Tom Tryon

Thomas "Tom" Tryon (January 14, 1926 – September 4, 1991) was an American film and television actor as well as a novelist. He is best known for playing the title role in the film The Cardinal (1963), featured roles in the war films The Longest Day (1962) and In Harm's Way (1965) with John Wayne, and especially the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter (1958–1961). He later turned to the writing of prose fiction and screenplays, and wrote several science fiction, horror and mystery novels.

For the English author of self-help books, see Thomas Tryon. For the American architect, see Thomas Tryon (architect).
Tom Tryon
Tryon in The Unholy Wife (1957)
Born
Thomas Tryon

(1926-01-14)January 14, 1926
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedSeptember 4, 1991(1991-09-04) (aged 65)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActor, writer
Years active1955–1991
Spouse(s)Ann Noyes (1955–1958, divorced)[1]
Partner(s)

Early life and education

Thomas Tryon was born on January 14, 1926, in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Arthur Lane Tryon, a clothier[1][4] and owner of Stackpole, Moore & Tryon (he is often erroneously identified as the son of silent screen actor Glenn Tryon). He served in the United States Navy in the Pacific from 1943–1946[4] during and after World War II. Upon return from the U.S. Navy, he attended and graduated from Yale University.

Acting career

Tryon studied acting at NYC's Neighborhood Playhouse under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner.

Broadway

He appeared in the 1952 original Broadway production of Wish You Were Here, a long-running musical that starred Jack Cassidy, Patricia Marand and Sheila Bond.

Early appearances

Tryon appeared in The Way of the World (1955). He also guest starred in 1955 as Antoine De More in the two-part episode "King of the Dakotas" of NBC's western anthology series Frontier.

Paramount

Tryon was signed to a long term contract to Paramount. His film debut was in The Scarlet Hour (1956) at Paramount, directed by Michael Curtiz. It was a crime drama about a man whose married lover persuades him to commit a robbery; Tryon was second billed. He was top billed in a low budget war film at Allied Artists, Screaming Eagles (1956), then supported Charlton Heston and Anne Baxter in Three Violent People (1956) at Paramount. He was announced for, but did not end up appearing in, Short Cut to Hell.[5]

Tryon's work was mostly in TV though, appearing in Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre, The 20th Century-Fox Hour, Playhouse 90 (an adaptation of Charley's Aunt), Zane Grey Theater, Studio 57, Matinee Theatre, and Lux Video Theatre. He had a support role in RKO's The Unholy Wife (1957) billed after Rod Steiger and Diana Dors. He had the lead in a low budget science fiction film at Paramount, I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958). Tryon appeared in the lead in "The Mark Hanford Story" (February 26, 1958) on NBC's Wagon Train. He portrayed an educated half-breed outraged at his father, Jack Hanford (played by Onslow Stevens), for having mistreated Mark's Cheyenne mother. Kathleen Crowley portrayed Ann Jamison, a young woman that the senior Hanford plans to marry after the self-banishment and then suicide of Mark's mother.[6] His other television roles included The Restless Gun, General Electric Theater, The Millionaire, The Big Valley, and The Joseph Cotten Show.

Texas John Slaughter

Tryon played Texas John Slaughter for Disney in a series of TV movies for Disney which ran from 1958 to 1961. The role was based on actual historical figure John Slaughter.[7] He was considered but eventually passed over for the role of Janet Leigh's lover, Sam Loomis, in the classic thriller, Psycho (1960); the role went to John Gavin.

20th Century Fox
Tryon is on the right behind John Wayne, from the movie The Longest Day

Tryon starred in The Story of Ruth (1960) at 20th Century Fox. For that studio he appeared in Marines, Let's Go (1961). Disney borrowed him to star in a satire about the space age, Moon Pilot (1962). He was one of many names in The Longest Day (1962) at Fox. In 1962, Tryon was cast to play the role of Stephen Burkett ("Adam") in the unfinished Marilyn Monroe-Dean Martin comedy film, Something's Got to Give, directed by George Cukor, but lost that role after Monroe was fired from the movie. He guest starred on Dr. Kildare and The Virginian.

Otto Preminger

Tryon's greatest role was as an ambitious Catholic priest in The Cardinal (1963). The film was a box office hit and Tryon received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. However, that honor barely compensated for the trauma and abuse he suffered at the hands of director Otto Preminger. At one point during filming, Preminger fired Tryon in front of his parents when they visited the set, then rehired him after being satisfied that Tryon had been sufficiently humiliated.[8]

"Finally, I was in a position of being able to pick my roles," said Tryon in 1986. "But I didn't like the movie. I didn't like me in the movie. To this day, I cannot look at that film. It's because of Preminger. He was a tyrant who ruled by terror. He tied me up in knots. He screamed at me. He called me names. He said I was lazy. He said I was a fool. He never cursed me. His insults were far more personal."[9]

Tryon guest starred on Kraft Suspense Theatre then was reunited with Preminger in In Harm's Way (1965).

He had the lead in The Glory Guys (1965).

Later acting career

He was part of a live television performance of The Fall of the House of Usher. He also co-wrote a song, "I Wish I Was," which appeared on an obscure record by Dick Kallman, star of the short-lived and now largely forgotten 1965 television sitcom, Hank. Other television roles include episodes of The Big Valley, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre and the 1967 TV movie remake Winchester '73. Tryon went to Australia to make Color Me Dead (1969).

Writing career

Disillusioned with acting, Tryon retired from the profession in 1969 and began writing horror and mystery novels. He was successful, overcoming skepticism about a classically handsome movie star suddenly turning novelist. He also moved into film financing, being executive producer on Johnny Got His Gun (1971).

His best-known work is The Other (1971), about a boy whose evil twin brother may or may not be responsible for a series of deaths in a small rural community in the 1930s. He adapted his novel into a film released the following year, which starred Diana Muldaur, Uta Hagen, and John Ritter. Harvest Home (1973), about the dark pagan rituals being practiced in a small New England town, was adapted as The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978), a television mini-series starring Bette Davis.

An extensive critical analysis of Tryon's horror novels can be found in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001). His other books include Crowned Heads, a collection of novellas inspired by the legends of Hollywood. Tryon sold the film rights to Universal to make four films based on the novellas.[10] The first of these novellas, Fedora, about a reclusive former film actress whose relationship with her plastic surgeon is similar to that between a drug addict and her pusher, was later converted to a feature film directed by Billy Wilder.

Other novellas in the collection were based on the murder of former silent screen star Ramón Novarro, and the quasi-Oedipal relationship between actor Clifton Webb and his mother. Lady (1974) concerns the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a charming widow in 1930s New England and the secret he discovers about her. His novel The Night of the Moonbow (1989) tells the story of a boy driven to violent means by the constant harassment he receives at a boys summer camp. Night Magic, written in 1991, was posthumously published in 1995.

Personal life

In 1955, Tryon married Ann L. Noyes, the daughter of stockbroker Joseph Leo Lilienthal and his wife, the former Edna Arnstein. She was the former wife of Thomas Ewing Noyes, with whom she had been a theatrical producer.[11][12][13] The Tryons divorced in 1958,[1] and Ann Tryon resumed her previous married name. She died in 1966.[1][14]

During the 1970s, he was in a romantic relationship with Clive Clerk, one of the original cast members of A Chorus Line and an interior designer who decorated Tryon's apartment on Central Park West in New York City, which was featured in Architectural Digest.[2] From 1973 to 1977, Tryon was in a relationship with Calvin Culver, also known as Casey Donovan, a gay porn star.[3]

Death

Tryon died of stomach cancer on September 4, 1991 at the age of 65 in Los Angeles, California.[15]

Selected bibliography

Novels

  • The Other (Knopf, 1971) ISBN 9780394436081
  • Harvest Home (Knopf, 1973) ISBN 9780394485287
  • Lady (Knopf, 1974) ISBN 9780394490939
  • The Night of the Moonbow (Knopf, 1989) ISBN 9780394560069
  • The Wings of the Morning (Knopf, 1990) ISBN 9780394523897
  • In the Fire of Spring (Knopf, 1992) ISBN 9780394585888
  • The Adventures of Opal and Cupid (Viking Press, 1992) ISBN 9780670822393
  • Night Magic (Simon & Schuster, 1995) ISBN 9780684803937

Collections

  • Crowned Heads (Knopf, 1976) ISBN 9780394404684
  • All That Glitters (Knopf, 1986) ISBN 9780394550237

Short stories and novellas

  • Bobbitt (1976)
  • Fedora (1976)
  • Lorna (1976)
  • Willie (1976)

Selected filmography

References
  1. "Tom Tryon profile". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  2. Tom Tryon on IMDb
  3. Edmonson, Roger (1998). Boy in the Sand — Casey Donovan, All-American Sex Star. Los Angeles, California: Alyson Books. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-555-83457-9.
  4. "Tom Tryon-Biography". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  5. Tom Tryon Wins Break With Cagney; Theater Men Plan Six Pictures Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1957, pg. A7.
  6. Wagon Train episode "The Mark Hanford Story" on IMDb
  7. Has Gun-and How He Travels!: Tom Tryon Just Missed Some Film Plums. Now He's Happy as a Hard-Ridin TV Sheriff Hopper, Hedda. Chicago Daily Tribune, November 2, 1958, pg. f28.
  8. Fujiwara, Chris (2008). The World and Its Double — The Life and Work of Otto Preminger. New York City: Faber and Faber. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-571-21117-3.
  9. THE FLAMBOYANT TOM TRYON Christy, Marian. Boston Globe 2 Nov 1986: C25.
  10. Mary Murphy. "Four-Film Deal for Tryon Novel", Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1976, pg. e12.
  11. Thomas Ewing Noyes, 1922-1997, was a son of American journalist Newbold Noyes and a grandson of Frank Brett Noyes, a president of Associated Press. He later became a commentator on National Public Radio.
  12. Everett Aaker, Television Western Players of the Fifties (McFarland, 1997), page 506
  13. "Miss Lilienthal, Pensacola Bride", The New York Times, December 20, 1944.
  14. "Noyes, Ann L.", The New York Times, November 24, 1966.
  15. "Author, actor Thomas Tryon dies of stomach cancer". Boca Raton News. Boca Raton, Florida. Associated Press. September 5, 1991. p. 4A. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
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