| Richard Cromwell | |
| Birth Name: | LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh |
| Birth Date: | January 8, 1910 |
| Birth Place: | Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Fairhaven Memorial Park, Santa Ana, California |
| Other Names: | Roy Radabaugh |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1930 - 1948 |
Richard Cromwell (born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh; January 8, 1910 - October 11, 1960) also known as Roy Radabaugh, was an American actor. His career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again with Fonda in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Cromwell's fame was perhaps first assured in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), 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,[1] though Mutiny on the Bounty instead took the top award at the Academy Awards that year.[2]
Leslie Halliwell in The Filmgoer's Companion, summed up Cromwell's enduring appeal when he described him as "a leading man, [the] gentle hero of early sound films."
Radabaugh enrolled as a teenager in the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles on a scholarship. He ran a shop in Hollywood where he sold pictures, made lampshades, and designed colour schemes for houses, including "decorating a bathroom for Colleen Moore and designing a house that he rented to Cole Porter."
Radabaugh can be seen in King of Jazz (1930), along with the film's star, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. On a whim, friends encouraged him to audition in 1930 for the remake of the Richard Barthelmess silent: Tol'able David (1930). Radabaugh won the role over thousands of hopefuls. 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.[3] With that film, Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast Cromwell on a loan-out in the lead opposite her. This was another break that helped sustain his rising status in Hollywood. Emma also starred Myrna Loy in one of her earlier screen performances.
Cromwell's next role in 1932 was as Mike in Gregory La Cava's, The Age of Consent, co-starring Eric Linden and Dorothy Wilson. Cromwell is also remembered during this period in Hoop-La (1933), where he is seduced by Clara Bow. Next, the much in demand Cromwell starred in Tom Brown of Culver.
Next up was an early standout performance by Cromwell as the leader of the youth gang in Cecil B. DeMille's now cult-favorite, This Day and Age (1933). To ensure that Cromwell's character used current slang, DeMille asked high school student Horace Hahn to read the script and comment.[4] He starred with Jean Arthur in 1934, in "The Most Precious Thing in Life."
Cromwell's many early pictures were made at Columbia Pictures and elsewhere. Cromwell starred with Will Rogers in Life Begins at 40 for Fox Film Corporation in 1935 and appeared in Poppy in 1936 as the suitor of W.C. Fields' daughter, Rochelle Hudson. In 1937, he portrayed the young bank-robber in love with Helen Mack and on the lam from Lionel Atwill in The Wrong Road.
In the early 1940s, Universal Pictures released Enemy Agent starring Cromwell as a draftsman who thwarts the Nazis. In 1942, he went on to appear in marginal but still watchable fare such as Baby Face Morgan, which co-starred Mary Carlisle.
Cromwell enjoyed a career boost, if not a critically acclaimed performance, in the film adaptation of the hit radio serial: Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943), opposite Gale Storm. Next up at Monogram Pictures, he was cast as a doctor working covertly for a police department to catch mobsters in the forgettable though endearing Riot Squad, wherein his "fiancée", Rita Quigley, breaks their engagement.
Back in California for good, Cromwell was married once, briefly (1945–1946), to actress Angela Lansbury, when she was 19 and Cromwell was 35.[5]
Cromwell made just one statement to the press regarding his wife of nine months and one of her habits: "All over the house, tea bags. In the middle of the night she'd get up and start drinking tea. It nearly drove me crazy."[6]
According to the biography: Angela Lansbury, A Life on Stage and Screen, Lansbury stated in a 1966 interview that her first marriage, "was a mistake" and that she learned from it. She stated, "I wouldn't have not done it", and, "I was too young at 19. [The marriage] shouldn't have happened." Articles based on interviews with Lansbury have stated that Cromwell was gay.[7] [8] [9] Cromwell and Lansbury remained friends until his death in 1960.
In July 1960, Cromwell signed with producer Maury Dexter for 20th Century Fox's planned production of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, co-starring Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Dix (son of Richard Dix), and Neil Hamilton who replaced Cromwell in the film. Cromwell became ill and died on October 11, 1960, in Hollywood of liver cancer, at the age of 50.[10] He is interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California.[11]
Cromwell's legacy is preserved today by his nephew Dan Putnam, and his cousin Bill Keane IV, both of the Conejo Valley in Southern California, as well as the family of his late niece, Joan Radabaugh, of the Central Coast. In 2005, Keane donated materials relating to Cromwell's radio performances to the Thousand Oaks Library's Special Collection, "The American Radio Archive". In 2007, Keane donated memorabilia relating to Cromwell's film career and ceramics work to the AMPAS Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills.
Cromwell was mentioned in Gore Vidal's satirical novel Myra Breckinridge (1968) as "the late Richard Cromwell, so satisfyingly tortured in Lives of a Bengal Lancer".
| 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, starred opposite Noah Beery Sr. Silent star Richard Barthelmess, who gave his blessing to Cromwell's portrayal, was the original David in the 1921 classic directed by Henry King. Gary Cooper was also originally offered this role and very interested but Adolph Zukor at Paramount Pictures refused to loan out his top star to Columbia, then perceived as a "lower-class" studio (according to Larry Swindell's bio of Cooper, The Last Hero, Doubleday, 1980). | |
| 1931 | Fifty Fathoms Deep | Pinky Caldwell | First of several pairings with Jack Holt for Columbia. | |
| 1931 | Shanghaied Love | The Boy | Third feature for Columbia, co-starred Sally Blane and again, Noah Beery Sr. | |
| 1931 | Maker of Men | Bob Dudley | Jack Holt co-starred and a very young Marion Morrison aka John Wayne appeared with his Trojan Football teammates; Gridiron scenes filmed at USC. | |
| 1932 | The Age of Consent | Mike | Cromwell's first loanout to RKO; this film was directed by Gregory LaCava and was the screen debut, in an uncredited role, for Mildred Shay. | |
| 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 | Robert Randolph III | Universal's William Wyler directed Cromwell here along with H.B. Warner, Slim Summerville, Tom Brown, Ben Alexander, and Sidney Toler. Also, Tyrone Power's first onscreen appearance is as a bit player in a scene opposite Cromwell in this film. | |
| 1932 | The Strange Love of Molly Louvain | James "Jimmy" Cook, the bellhop | Director: Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros., with Ann Dvorak, Lee Tracy, Guy Kibbee, and Charles Middleton. | |
| 1932 | That's My Boy | Tommy Jefferson Scott | Another football flick wherein Cromwell plays opposite Mae Marsh, Dorothy Jordan, and Douglass Dumbrille. | |
| 1933 | This Day and Age | Steve Smith | For DeMille at Paramount Pictures, Cromwell stars with Charles Bickford and Judith Allen. | |
| 1933 | Hoop-La | Chris Miller | Directed by Frank Lloyd for Fox pictures. Final major starring role for Clara Bow. Cromwell co-starred with Preston Foster and James Gleason. | |
| 1933 | Above the Clouds | Dick Robinson | ||
| 1934 | Carolina | drugstore clerk | Opposite Janet Gaynor, originally entitled: "The House of Connelly". | |
| 1934 | Most Precious Thing in Life | Chris Kelsey | ||
| 1934 | Name the Woman | Clem Rogers | ||
| 1934 | Among the Missing | Tommy aka The Kid | ||
| 1934 | When Strangers Meet | Paul Tarman | ||
| 1935 | Life Begins at 40 | Lee Austin | Opposite Will Rogers and Rochelle Hudson, this was one of Rogers' last films. | |
| 1935 | Lives of a Bengal Lancer | Lt. Stone | Cromwell's favorite role. | |
| 1935 | McFadden's Flats | Sandy MacTavish | ||
| 1935 | Men of the Hour | Dave Durkin | ||
| 1935 | Unknown Woman | Larry Condon | ||
| 1935 | Annapolis Farwell | Boyce Avery | ||
| 1935 | Star Night at The Cocoanut Grove | as himself | MGM Technicolor Short showing celebs at play in Hollywood. Cromwell is seated at a table with Gary Cooper. | |
| 1936 | Poppy | Billy Farnsworth | One of many pairings for Cromwell opposite Rochelle Hudson. | |
| 1937 | Torpedoed | Lt. Bill Armstrong | ||
| 1937 | The Road Back | Ludwig | Very large cast including Noah Beery Jr.—Cromwell was one of the few actors to work with both Beery Sr. and Jr. Fine camera work was done here by cinematographer John J. Mescall. | |
| 1937 | The Wrong Road | Jimmy | Cromwell's director here was James Cruze. Other members of the cast were Marjorie Main, Joseph Crehan, Arthur Horst, and Rex Evans. Costumes were by Eloise. | |
| 1938 | Jezebel | Ted Dillard | Cromwell's second role in a William Wyler-directed film. | |
| 1938 | Come on, Lethernecks! | Jimmy Butler | ||
| 1938 | Storm Over Bengal | Neil Allison | ||
| 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 | Village Barn Dance | Dan Martin | ||
| 1940 | Enemy Agent | Jimmy Saunders | Exactly one hour in length, this film has Cromwell in the role of a draftsman who is wrongly accused of crimes perpetrated by Nazi spies. Jack Carson stands out in an early role as a G-Man feigning drunkenness to help thwart the crooks who've stolen aircraft factory blueprints. | |
| 1940 | The Villain Still Pursued Her | Edward Middleton | Co-starring Buster Keaton, this take-off of the long-running Los Angeles stage hit The Drunkard, also co-starred Margaret Hamilton. It was recently re-released on DVD. | |
| 1941 | Parachute Battalion | Spence | ||
| 1941 | Riot Squad | Doctor Tom Brandon | ||
| 1942 | Baby Face Morgan | Edward "Baby Face" Morgan | This is the best of the several of Cromwell's "B" efforts for PRC. Cromwell's co-star here was Robert Armstrong, of King Kong fame. Cromwell and Armstrong had also worked together in Enemy Agent. | |
| 1943 | The Crime Smasher | Police Sergeant Pat Flanagan | ||
| 1948 | Bungalow 13 | Patrick Macy | Cromwell's comeback that never was. |