Richard Cromwell (actor)
This is a page about the American actor Richard Cromwell. For the British ruler and prominent historical figure of the 17th century of the same name, see Richard Cromwell.
Richard Cromwell (January 8, 1910 - October 11, 1960) was an American actor, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell was best known for his work in Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda at 20th Century Fox and in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) where he shared top billing with Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone. That film was the first major effort directed by Henry Hathaway and it was based upon the popular novel by Francis Yeats-Brown. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer earned Paramount Studios a nomination for Best Picture in 1935, though Mutiny on the Bounty instead took the top award at The Oscars that year.
Early Life
Cromwell was born in Long Beach, California on January 8, 1910, the oldest in a family of five children. His father Hobart Radabaugh died of a sudden illness, most likely influenza during the Spanish flu pandemic, when Cromwell was still in grade school. While helping his young widowed mother, Faye Stocking Radabaugh, to support the family with odd-jobs, Cromwell enrolled as a teenager in the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles on a scholarship. As Cromwell developed his talents for lifelike mask-making and oil-painting, he curried friendships in the late 1920s with various then-starlets who posed for him including Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Anna Q. Nilsson, Greta Garbo, and even Marie Dressler (whom he would later share top-billing with in 1932's Emma).
Overnight Stardom & Early Film Career
The young Roy Radabaugh, as he was then known, had dabbled in film extra work on the side, and can be seen in King of Jazz (1930), along with Paul Whiteman and his band. On a whim, friends encouraged Roy to audition in 1930 for the remake of the Richard Barthelmess silent: Tol'able David(1930). (Note: the UCLA Film Archives today contains one of the few remaining restored prints, donated by the Radabaugh-Putnam family). Radabaugh won the role over thousands of hopefuls, and in storybook fashion, Harry Cohn gave him his screen name and launched his career. Cromwell earned $75 per week for his work on Tol'able David. Noah Beery, Sr. and John Carradine co-starred in the film. Later, Cohn signed Cromwell to a multi-year contract based on the strength of his performance and success in his first venture at the box-office. Amidst the flurry of publicity during this period, Cromwell toured the country, even meeting President Herbert Hoover in Washington, D.C.
Cromwell by then had maintained a deep friendship with Marie Dressler, which continued until her death from cancer in 1934. Dressler was nominated for a second Best Actress award for her 1932 portrayal of the title role in Emma. With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound generosity to other performers: Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast Cromwell on a loan-out in the lead opposite her--it was another break that helped firm up his rising status in Tinseltown. Emma also starred Myrna Loy in one of her earliest screen performances. After production on Emma was completed, Director Clarence Brown tested Cromwell for the male lead in his next feature: The Son-Daughter, which was set to star Helen Hayes. However, the part of the oriental prince ultimately went to Ramon Novarro, and Cromwell never again worked at MGM.
Cromwell's next role in 1932 was on loan-out to RKO and was as Mike in Gregory La Cava's, The Age of Consent co-starring Eric Linden and Dorothy Wilson. Next up, was an early standout performance by Cromwell in the role as the leader of the youth gang in Cecil B. Demille's now cult-favorite, This Day and Age (1933). While again on loan from Columbia, Cromwell's by then salary of $200 per week was paid by Paramount Pictures, Demille's studio. Cromwell is also remembered during this period in Hoopla (1933), where he is seduced by Clara Bow. This film is considered the swan song of Bow's career. The much in demand Cromwell starred in Tom Brown of Culver that year, as well.
Around this period in his career in the mid-30s, Cromwell also did some print ads and promotional work for Lucky Strike brand cigarettes, though it is doubtful if he was a regular smoker.
After a promising start, Cromwell's many early pictures at Columbia Pictures and elsewhere were mostly inconsequential and are largely forgotten today. For example, Cromwell starred with Will Rogers in Life Begins at 40 for Fox Film Corporation in 1935, and while it was one of Rogers' last roles, nary a video directory can be found including it. The same goes for Poppy from Paramount in 1936 wherein Cromwell played the suitor of W.C. Fields' daughter, Rochelle Hudson. Later, he performed opposite Lionel Atwill in the rarely-screened but still interesting, The Wrong Road for RKO.
Broadway & Network Radio Performances
In 1936, Cromwell took a detour in his career to Broadway for the chance to star as an evil cadet in an original play by Joseph Viertel, entitled, So Proudly We Hail. The military drama was directed by future film director Charles Walters, co-starred Eddie Bracken, and opened to much fanfare. The reviews of the play at the time called Cromwell's acting "a striking portrayal"(The Herald Tribune) and his performance an "astonishing characterization"(New York World Telegram). The New York Times said that in the play, Cromwell "ran the gamut of emotions." Nevertheless, the play only enjoyed a brief run, and it closed after 14 performances at the 46th Street Theater.
By now, Cromwell had shed his restrictive Columbia contract, with its handsome $500 per week salary, and pursued acting work as a free-lancer in other media to boot. On July 15, 1937 Cromwell guest-starred on The Rudy Vallee Show. Enjoying the experience, Cromwell had his agent secure for him an audition for the role of Kit Marshall, on first the NBC and then the CBS Radio network's long-running soap opera, entitled: Those We Love. As a regular on the Monday night program which ran from 1938 until 1942, Cromwell played opposite Nan Grey who was Kit's twin sister Kathy. Cromwell as Kit was later replaced by Bill Henry. Other members of the drama series ensemble included Helen Wood in the role of Elaine, Kit's girlfriend, and Francis X. Bushman, as John Marshall the father of the twins. Rounding out the cast, long before their own respective film and television stardom, was Robert Cummings of Dial M for Murder ; and even Gale Gordon, who later became a fixture on The Lucy Show.
Later Film & Theatrical Career
In the late 1930s, Cromwell appeared in Storm Over Bengal, for Republic Pictures, in order to capitalize on the success of The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Aside from the aforementioned standout roles in Jezebel and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Cromwell did another notable turn as defendant Matt Clay to Henry Fonda's title-performance in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939).
In the early '40s, Cromwell again tried his luck on the stage in a regional production of Sutton Vance's Outward Bound featuring Dorothy Jordan as his co-star. The cast of the production at the Los Angeles Biltmore Theater included Cora Witherspoon and Reginald Denny.
U.S. Armed Forces Service
Cromwell served admirably during WWII with the United States Coast Guard. During this period, popular composer/lyricist Cole Porter rented Cromwell's home in the Hollywood Hills, where Porter worked at length on Panama Hattie. Director George Cukor was a personal friend, as well as director James Whale, for whom Cromwell had starred in The Road Back (1937), the ill-fated remake to All Quiet on the Western Front. Returning to California from the Pacific upon the war's end, Cromwell continued his foray into acting in local theater productions and in Summer Stock back East.
Marriage to Angela Lansbury
Mr. Cromwell was married once, briefly from 1945-46, to British-born actress Angela Lansbury, when she was 20 and Cromwell was 35. Cromwell and Lansbury eloped and were married in a small civil ceremony in Independence, California. Ms. Lansbury candidly discusses her first marriage to Cromwell, and its demise due to Cromwell's bisexuality, in her authorized biography, Balancing Act. In the book, Lansbury recounts the couple's friendship with Zachary Scott and his first wife, Elaine. By coincidence, both Lansbury and Cromwell have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that are each within walking distance of the other on Vine Street, near the old Huntington Hartford (now "Henry Fonda") Theater.
According to the biography: Angela Lansbury, A Life on Stage and Screen, (by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg, Birch Lane Press, 1996) Lansbury stated in a 1966 interview that regarding her first marriage, "it was a mistake" and that she learned from it. She also stated: "I wouldn't have not done it." Lansbury only began to admit publically the real reason of the failure of the marriage when the National Enquirer did a story in the '90s about Lansbury and "the secret of her first husband." Whatever the true circumstances of their union, Cromwell and Lansbury did remain friends until his death at the start of the '60s.
Film Career Ends, New Career Begins
Cromwell enjoyed regular, if not critically-acclaimed, work in the mid-1940s film serial of the radio hit: Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher. In the early 1940s, Enemy Agent starred Cromwell as a draftsman who thwarts the Nazis. The film was from Universal Pictures and it co-starred Helen Vinson, Robert Armstrong, and Jack La Rue. He then went on to appear in marginal but still watchable fare such as Baby Face Morgan, which co-starred Mary Carlisle and was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the "Poverty Row" studios. Cromwell finally retired from films after his last, a noir flick of 1948, entitled Bungalow 13, in which he starred with Margaret Hamilton. All told, Cromwell's film career spanned 39 films.
In the 1950s, Cromwell went back to his given name and studied ceramics. He built a pottery studio at his home. The home still stands today and is located in the hills above Sunset Boulevard on North Miller Drive. There, Radabaugh successfully designed coveted decorative tiles for his industry-friends, as well as for noted architectural landmarks, including the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Radabaugh's original tiles as well as his large decorative wall paintings of Adam and Eve can still be seen today in the lobby and mezzanine of the restored theater.
As Radabaugh, he also wrote extensively, producing several published stories and an unfinished novel in the 1950s. Cromwell was an early participant and supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous in the Los Angeles Area. Cromwell continued with his ceramics production business, with noted corporate clients during this period including The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where many of his Aztec-styled objects d'art were displayed.
Death & Legacy
In July of 1960, Cromwell planned another comeback of sorts, when he signed on with producer Maury Dexter for 20th Century Fox's planned production of The Little Shepard of Kingdom Come co-starring Jimmie Rogers (and ultimately Neil Hamilton as well whom had to replace Cromwell). Unfortunately, Cromwell took sick and he died on October 11, 1960 in Hollywood of complications from liver cancer. He was just 50 years old. He is interred in Santa Ana, California. Cromwell was survived at the time by his four siblings, including Opal Radabaugh Putnam. Cromwell's legacy is preserved today by his nephew Dan Putnam, and his cousin Bill Keane, both of the Conejo Valley in Southern California. Keane has recently donated materials relating to Cromwell's radio performances to the Thousand Oaks Library's Special Collection, "The American Radio Archive".
External Links
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role | Other notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | King of Jazz | cowboy (walk-on) | Cromwell can be seen in the Song of the Dawn number | |
| 1930 | Tol'able David | David | Directed by John Blystone. Silent star Richard Barthelmess, who gave his blessing to Cromwell's portrayal, was the original David in the 1921 classic directed by Henry King | |
| 1931 | Fifty Fathoms Deep | x | First of several pairings with Jack Holt for Columbia | |
| 1931 | Shanghaied Love | x | Third feature for Columbia, first of several films with Noah Beery. Co-starred Sally Blane | |
| 1931 | Maker of Men | x | John Wayne co-starred. Gridiron scenes filmed at USC | |
| 1932 | The Age of Consent | x | Cromwell's first loanout to RKO; this film was directed by Gregory LaCava | |
| 1932 | Emma | Ronnie | Cromwell was on loan out to MGM for director Clarence Brown; this production's cast also included Jean Hersholt | |
| 1932 | Tom Brown of Culver | x | Universal's William Wyler directed Cromwell here along with H.B. Warner, Slim Summerville, Tom Brown, Ben Alexander, and Sidney Toler | |
| 1932 | The Strange Love of Molly Louvain | Bellhop | Director: Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros. , with Ann Dvorak, Lee Tracy, Guy Kibbee, and Charles Middleton | |
| 1932 | That's My Boy | x | Another football flick wherein Cromwell plays opposite Mae Marsh, Dorothy Jordan, and Douglass Dumbrille | |
| 1933 | This Day and Age | x | For DeMille at Paramount Pictures, Cromwell stars with Charles Bickford and Judith Allen | |
| 1933 | Hoopla | x | For Fox pictures' Frank Lloyd. Also starred Preston Foster and James Gleason | |
| 1934 | Carolina | drugstore clerk | opposite Janet Gaynor, originally entitled: "The House of Connelly" | |
| 1935 | Lives of a Bengal Lancer | Lt. Stone | Cromwell's favorite role | |
| 1935 | Star Night at The Cocoanut Grove | as himself | MGM Technicolor Short showing celebs at play in Hollywood | |
| 1937 | Poppy | Billy Farnsworth | ||
| 1938 | Jezebel | Ted Dillard | Cromwell's second role in a William Wyler-directed film | |
| 1939 | Young Mr. Lincoln | Matt Clay |
Henry Fonda, who played Lincoln, was quoted in an interview that he had a professional admiration for the "always dependable Richard Cromwell." || | |
| 1940 | Enemy Agent | x | ||
| 1948 | Bungalow 13 | x |