Addison Byron Owen Randall (May 12, 1906 – July 16, 1945) was an American film actor, chiefly in
Westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
. He often used a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
for his film work, chiefly Jack Randall, though he played roles as Allen Byron and Byron Vance too.
Early life
Randall was born May 12, 1906, in San Fernando, California as
Addison Byron Owen Randall. He
attended
Kemper Military School
Kemper Military School & College was a private military school located in Boonville, Missouri. Founded in 1844, Kemper filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2002. The school's motto was "Nunquam Non Paratus" (Never Not Prepared).
The 46-acre cam ...
in
Boonville, Missouri
Boonville is a city and the county seat of Cooper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 7,964 at the 2020 census. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the Civil War, on July 17, 1861. Union forces defeated the Missouri Stat ...
. The reference book ''Who's Who in Hollywood'' gives Randall's place of birth as Quincy, Illinois.
Film career
Randall began his career as a supporting actor and foil at
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
, but he left when
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
promised him the chance to star in films. They were true to their word, and he appeared in a series of Western films through the 1930s and 1940s. (In 1935, he actually played a star of Westerns in RKO's ''
'', released in 1935.)
Many of Randall's early
B-movies
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
with Monogram feature him as a
singing cowboy
A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and d ...
, but his later roles were generally straight Western stories, and all were hampered by the low budgets typical of that studio. Many of his cowboy characters were named "Jack". His older brother
Robert Livingston (born Robert Edward Randall) was also an actor in Western films of the time.
Randall adopted his new "Allen Byron" identity in the 1940s in an effort to boost his fading professional fortunes, but the roles he received with new studio
Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoest ...
were not up to the task.
Death
He died unexpectedly in 1945 while filming a
serial called ''
The Royal Mounted Rides Again
''The Royal Mounted Rides Again'' is a 1945 Universal film serial. Adventure serials of this type were popular in the early days of cinema. The serial, often called cliffhangers, would show one episode per week, with an ending that would hide t ...
'' for
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, after a fall from a horse at
Canoga Park
Canoga Park is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Before the Mexican–American War, the district was part of a rancho, and after the American victory it was converted into wheat farms and t ...
, California, in which he struck a tree. Some sources attribute his death to injuries sustained during the fall, which in those versions resulted from an attempt to recover a hat he had dropped, while others state that he suffered a fatal
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
before falling.
[Addison Randall]
, Allmovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
reprinted in the New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
online, accessed June 27, 2006. He is interred at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...
, in the Garden of Memory, near his older brother, Robert Livingston.
''Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries''
Accessed November 28, 2022.
Personal life
Randall twice married and divorced actress Louise Stanley, and carried on an affair with former silent film actress Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helpe ...
. At the time of his death he was married to his second wife, actress Barbara Bennett
Barbara Jane Bennett (August 13, 1906 – August 8, 1958) was an American stage and film actress and dancer.
Family
Born in Palisades Park, New Jersey, Barbara Bennett was the second of three daughters born to actor Richard Bennett and his ...
, sister of actresses Constance Bennett
Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 – July 24, 1965) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress and producer. She was a major Hollywood star during the 1920s and 1930s; during the early 1930s, she was the highest-paid ...
and Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She came from a show-business family, one of three acting sisters. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett appeared in more t ...
.
Partial filmography
* ''His Family Tree
''His Family Tree'' is a 1935 comedy film directed by Charles Vidor.
Plot
Patrick Murphy, is a former Boatswain and fondly called Bosun. He is retired now, and owns a pub in Ireland. Down hearted because he hasn't heard from his son in Americ ...
'' (1935) as Mike Donovan
* '''' (1935) as Tex Williams
* ''Two in the Dark
''Two in the Dark'' is a 1936 American mystery film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Walter Abel, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Gail Patrick, and Alan Hale. The screenplay concerns an amnesiac suspected of murder.
In 1945, Stoloff ...
'' (1936) as Duke Reed
* ''Love on a Bet
''Love on a Bet'' is a 1936 American romantic comedy film directed by Leigh Jason using a screenplay by P. J. Wolfson and Philip G. Epstein, based on a story by Kenneth Earl. The film stars Gene Raymond, Wendy Barrie, and Helen Broderick, and ...
'' (1936) as Jackson
* ''Mariners of the Sky
''Mariners of the Sky'' (also known as ''Navy Born'') is a 1936 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Nate Watt, in his directorial debut. The film stars William Gargan, Claire Dodd and Douglas Fowley. Filmed with the cooperation of ...
'' (1936) aka ''Navy Born'' as Lt. Tex Jones
* ''Don't Turn 'Em Loose
''Don't Turn 'Em Loose'' is a 1936 American crime drama film directed by Ben Stoloff and produced by RKO Radio Pictures, who released the film on September 18, 1936. Written by Harry Segall and Ferdinand Reyher, the production’s screenplay is a ...
'' (1936) as Al - Henchman
* ''Red Lights Ahead
''Red Lights Ahead'' is a 1936 American film directed by Roland D. Reed. It was the last film released by the Poverty Row studio Chesterfield Pictures before it became part of Republic Pictures.
Plot
A family evening situation with quarreling ...
'' (1936) as Nordingham
* ''Flying Hostess
''Flying Hostess'' is a 1936 American drama film directed by Murray Roth and starring William Gargan, Judith Barrett and William Hall.Paris p.75 A group of stewardesses undergo their training, and later thwart the hijacking of an airplane.
Par ...
'' (1936) as Earl Spencer
* ''Danger Valley
''Danger Valley'' is a 1937 American Western film released by Monogram Pictures, directed by Robert N. Bradbury, written by Robert Emmett Tansey (as "Robert Emmett") and starring Addison Randall (credited as "Jack Randall") as a singing cowboy.
...
'' (1937) as Jack Bruce
* ''Stars Over Arizona
''Stars Over Arizona'' is a 1937 American Western film directed by Robert North Bradbury and written by Robert Emmett Tansey. The film stars Jack Randall, Kathleen Eliot, Horace Murphy, Warner Richmond, Tom Herbert and Chick Hannan. The film w ...
'' (1937) as Jack Dawson
* '' Riders of the Dawn'' (1937) as Marshal Josh Preston
* ''Blazing Barriers
''Blazing Barriers'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Aubrey Scotto and written by Edwin C. Parsons and Lee Freeman. The film stars Junior Coghlan, Edward Arnold Jr., Florine McKinney, Irene Franklin, Guy Bates Post and Milburn Stone. ...
'' (1937) as Arthur Forsythe
* ''Wild Horse Canyon
''Wild Horse Canyon'' is a 1938 American Western film directed by Robert F. Hill and written by Robert Emmett Tansey. The film stars Jack Randall, Dorothy Short, Frank Yaconelli, Warner Richmond, Walter Long and Dennis Moore. The film wa ...
'' (1938) as Jack Gray
* ''Gun Packer'' (1938) as Jack Denton
* ''The Mexicali Kid
''The Mexicali Kid'' is a 1938 American Western film directed by Wallace Fox and written by Robert Emmett Tansey. The film stars Jack Randall, Wesley Barry, Eleanor Stewart, Wilhelm von Brincken, Chester Gan and Glenn Strange. The film was rele ...
'' (1938) as Jack Wood
* ''Man's Country
''Man's Country'' is a 1938 American Western film directed by Robert F. Hill and written by Robert Emmett Tansey. The film stars Jack Randall, Marjorie Reynolds, Walter Long, Forrest Taylor, and David Sharpe. The film was released on July 6, ...
'' (1938) as Jack Haid
* '' Gunsmoke Trail'' (1938) as Jack Lane
* ''Land of Fighting Men
''Land of Fighting Men'' is a 1938 American Western film directed by Alan James and written by Joseph O'Donnell. The film stars Jack Randall, Bruce Bennett, Louise Stanley, Dick Jones, Walt Shrum and Bob Burns. The film was released on March ...
'' (1938) as Jack Lambert
* '' Where the West Begins'' (1938) as Jack Manning
* ''Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service ...
'' (1939) as Jack Mason
* ''Oklahoma Terror
''Oklahoma Terror'' is a 1939 American Western film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet.
Cast
*Addison Randall as Jack Ridgely
*Al St. John as "Fuzzy" Glass
*Virginia Carroll as Helen Martin
* Don Rowan as Slade
*Davison Clark as Cartwright
*Gl ...
'' (1939) as Jack Ridgley
* '' Across the Plains'' (1939) as Jack Winters - Cherokee
* ''Trigger Smith'' (1939) as Jack 'Trigger' Smith aka Arizona Jones
* '' Drifting Westward'' (1939) as Jack Martin
* ''Riders from Nowhere
''Riders from Nowhere'' is a 1940 American Western film directed by Raymond K. Johnson and written by Carl Krusada. The film stars Jack Randall, Margaret Roach, Ernie Adams, Tom London, Charles King and Nelson McDowell. The film was release ...
'' (1940) as Jack Rankin
* '' Wild Horse Range'' (1940) as Jack Wallace
* ''The Kid from Santa Fe
''The Kid from Santa Fe'' is a 1940 American Western film directed by Raymond K. Johnson and written by Carl Krusada. The film stars Jack Randall, Clarene Curtis, Forrest Taylor, Claire Rochelle, Tom London and George Chesebro. The film was r ...
'' (1940) as Santa Fe Kid
* '' Land of the Six Guns'' (1940) as Jack Rowan
* ''Covered Wagon Trails
''Covered Wagon Trails'' is a 1940 American Western film directed by Raymond K. Johnson, starring Jack Randall, Sally Cairns and Lafe McKee.
Cast
* Jack Randall as Jack Cameron
* Sally Cairns as Carol Bradford
* Lafe McKee as John Bradfo ...
'' (1940) as Jack Cameron
* ''The Cheyenne Kid
''The Cheyenne Kid'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code Western film directed by Robert F. Hill and written by Jack Curtis. The film stars Tom Keene, Mary Mason, Roscoe Ates, Otto Hoffman and Al Bridge. The film was released on January 20, 1933, by ...
'' (1940) as The Cheyenne Kid
* '' Pioneer Days'' (1940) as Jack Dunham
* ''High Explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...
'' (1943) as Joe
* ''Girls in Chains
''Girls in Chains'' is a 1943 American women in prison film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Arline Judge.
Plot
Johnny Moon is a mob boss who controls everything from politicians to a profitable women's penitentiary he runs. He has ru ...
'' (1943) as Johnny Moon
* ''Danger! Women at Work
''Danger! Women at Work'' is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Sam Newfield and written by Martin Mooney. The film stars Patsy Kelly, Mary Brian, Isabel Jewell, Wanda McKay, Betty Compson and Cobina Wright Sr.. The film was released on Au ...
'' (1943) as Danny
* '' Cry 'Havoc''' (1943) as Lt. Thomas Holt
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, Addison
1906 births
1945 deaths
Male Western (genre) film actors
American male film actors
People from San Fernando, California
Male actors from California
20th-century American male actors
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)