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John Payne
Actor, Singer, Film Director
(1912 - 1989)
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John Payne , who is mainly remembered as a romantic lead in his early films, began his career in musicals in the late ‘30s. In 1941, he starred in the film, Sun Valley Serenade, which featured the Glenn Miller band and ice skater Sonja Henie. In 1941 The Great American Broadcast featured him with co-star Alice Faye, with whom he starred in three more films. Also in 1941 was the high-spirited musical comedy, Springtime in the Rockies, where he and Betty Grable portray a dueling Broadway duo. In Iceland(1942), again with Henie, he introduced the song “There Will Never Be Another You.” Payne played a dramatic role in 1946’s The Razor’s Edge, but he may be best remembered for his role in the Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street, with Maureen O’Hara and a young Natalie Wood. By the ‘50s he was playing straight dramatic roles: an ex-cop setting up a heist in Kansas City Confidential (1952), Ronald Reagan’s co-star in the western, Tennessee’s Partner (1955), and a small-town hood in the film noir, Slightly Scarlet (1956).
- Sandra Burlingame |
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