stage and film actor.Born in El Paso, Texas, Kibbee began his entertainment career on Mississippi riverboats and eventually became a successful Broadway actor... , and Charles Middleton Charles B. Middleton Charles B. Middleton was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays... . |
| 1932 | That's My Boy | x | Another football flick wherein Cromwell plays opposite Mae Marsh Mae Marsh Mae Marsh was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years.-Early life:... , Dorothy Jordan, and Douglass Dumbrille Douglass Dumbrille Douglass Dumbrille was a Canadian actor and one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood.-Life and career:... . |
| 1933 1933 in film -Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded.... |
This Day and Age | Steve Smith | For DeMille at Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still... , Cromwell stars with Charles Bickford Charles Bickford Charles Bickford was an American actor best known for his supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Song of Bernadette , The Farmer's Daughter , and Johnny Belinda... and Judith Allen. |
| 1933 | Hoop-La Hoop-La Hoop-La is a 1933 drama film notable as both a pre-code film and as the final appearance of actress Clara Bow. It was directed by Frank Lloyd and released by Fox Film Corporation, with Preston Foster, Richard Cromwell, and Minna Gombell also in the cast... |
x | Directed by Frank Lloyd Frank Lloyd Frank Lloyd was a film director, scriptwriter and producer... for Fox pictures. Final major starring role for Clara Bow Clara Bow Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex... . Cromwell co-starred with Preston Foster Preston Foster Preston Foster was an American stage and film actor, and singer. Foster entered films in 1929 after appearing as a Broadway stage actor. He was appearing in Broadway plays as late as October 1931 when he acted in a play titled Two Seconds starring Edward J. Pawley... and James Gleason James Gleason James Austin Gleason was an American actor born in New York City. He was also a playwright and screenwriter.-Career:... . |
| 1934 1934 in film -Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade... |
Carolina | drugstore clerk | Opposite Janet Gaynor Janet Gaynor Janet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven , Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel... , originally entitled: "The House of Connelly." |
| 1935 1935 in film -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:... |
Life Begins at Forty Life Begins at Forty (1935 film) Life Begins at Forty is a 1935 black-and-white film starring Will Rogers and Richard Cromwell. It is based on the non-fiction self-help book Life Begins at 40 by Walter B. Pitkin.-Cast:*Will Rogers as Kenesaw H. Clark*Richard Cromwell as Lee Austin... |
Lee Austin | Opposite Will Rogers Will Rogers William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s.... and Rochelle Hudson Rochelle Hudson Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:... , this was one of Rogers' last films. |
| 1935 1935 in film -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:... |
Lives of a Bengal Lancer | Lt. Stone | Cromwell's favorite role. |
| 1935 | Star Night at The Cocoanut Grove | as himself | MGM Technicolor Short showing celebs at play in Hollywood. Cromwell is seated at a table with Gary Cooper Gary Cooper Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made... . |
| 1936 1936 in film The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon... |
Poppy | Billy Farnsworth | One of many pairings for Cromwell opposite Rochelle Hudson Rochelle Hudson Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:... . |
| 1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... |
The Road Back The Road Back (film) The Road Back is a 1937 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale. The screenplay is by Charles Kenyon and R.C. Sherriff from the eponymous novel by Erich Maria Remarque.The novel on which the film is based was banned during Nazi rule... |
Ludwig | Very large cast including Noah Beery, Jr. Noah Beery, Jr. Noah Lindsey Beery , known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting... —Cromwell was one of the few actors to work with both Beery Sr. and Jr. Fine camera work was done here by cinematographer John J. Mescall John J. Mescall John J. Mescall, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He photographed such silent films as Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg , but he is best known for his work in the 1930s at Universal Pictures, where he often worked on the films of James Whale... . |
| 1937 1937 in film The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US.... |
The Wrong Road | Jimmy | Cromwell's director here was James Cruze James Cruze James Cruze was a silent film actor and film director.-Life:Cruze was born as Jens Vera Cruz Bosen. The Vera Cruz middle name came from the battle of Vera Cruz. He was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but did not practice the religion after his teenage years... . Other members of the cast were Marjorie Main Marjorie Main Marjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:... , Joseph Crehan, Arthur Horst, and Rex Evans. Costumes were by Eloise Eloise -Places:*Éloise, a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-Music:* "Eloise" , a song written by Paul Ryan, first released by Barry Ryan, covered by The Damned and others... . |
| 1938 1938 in film The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,... |
Jezebel | Ted Dillard | Cromwell's second role in a William Wyler William Wyler William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture... -directed film. |
| 1939 1939 in film The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate... |
Young Mr. Lincoln Young Mr. Lincoln Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio... |
Matt Clay | Henry Fonda Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins... , who played Lincoln, was quoted in an interview that he had a professional admiration for the "always dependable Richard Cromwell." |
| 1940 1940 in film The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.... |
Enemy Agent | Jimmy Saunders | Exactly one hour in length, this film has Cromwell in the role of a draftsman who is wrongly accused of crimes perpetrated by Nazi spies. Jack Carson Jack Carson John Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s... stands out in an early role as a G-Man G-Man G-Man may mean:* G-Man , short for "Government Man", slang for agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and similar organizations... feigning drunkenness to help thwart the crooks who've stolen aircraft factory blueprints. |
| 1940 1940 in film The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.... |
The Villain Still Pursued Her | Edward Middleton | Co-starring Buster Keaton Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the... , this take-off of the long-running Los Angeles stage hit The Drunkard, also co-starred Margaret Hamilton Margaret Hamilton Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz... . It was recently re-released on DVD. |
| 1942 1942 in film The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:... |
Baby Face Morgan Baby Face Morgan Baby Face Morgan is a 1942 American comedy-drama film directed by Arthur Dreifuss. The film was a notable "B" effort for PRC . Jack Schwarz was producer, and Leon Fromkess, was listed as "in charge of production."... |
Edward "Baby Face" Morgan | This is the best of the several of Cromwell's "B" efforts for PRC Producers Releasing Corporation Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more lower-end Hollywood film studios on Poverty Row from the late '30s to the mid-'40s. PRC, as it was commonly known, made low-budget B-movies for the lower-half of a double bill. A few of its films have gained a respectable reputation over the... . Cromwell's co-star here was Robert Armstrong Robert Armstrong (actor) Robert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end... , of King Kong King Kong King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films... fame. Cromwell and Armstrong had also worked together in Enemy Agent. |
| 1948 1948 in film The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :... |
Bungalow 13 | x | Cromwell's comeback that never was. |
External links
Retrieved on 2008-01-26 Retrieved on 2008-01-26- N.Y.Times biography entry on Cromwell
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR2jLotxoQA "Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove" aka "1930's Nightclub Views"