Some John Payne Relief

Tribute today to actor John Payne (John Howard Payne, 1912-1989). While he has around 100 screen credits, Payne will probably always be best remembered for his role as the anti-feminist noodge who keeps trying to tie an apron on Maureen O’Hara in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Payne was likeable, bland, earnest, verging on forgettable, but he had his moments.

Payne was named after the earlier John Howard Payne (1791-1852), the playwright, actor, songwriter, and diplomat, from whom he was descended. He enjoyed a privileged boyhood, growing up in an antebellum mansion in Roanoke, Virginia complete with riding stables and private schools. As a young man, he studied journalism at Columbia and voice at Julliard. In his early days he sang on the radio, wrestled under the name “Alexei Petroff, the Savage of the Steppes” and boxed as “Tiger Jack Payne” — experience that served him well for his later role in Kid Nightingale (1939).

Tall and pleasant looking, if inclined to doughiness, Payne was hired by the Shubert organization to appear in touring productions of Rose Marie and The Student Prince in 1934. This was his stepping stone to a role as a chorus boy in the Broadway show At Home Abroad (1935), with Beatrice Lillie, Eleanor Powell, Ethel Waters, Eddie Foy Jr, and Reginald Gardiner (understudying for the latter). He was also in the original production of Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938) playing the President’s son, Robert.

By that time he had made a tentative beginning in Hollywood, playing small roles in Dodsworth (1936) and College Swing (1938), as well as leads in the independent Hat’s Off (1937) opposite Mae Clarke, and Love on Toast (1937) opposite Stella Adler. That same year of 1937 he married Anne Shirley. He hit something of a groove in comedies and musicals at 20th Century Fox in the early ’40s, appearing in such things as Barrymore’s self-parody The Great Profile (1940), Tin Pan Alley (1941), The Great American Broadcast (1941), Footlight Serenade (1942), Springtime in the Rockies (1942), Hello Frisco Hello (1943), and The Dolly Sisters (1945), Frequent co-stars in these films included Betty Grable (with whom he also sang on radio), Alice Faye, and Jack Oakie. He divorced Shirley in 1943 and married Gloria DeHaven the following year. With the all-star 1946 adaptation of Somerset Maugham’sThe Razor’s Edge he made a play to be taken seriously, although it never quite happened. The hit Miracle on 34th Street (1947) marked the end of his period at Fox. He divorced DeHaven in 1950.

Throughout the late ’40s and ’50s, Payne divided his time equally between noir pictures like Kansas City Confidential (1952), second rate swashbucklers, and many westerns, culminating with his TV vehicle The Restless Gun (1957-59). From time to time he made appearances on tv variety programs like The Milton Berle Show,The Faye Emerson Show,Kraft Music Hall,The Steve Allen Show,The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, The Garry Moore Show etc.

In early 1961, Payne suffered a major setback when his body was badly mangled in a car accident (he was struck while crossing a New York street during a rain storm). Several major bones were broken, and recovery took the better part of a year. He did not retire after this but the pace of his career slowed considerably. He appeared on game shows, and talk, shows, and made the occasional guest appearance on shows like Gunsmoke and Columbo. He also briefly reunited with Alice Faye in a 1974 Broadway revival of Good News.

Payne’s daughter Julie also became an actress. From 1977 through 1982 she was married to legendary screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown, Shampoo etc). Granddaughter Katharine Towne is also an actress.

For more on show business historyplease check out No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.