Franchot Tone
| Franchot Tone | |
|---|---|
From the film trailer for the 1935 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Tone should have been credited as "Midshipman Byam"
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| Born |
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone February 27, 1905 Niagara Falls, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 18, 1968 (aged 63) New York City, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Education | The Hill School |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1926–68 |
| Spouse(s) |
Joan Crawford (m. 1935; div. 1939) Jean Wallace (m. 1941; div. 1948) Barbara Payton (m. 1951; div. 1952) Dolores Dorn (m. 1956; div. 1959) |
| Children | 2 |
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone, known as Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968), was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was the star of many successful films and television series throughout his career, such as Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Midshipman Roger Byam in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), starring alongside Clark Gable and Charles Laughton.
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the wealthy president of the Carborundum Company, and his socially-prominent wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot. His maternal great-grandfather was congressman Richard Franchot. Tone was a distant relative of Wolfe Tone (the "father of Irish Republicanism"): his fourth great grandfather John Tone was a first cousin of Peter Tone, the father of Wolfe Tone. Tone was of French Canadian, Irish, and English ancestry. Through his ancestor, the nobleman Gilbert BasqueHomme (Bascom), he was of French Basque descent.
Tone attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and Cornell University, where he was President of the drama club and was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. He also joined Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He gave up the family business to pursue an acting career in the theatre. After graduating, he moved to Greenwich Village, New York and got his first major Broadway role in the 1929 Katharine Cornell production of The Age of Innocence.
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