Franchot Tone

Broadway

June Walker (Laurey Williams), Helen Westley (Aunt Eller Murphy) and Franchot Tone (Curly McClain) in the original Broadway production of Green Grow the Lilacs (1931)

Tone was in The Belt (1927), Centuries (1927–28), The International (1928), and a popular adaptation of The Age of Innocence (1928–29) with Katherine Cornell. He followed it with appearances in Uncle Vanya (1929), Cross Roads (1929), Red Rust (1929–30), Hotel Universe (1930), Pagan Lady (1930–31).

He joined the Theater Guild and played Curly in their production of Green Grow the Lilacs (later the basis for the musical Oklahoma!).

Tone also became a founding member of the Group Theatre along with, among others, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Clifford Odets, many of whom had worked with the Theater Guild.^[4] 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), Maxwell Anderson's Night Over Taos (1931), The House of Connelly (1931) and John Howard Lawson's Success Story (1932) directed by Lee Strasberg. Outside the Group he was in A Thousand Summers (1932).

Tone made his film debut with The Wiser Sex (1932) starring Claudette Colbert, filmed by Paramount at their Astoria Studios.

MGM

Tone was the first of the Group to go to Hollywood when MGM offered him a film contract. In his memoir on the Group Theater, The Fervent Years, Harold Clurman recalls Tone being the most confrontational and egocentric of the group in the beginning. Nevertheless, he always considered cinema far inferior to the theater and recalled his stage years with longing. He later provided financial support to the Group Theater, which often needed it. He returned to stage work sporadically after the 1940s.

Tone summered at Pine Brook Country Club, located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut, which was the Group Theater's summer rehearsal headquarters during the summer of 1936.^[5][6]

MGM immediately gave Tone a series of impressive roles, casting him in six films which came out in 1933. They started him with Today We Live, written by William Faulkner and starring Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. He was the romantic male lead in Gabriel Over the White House starring Walter Huston and co-starred with Loretta Young in Midnight Mary.

Tone romanced Miriam Hopkins in King Vidor's The Stranger's Return and was the male lead in Stage Mother. He also had an excellent role in Bombshell, with Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy. The last of the sequence of films released in 1933 was Dancing Lady, with his future wife Joan Crawford and Clark Gable which was a hit.

Twentieth Century Pictures borrowed Tone to romance Constance Bennett in Moulin Rouge (1934). Back at MGM he was with Crawford in Sadie McKee (1934) then he was borrowed by Fox to co-star with Madeleine Carroll in The World Moves On (1934).

After The Girl from Missouri (1934) with Harlow, MGM finally gave Tone top billing in Straight Is the Way (1934), although it was a "B". Warners borrowed him for Gentlemen Are Born (1934).

At Paramount, Tone starred in a huge hit in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) with Gary Cooper. He was top billed in One New York Night (1935) but billed underneath Harlow and William Powell in Reckless (1935). He supported Crawford and Robert Montgomery in No More Ladies (1935) and had another box-office success with Mutiny on the Bounty, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor - though still in support of Clark Gable and Charles Laughton (who were also nominated).

Warner Bros borrowed him to play Bette Davis' leading man in Dangerous (1935). He had the lead in Exclusive Story (1935), and romanced Loretta Young in The Unguarded Hour (1936) and Grace Moore in Columbia's The King Steps Out (1936).

Tone was third lead in Suzy (1936) with Harlow and Cary Grant, The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) with Crawford and Robert Taylor, and Love on the Run (1936) with Crawford and Gable.

RKO borrowed him to appear opposite Katharine Hepburn in Quality Street (1937). Back at MGM he supported Spencer Tracy and Gladys George in They Gave Him a Gun (1937).

He had the lead in Between Two Women (1937) and supported Crawford in The Bride Wore Red (1937), Myrna Loy in Man-Proof (1938) and Gladys George in Love Is a Headache (1938).

In Three Comrades (1938) Tone was teamed with Taylor and Margaret Sullavan. He did Three Loves Has Nancy (1938) with Janet Gaynor and Montgomery. Tone supported Franciska Gaal in The Girl Downstairs (1938) then starred in a "B" with Ann Sothern, Fast and Furious (1939). After this he left the studio.

Return to Broadway

He returned to Broadway for Irwin Shaw's The Gentle People (1939) and an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Fifth Column (1940), which only had a short run.

Universal, Columbia & Paramount

Tone signed a contract with Universal, where he starred in his first Western, Trail of the Vigilantes (1940). He was soon back supporting female stars though, making Nice Girl? (1941) with Deanna Durbin.

Tone also signed a multi-picture deal with Columbia, where he made two films with Joan Bennett, She Knew All the Answers (1941) and The Wife Takes a Flyer (1942).

Back at Universal he was top billed in This Woman Is Mine (1941). Tone went to Paramount to star in Five Graves to Cairo (1942), a World War II espionage story directed by Billy Wilder.

He returned to MGM to star in Pilot No. 5 (1943) then it was back to Universal for His Butler's Sister (1943) with Durbin.

Tone made two more films at Paramount, True to Life (1943) with Mary Martin and The Hour Before the Dawn (1944) with Veronica Lake. He had one of his best roles in Universal's Phantom Lady (1944) directed by Robert Siodmak, an early film noir thriller. Also impressive was Dark Waters (1944) with Merle Oberon for Benedict Bogeaus.

He returned to Broadway to appear in Hope for the Best (1945).

At Universal Tone did That Night with You (1945) with Susanna Foster and Because of Him (1946) with Durbin.

Tone made Lost Honeymoon (1947) at Eagle Lion, Honeymoon (1947) with Shirley Temple, Her Husband's Affairs (1947) with Lucille Ball at Columbia, I Love Trouble (1947) at Columbia, and Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) with Grant at RKO. He had the lead in a thriller, Jigsaw (1949) and a support part in Without Honor (1949).

Producer

Tone with Charles Laughton in The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949)

Tone produced and starred in The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), a troubled production whose reputation has benefited from restorations in the 2000s that have coincided with theatrical showings and vastly improved DVD releases.^[7][8] Tone's tour de force role as a manic depressive sociopath included performing many of his own stunts on the Paris landmark.^[9]

Television

Tone relocated to New York and began appearing in New York City-based live television, including The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, Lux Video Theatre, Danger, Suspense and Starlight Theatre. He returned to Hollywood to appear in Here Comes the Groom (1951).^[10]

Back on the small screen, Tone was in Lights Out, Tales of Tomorrow, Hollywood Opening Night, The Revlon Mirror Theater, and The Philip Morris Playhouse.

He returned to Broadway. He appeared in a big hit with Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1953–54), a revival of The Time of Your Life (1955) and A Moon for the Misbegotten with Wendy Hiller and Cyril Cusack in 1957.^[10]

During this time he continued to appear on TV, such as in the original production of Twelve Angry Men, as well as The Elgin Hour, The Ford Television Theatre, The Best of Broadway (a production of The Guardsman with Claudette Colbert), Four Star Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Playwrights '56 (a production of The Sound and the Fury), Omnibus, General Electric Theater, The United States Steel Hour, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The Alcoa Hour, Climax!, Armchair Theatre, Pursuit, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Goodyear Theatre, Playhouse 90, and The DuPont Show of the Month.

He did a TV adaptation of The Little Foxes (1956) with Greer Garson and played Frank James in Bitter Heritage (1958). In 1957 Tone co-produced, co-directed, and starred in an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, which was filmed concurrently with an off-Broadway revival.

Final years

In the early 1960s Tone was in episodes of Bonanza and The Twilight Zone ("The Silence"). He appeared on Broadway in an adaptation of Mandingo (1961), then had a good film role as the charismatic, dying president in Otto Preminger's film version of Advise & Consent (1962).

On stage in 1963 he acted in a revival of O'Neill's Strange Interlude, with Ben Gazzarra and Jane Fonda, and Bicycle Ride to Nevada . The next year he appeared in Lewis John Carlino's Double Talk.

He was cast in TV shows such as The Eleventh Hour, Dupont Show of the Week, The Reporter, Festival, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Virginian. He appeared in what is possibly the first TV movie, See How They Run (1964).^[10]

In Europe, Tone made La bonne soupe (1965). He co-starred in the Ben Casey medical series from 1965 to 1966 as Casey's supervisor, Dr. Daniel Niles Freeland.

He had roles in Otto Preminger's film In Harm's Way (1965) in which he portrayed Admiral Husband E. Kimmel) and Mickey One (1965), and an episode of Run for Your Life. He appeared off-Broadway in Beyond Desire (1967) and his last roles were in Shadow Over Elveron (1968) and Nobody Runs Forever (1968).