Frank Lovejoy (1912-1962) was an American actor in radio, film, and television, best known for his supporting roles as the “everyman” caught up in challenging circumstances. He was one actor not needing to change his last name just to stand out from the Hollywood crowd. Whether in military uniform, as a detective, or common laborer, he handled a variety of roles with near-flawless performances, from tough cop to sensitive husband. Lovejoy had the voice of someone who spent the day in the stands yelling for his NFL playoff team and has not yet recovered. A smokey, nasal sound like few others, it lent intrigue to his radio characters or the narrator for his radio crime show, Night Beat. Somewhat surprisingly, the 1950s was his only full decade of work, starting out that decade with a strong leading role in the chilling, Try and Get Me! aka The Sound of Fury, as a struggling out-of-work family man spiraling into a life of crime with an arrogant instigator, Lloyd Bridges. In 1951, he had the title role and narrator for I Was a Communist for the FBI, going undercover to expose Communism. He was notable as a supporting player in The Hitch-hiker, the classic film noir of 1953. He crammed down a lot of scripts in 1955, his busiest year, with seven films and seven television appearances. Oddly or not, the nearest I can figure he had a total of fifty-five acting roles as well. Though he completed three more films in the late Fifties, he spent the balance of his career in television. Had he lived longer, he might have provided some interesting characters well into his seventies.
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