Frank Lovejoy
An American actor, born in Bronx, New York in 1912, Frank Lovejoy became a successful radio actor, appearing on the 1930s crime/drama series, Gangbusters, later becoming a narrator for This Is Your FBI and cast in the starring role for the first 13 episodes of The Blue Beetle.
Lovejoy was also cast in the dramatic anthology, Arch Oboler’s Plays, which began its broadcasts in 1939 and starred other popular radio actors such as Geraldine Page, Elsa Lanchester and Ronald Coleman.
From January 1947 until September 1949 Frank Lovejoy played the lead role in The Amazing Mr Malone a Chicago criminal lawyer in this crime drama based on the books of female crime novelist Craig Rice.
In 1950, Lovejoy appeared in the science fiction drama, Beyond Tomorrow with Everett Sloane and Bret Morrison as his co-stars. Beyond Tomorrow was radio’s first foray into science fiction shows for adults and led to other shows such as Outer Limits. Beyond Tomorrow was cancelled after only three shows.
When soap operas became a popular force on radio broadcasts, Frank Lovejoy was cast as Jean Forbes’ husband, Brad, in the soap opera, Brave Tomorrow, aired in the 1940s. Brave Tomorrow was the story of “love and courage” and the subject matter included challenges of families during World War II.
Bright Horizon, another radio soap opera also featured Lovejoy as Larry Halliday. Other stars on the show were Richard Kollmar, as Michael West, Joan Alexander as Carol Bates, who married Michael and Ronny Liss as Bobby. The soap opera was a spinoff of another called Big Sister, starring Alice Frost. Frost appeared in the first few episodes of Bright Horizon.
Another radio soap opera broadcast in 1941, The Life of Mary Sothern, also took advantage of Lovejoy’s acting skills by casting him as Chaney along with other stars like Minabelle Abbot as Martha Sothern and Jay Jostyn as “impulsive” Max Tilley.
Other radio shows featuring Frank Lovejoy included Suspense, The Whistler, The Adventures of Frank Race, Cavalcade of America, Columbia Presents Corwin, This Is Your FBI, Theater of Romance, Molle Mystery Theater, Family Theater, Theater Guild On The Air, The Big Show, Screen Director's Playhouse and Escape a highly successful dramatic adventure series that starred William Conrad and Paul Frees as the “voices” of the show.
Escape is now thought to be radio’s greatest venture into a series featuring high adventure. Even though CBS kept changing time slots of Escape and it never developed a faithful following of listeners, it was highly acclaimed by Radio Life and was broadcast from 1947 until 1954.
Frank Lovejoy will probably best remembered for playing the leading role in Nightbeat. In this thirty-minute adventure series, Frank Lovejoy played Randy Stone, a reporter for the Chicago Star. He cared only for human interest and the people who suffered through life’s hard knocks. He did not try to outsmart the police, killings were minimal, but the suspense was very tense. There were tales of trouble, tenderness, crime and races against time. The series ran from the 6th February 1950 until the 25th September 1952.
Frank Lovejoy’s good looks and acting talents led him to appear in television and movies such as Goodbye, My Fancy, also starring Joan Crawford.
Lovejoy died in his sleep in New York City on October 2, 1962. His wife at the time was Joan Banks with whom he had two children.
Frank Lovejoy can be heard in over 100 listings on RUSC and I will continue to add episodes of Nightbeat throughout the week.
Happy listening my friends,
