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Glen Vernon

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Glen Vernon
Born(1923-10-27)October 27, 1923
Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedOctober 27, 1999(1999-10-27) (aged 76)
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1944-1999

Glen Vernon (October 27, 1923 – October 27, 1999) was an American actor.

Born Glenn Vernon in Fall River, Massachusetts,[1] Vernon pursued a dramatic career upon graduation from high school. By 1944 he was established as a Broadway juvenile, and he was recruited by RKO Pictures to play a sensitive Russian soldier in the film Days of Glory. Signed to a term contract, Vernon went on to play featured roles in dramas, comedies, and musicals, among them Youth Runs Wild, Those Endearing Young Charms, Bedlam, Riverboat Rhythm, and The Woman on the Beach.[2] Vernon usually underplayed his roles, lending his portrayals a natural charm.

The RKO studio often offered its own version of another studio's popular property. When Universal Pictures had Abbott and Costello, RKO's answer was Brown and Carney. In the musical-comedy field, Universal had Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan while Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. RKO teamed its popular young players Glenn Vernon and Marcy McGuire. This pairing resulted in two features, the second being Glenn Vernon's only leading role: a hapless jazz clarinetist who can't read music, in the Hollywood-themed feature Ding Dong Williams (filmed in 1945). After McGuire angrily petitioned her bosses for her own starring vehicles, RKO released her from the payroll and dissolved the Vernon-McGuire series. RKO waited for almost a year for the public to forget the Vernon-McGuire team, and finally released Ding Dong Williams in the spring of 1946.

When tycoon Howard Hughes bought the RKO studio, many of the resident contract players were dismissed; Vernon left the studio in 1947. He returned to the stage, playing in Los Angeles-area productions. He made a brief screen comeback in 1950, now billed as "Glen Vernon," as a song-and-dance man in the vaudeville revue Hollywood Varieties and as a drunken wastrel in Lucky Losers with The Bowery Boys. His movie career never regained its wartime momentum, but he continued to play small roles in motion pictures and television. One of his fellow players from Ding Dong Williams, Tommy Noonan, remembered Vernon's calm screen demeanor and cast him as an Army chaplain in his 1959 production The Rookie.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Vernon was cast as quaint old men, in films (So I Married an Axe Murderer) and television (Doogie Howser, M.D.,The Golden Girls).

Today's audiences may recognize Glenn Vernon from a movie he never actually made: near the beginning of the famous RKO feature It's a Wonderful Life, when the bereaved pharmacist Mr. Gower gazes at a picture of his deceased son, it's a photo of Glenn Vernon.

Death

Vernon died on October 27, 1999, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, from complications of a stroke.[3] He was 76 years old.[1]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1944 Days of Glory Mitya
1944 Marine Raiders Marine in Recording Booth Uncredited
1944 Step Lively Bellboy Uncredited
1944 Youth Runs Wild Frankie Hauser
1945 Those Endearing Young Charms Radioman 1st Class William Zantifar
1945 Mama Loves Papa Delivery Boy Uncredited
1945 Sing Your Way Home Jimmy McCue
1946 Riverboat Rhythm John Beeler
1946 Ding Dong Williams Ding Dong Williams filmed 1945
1946 Bedlam The Gilded Boy
1946 The Bamboo Blonde Shorty Parker
1947 The Devil Thumbs a Ride Jack Kenny, Gas Station Attendant
1947 The Woman on the Beach Kirk
1948 Heart of Virginia Bud Landeen
1948 Beyond Glory Yearling in Mess Hall Uncredited
1949 Impact Ed
1949 Sands of Iwo Jima Marine Uncredited
1950 Hollywood Varieties Minstrel act with partner Eddie Ryan
1950 Lucky Losers Andrew Stone III
1951 Belle Le Grand Bellboy
1951 The Wild Blue Yonder Crewman Uncredited
1952 The Rose Bowl Story Student Manager Uncredited
1952 Flat Top Sailor Uncredited
1952 Thunderbirds Driver Uncredited
1953 The Stars Are Singing Bit Role Uncredited
1956 Miracle in the Rain Master of Ceremonies Uncredited
1958 I Bury the Living Stuart Drexel Uncredited
1959 The Rookie Army Chaplain Uncredited
1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's Reporter Uncredited
1965 I Saw What You Did John Adams
1969 The Love God? Mayor Uncredited
1974 Airport 1975 Passenger Uncredited
1990 Spaced Invaders Old Guy #1
1993 So I Married an Axe Murderer Uncle Angus
1999 Eating L.A. Street Preacher

References

  1. ^ a b Lentz, Harris M. III (2000). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 1999: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. p. 224. ISBN 9780786409198. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  2. ^ "Overview for Glen Vernon". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 1 October 2014.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Glen Vernon". Variety. 5 November 1999. Retrieved 1 October 2014.


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