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FRANCHOT TONE'S CAREER spanned 40 years and included hundreds of films, theatrical productions, radio and television appearances. He is most known as an actor but he also produced and directed. This overview highlights some of his more noted achievements but represents only a fraction of his expansive body of work.

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THEATRE

Franchot's acting interests began and ended in the theatre. Originally majoring in French and planning to become a language teacher, he joined the Cornell University drama club and -- before graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1927 -- became it's president his senior year. After school he joined a Buffalo stock company playing bit parts and learning the trade. Shortly thereafter he appeared in The Belt with The New Playwright's Theatre in Greenwich Village before landing his first Broadway role in the 1929 Katherine Cornell production of The Age of Innocence.

The following year he joined The Theatre Guild and later became a founding member of the famed Group Theatre (later known as The Actors Studio.) He credited the Group and Lee Strasberg for teaching him about real acting. He left New York in 1932 -- the first of the Group to do so -- when MGM offered him a film contract. However, he did not abandon his colleagues of the stage -- while in Hollywood he sent money earned from his film work back to the Group to help support their productions.

Franchot made national headlines in 1939 when he turned his back on Hollywood to return to the Broadway stage. That year he appeared with Sylvia Sidney in The Gentle People, followed in 1940 by one of his most critically-acclaimed roles as a newspaperman in Ernest Hemingway's The Fifth Column. Although he returned to Hollywood to fulfill his contract obligations, his passion remained on the New York stage. In 1957 he gave one of the most outstanding performances of his career as the lost alcoholic in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten. It was also around this time that he produced and starred in Uncle Vanya Off-Broadway and for film. He partnered with theatre legend Jean Dalrymple in 1967 to purchase Theatre Four to use for experimental play productions.

FILM

Although his film career started with MGM in Hollywood the fall of 1932, Franchot actually made his first screen test while still in college. He was among 300 contestants who answered the call of a national humor magazine that sent a traveling studio to the Cornell campus. "I wasn't the winner. I wasn't even close," Franchot recalled years later. Good thing he didn't let that deter him!

With silent film stars losing clout -- and jobs -- once talkies hit big, Hollywood was on the lookout for talent with velvet voices and Franchot fit the bill. Coupled with his matinee idol looks, he landed a contract with MGM after gaining notice in The Group Theatre's aptly named Success Story. Upon arriving in Hollywood he made his screen debut in The Wiser Sex followed by seven more films before the end of 1933. Among those films was Today We Live in which he co-starred with his future wife Joan Crawford, playing her brother. He also appeared in the hit Bombshell with the original platinum blonde bombshell herself, Jean Harlow.

By 1935 he garnered an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of Roger Byam in Mutiny On The Bounty. Co-stars Clark Gable and Charles Laughton also received Best Actor nominations but none of the men won. Mutiny however was chosen as Best Picture. Technically, Franchot's role was that of supporting actor but the catagory did not exist until 1936 when the Academy reviewed the situation of three actors from one film being nominated.

1935 was a notable year for two other projects -- he shot another adventure film, Lives Of A Bengal Lancer with Gary Cooper and it was one of his all-time favorite roles. He also appeared in Dangerous with Bette Davis, who won the Academy's Best Actress award. In a subsequent book, Bette would admit to falling in love with Franchot during the filming of Dangerous but his affections were won by her rival, Joan Crawford, who married him later that year.

By 1944 Franchot had left MGM and was working for other studios such as Paramount, Warner Brother and Universal. His role as a psychotic killer in Phantom Lady with Ella Raines gave him the chance to break free of typcasting as a wealthy cafe-society playboy.

In 1949 he produced and starred in cult classic The Man On The Eiffel Tower which was the first film ever to be shot on location at the historic landmark. It was directed by his good friend and business partner Burgess Meredith and co-starred his ex-wife Jean Wallace and Charles Laughton. This was followed nearly a decade later by another producing-starring-directing project, Uncle Vanya which also starred his current wife Dolores Dorn. The company was filming by day and performing the same show on stage in the evenings.

RADIO

It's difficult at this juncture to gauge exactly how many radio appearances Franchot made during the course of his career. A majority of those programs found are dramatic productions that helped promote studio films. He also did guest spots on weekly comedy and variety shows hosted by the likes of Burns & Allen, George Jessel and Kate Smith.

Notable performances included those that co-starred his then-wife Joan Crawford: Chained (1936) and Mary of Scotland (1937) for Lux Radio Theatre. Franchot recalled years later in a newspaper interview that Joan was so nervous during those live performances that she was on the verge of nausea and would ask producers for permission to sit at a table while reading her lines.

TELEVISION

Franchot's foray into the television medium began around 1950 and the majority of his appearances were in hour-long dramas, many performed live. I've documented approximately 60 productions so far. Notable dramas included 12 Angry Men for Studio One and The Little Foxes for Hallmark Hall of Fame. Others include stints on Robert Montgomery Presents where he acted with his old MGM pal's daughter (and future Bewitched star) Elizabeth, and on Omnibus where he appeared in the production of Dear Brutus with Group Theatre colleague Lee Strasberg's daughter Susan.

His portayals of Steinmetz for G.E. Theatre (1956) and Mark Twain in The Shape of the River for Playhouse 90 (1960) afforded Franchot the rare opportunity to do the type of acting he truly loved: to be able to delve deep into a character behind extensive makeup and costuming.

He made several appearances on weekly westerns such as The Virginian, Wagon Train and Bonanza and after making a guest appearance in 1962, joined the regular cast of Ben Casey in 1965. He also appeared on science-fiction programs such as The Twilight Zone.

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