FURTHER READING: Hot Toddy: The True Story Of Hollywood’s Most Sensational Murder – Andy Edmonds (London: Macdonald, 1989).
Sidney Toler
Born April 28, 1874
Died February 12, 1947
Charlie Chan No 2. Born in Warrensburg, Missouri, Toler was a heavy-set stage actor who had an undistinguished film career until he became the second non-Oriental to take on the mantle of the famous detective Charlie Chan, following the death of Warner Oland. Toler’s competitors to play Chan included Noah Beery and Leo Carillo. His early films included: In The Nick Of Time (1929), Madame X (1929) as Dr Merivel, White Shoulders (1931) as William Sothern, Strictly Dishonorable (1931) as Officer Mulligan, Radio Patrol (1932) as Sergeant Keogh, Is My Face Red? (1932) as Tony Mugatti, Blondie Of The Follies (1932) as Pete, Tom Brown Of Culver (1932) as Major Wharton, Blonde Venus (1932), King Of The Jungle (1933) as Neil Forbes, Billion Dollar Scandal (1933) as Carter B. Moore, Upperworld (1934) as Officer Moran, Spitfire (1934) as Mr Sawyer, Operator 13 (1934) as Major Allen, Massacre (1934) as Thomas Shanks, Dark Hazard (1934) as John Bright, Registered Nurse (1934) as Frankie Sylvestrie, Here Comes The Groom (1934) as Detective Weaver, This Is The Life (1935) as Professor Breckenridge, Orchids To You (1935) as Nick Corsini, Three Godfathers (1936) as Professor Snape, The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) as Daniel Webster, That Certain Woman (1937) as Detective Lieutenant Neely, Double Wedding (1937) as Keough, Up The River (1938) as Jeffrey Mitchell, One Wild Night (1938) as Lawton and Gold Is Where You Find It (1938) as Harrison McCooey. He played the inscrutable detective in 22 films. Like Oland, Toler eschewed elaborate make-up for his portrayals of the sleuth. His films in the series were: Charlie Chan In Honolulu (1938), City In Darkness (1939), Charlie Chan At Treasure Island (1939), Charlie Chan In Reno (1939), Murder Over New York (1940), Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise (1940), Charlie Chan In Panama (1940), Charlie Chan At The Wax Museum (1940), Dead Men Tell (1941), Charlie Chan In Rio (1941), Castle In The Desert (1942), Charlie Chan In The Secret Service (1944), The Chinese Cat (1944), Charlie Chan In Black Magic (1944), The Shanghai Cobra (1945), The Scarlet Clue (1945), The Red Dragon (1945), The Jade Mask (1945), Shadows Over Chinatown (1946), Dark Alibi (1946), Dangerous Money (1946) and The Trap (1947). On Toler’s death Chan was played by yet another Caucasian, Roland Winters. Toler was married to supporting actress Viva Tattersall.
CAUSE: He died of intestinal cancer in Beverly Hills, aged 72.
David Tomlinson
Born May 7, 1917
Died June 24, 2000
Every child’s favourite uncle. David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, the son of Florence Elizabeth Sinclair-Thomson and Clarence Samuel Tomlinson, a highly respected London lawyer who led a secret double life. Tomlinson found out by accident that, instead of living for 40 years at the Junior Carlton Club from Monday to Friday and spending weekends with his family in Folkestone, his father had lived during the week in Chiswick with a mistress by whom he had seven children. The secret only came to light when Tomlinson’s brother, Peter, was travelling on the top of a double-decker bus through west London and saw his father in an upstairs room taking tea in his pyjamas. His father also “never gave up his search for the perfect piece of beef. This was the only perfection he ever sought.” Tomlinson was educated at Tonbridge School but left without any qualifications. For 16 months from 1935 until 1936 he saw service with the Grenadier Guards. “The Foreign Legion would have been a holiday camp compared to life in the Guards,” he later said. His father then secured for him a job as a clerk at Shell House in London. Tomlinson, who then had a stammer, was horrified. “But I’d like to be an actor,” he stuttered. “Be an actor?” expostulated his father. “Good God, you can’t even speak!” Over the coming years Tomlinson acted in amdram in Folkestone in his spare time. “Everyone in the business talked posh,” he later explained, “and it was an advantage to have been to one of those terrible public schools.” Tomlinson made his West End stage début at the Queen’s on April 21, 1938 playing a walk-on part in The Merchant Of Venice. He was playing the bridegroom in a tour of Quiet Wedding when he was spotted by Anthony Asquith who cast him as John Royd, the best man, in Quiet Wedding (1940) opposite Margaret Lockwood. His early films included Garrison Follies (1940), Pimpernel Smith (1941) as Steve, Name Rank And Number (1941) and My Wife’s Family (1941) as Willie Bagshott. However, almost as soon as his career had got off the ground than he joined the RAF in 1941 where he served during the Second World War, achieving the rank of Flight Lieutenant. Following demob in 1947, he returned to the stage and films where he mostly specialised in light comedies opining, “Personally I wouldn’t want to go near Hamlet. Far too serious.” He had his celebrity fans. Noel Coward once observed, “He looks like a very old baby.” Tomlinson also eschewed the small screen claiming, “Television is all so rushed.” He explained, “It’s run by civil servants, you see – and all they know about the business is one line that goes, ‘It’ll be all right on the night.’ They’ve no idea how to deal with nervous actors like me.” He was Henry in The Little Hut, which ran at the Lyric Theatre for three years, starred in the film version of Three Men In A Boat (1956) as J and appeared with Peter Sellers in Up The Creek (1958) as Lieutenant Fairweather, a role he reprised in Further Up The Creek (1958). His other films included I See A Dark Stranger (1946) as an intelligence officer, Master Of Bankdam as Lancelot Handel Crowther, Warning To Wantons (1948) as Count Max Kardak, Sleeping Car To Trieste as Tom Bishop, Love In Waiting as Robert Clitheroe, Here Come The Huggetts (1948) as Harold Hinchley, Easy Money (1948) as Martin, My Brother’s Keeper (1948) as Ronnie Waring, Miranda (1948) as Charles, Broken Journey (1948) as Jimmy Marshall, Vote For Huggett as Harold, Marry Me (1949) as David Haig, Landfall (1949) as Binks, Helter Skelter (1949) as Nick Martin, The Chiltern Hundreds (1949) as Lord Tony Pym, So Long At The Fair (1950) as Johnny Barton, The Wooden Horse as Phil, The Magic Box (1951) as laboratory assistant, Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) as Algy Longworth, Hotel Sahara (1951) as Captain Puffin Cheyne, Made In Heaven (1952) as Basil Topham, Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (1952) as Frank Betterton, Castle In The Air (1952) as Earl of Locharne, All For Mary (1955) as Humpy Miller, Carry On Admiral (1957) as Tom Baker, Follow That Horse! (1960) as Dick Lanchester, Tom Jones (1963) as Lord Fellamar, The Truth About Spring (1964) as Skelton, The Liquidator (1965) as Quadrant, City Under The Sea (1965) as Harold Tiffin-Jones, The Love Bug (1968) as Peter Thorndyke, Bons Baisers De Hong Kong (1975) as Sir John MacGregor, Wombling Free (1977) as Roland Frogmorton, The Water Babies (1978) as Sir John, a lawyer in Dominique (1978) and The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu (1980) as Sir Roger Avery. There are two roles for which Tomlinson is most remembered. He played the ordered and orderly bank manager George W. Banks who lives with his two children, Jane and Michael, in Cherry Tree Lane in the smash hit Mary Poppins (1964) opposite Julie Andrews. Based on the 1934 book by P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins combined live action with artful animation winning five Oscars, including Best Song for ‘Chim-Chim-Cher-ee’. Tomlinson was a huge fan of Disney: “They pay you well, and treat you like the Aga Khan.” However when Tomlinson saw the rough cut of Mary Poppins, he was convinced the film would be a flop. “I thought it was appallingly sentimental and very nearly said, ‘Well, Walt, you can’t win them all.’” Oddly enough, Tomlinson was once involved in an argument with a real-life chimneysweep who, having arrived at Tomlinson’s Buckinghamshire home to clean the chimneys, discovered that Tomlinson wanted to use the equipment himself. A heated stand-off ensued until the police were called and the situation was calmed. The second role was as Emelius Browne in Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971). He always told children he was chosen as Emelius Browne because he was the only actor who could sing under water. A keen amateur pilot, in1957 he crashed his red and silver Tiger Moth ten yards from his own back garden, watched by his wife and their two sons. One witness claimed to have seen him looping-the-loop and pretending to dive-bomb his own house. Responding to a �
��Don’t fly again” petition organised by his neighbours, Tomlinson vowed to keep both feet on the ground in the future – until a jury at Aylesbury Quarter Sessions acquitted him on four charges of dangerous and low flying. He became a keen ornithologist and wrote several letters to the Daily Telegraph on the dangers to jet planes of birds nesting too close to runways. He also contributed valuable information on the nesting habits of the stork. He once opined, “I may look like a disappointed spaniel, but by nature I am cheerful.” He enjoyed lunching in Boodle’s, always shod in brightly polished shoes. He married the actress Audrey Freeman in 1953. They had four sons.
CAUSE: David Tomlinson died in his sleep, aged 83, at the King Edward VII Hospital, Buckinghamshire, following a series of strokes. He was buried in a cardboard coffin in his back garden in Mursley, near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. He left £2,595,981.
Franchot Tone
Born February 27, 1905
Died September 18, 1968
Dashing society sophisticate. Stanislas Pascal Franchot Tone was born in Niagara Falls, New York, an indirect descendant of the Irish patriot Wolfe Tone (b. June 20, 1763, d. by his own hand, November 19, 1798). After being expelled from school “for being a subtle influence for disorder” Tone went to Cornell University, where he became President of the Drama Society. He began acting on stage in 1927 and signed a contract with MGM in 1932. He made his first film, The Wiser Sex (1932) as Phil Long, but loathed Hollywood, preferring the theatre, and always returned to the stage between movie assignments. His portrayal of midshipman Roger Byam in Mutiny On The Bounty (1935) earned him an Oscar nomination, but Tone was wont to make more headlines for his off-screen life rather than his on-. On October 11, 1935, he married Joan Crawford following her divorce from Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. They were together for less than four years, but Crawford was to later say that Tone was “an extremely loving, intelligent, considerate man … I wasn’t as nice to him, as considerate, as I should have been … I didn’t realise his insecurities and dissatisfactions ran so deeply. His sex life diminished considerably, which didn’t help matters.” His next wife, Jean Wallace (October 18, 1941–September 30, 1949) provided him with two sons: Pascal Franchot (b. Beverly Hills, California, July 29, 1943) and Thomas Jefferson (b. September 16, 1945). Following their divorce Tone took up with actress Barbara Payton and they announced their engagement at New York’s Stork Club, despite opposition from many of his friends and ex-wife Joan Crawford. However, Payton was unable to remain faithful. Tone hired a private detective to keep track of her movements and discovered his wife and Guy Madison in flagrante at her second floor home at 7456 Hollywood Boulevard. She then met thuggish actor Tom Neal and left Tone for him. Changing her mind, she went back to Tone. On September 13, 1951, she and Tone were together at her new apartment, 1803 Courtney Terrace, when Neal burst in and beat up Tone, who suffered a broken nose, fractured cheekbone and concussion and spent a fortnight in the California Lutheran Hospital and later had to undergo plastic surgery. Fifteen days later, she and Tone were married in Cloquet. Their honeymoon lasted just 72 hours before she began work on Lady In The Iron Mask. Shortly thereafter she was sacked. After 53 days of marital unbliss, Payton and Tone called it a day and she went back to Neal. Then she had second, or was it third or fourth, thoughts and, remembering Neal’s temper, she went back to Tone briefly … but then left him again. In March 1952 she attempted suicide but was found in time by Tone. Despite his role in saving her life they divorced in May 1952, due to her “extreme mental cruelty”. Tone married for the fourth and final time on May 14, 1956, to actress Dolores Dorn-Heft but the marriage was kept secret until 1958. A year later they divorced. His films included: Stage Mother (1933) as Warren Foster, Midnight Mary (1933) as Tom Mannering, Bombshell (1933) as Gifford Middleton, Dancing Lady (1933) as Tod Newton, Gentlemen Are Born (1934) as Bob Bailey, One New York Night (1935) as Foxhall, The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer (1935) as Lieutenant John Forsythe, Reckless as Bob Harrison, Exclusive Story as Dick Barton, Suzy (1936) as Terry Moore, The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) as John H. Eaton, Quality Street (1937) as Dr Valentine Brown, Man-Proof (1938) as Jimmy Kilmartin, Three Comrades (1938) as Otto Koster, Fast And Furious (1939) as Joel Sloane, Trail Of The Vigilantes (1940) as Kansas, She Knew All The Answers (1941) as Mark Willows, Five Graves To Cairo (1943) as Corporal John J. Bramble, Dark Waters (1944) as Dr George Grover, Phantom Lady (1944) as Jack Marlow, Because Of Him (1946) as Paul Taylor, Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) as Roger Sanford, I Love Trouble (1948) as Stuart Bailey, Jigsaw (1949) as Howard Malloy, Without Honor (1950) as Dennis Williams, Uncle Vanya (1958) as Dr Mikhail Lvovich Astroff, which he also directed and produced, and Nobody Runs Forever (1968) as Ambassador Townsend.
CAUSE: Tone died aged 63 in New York, from lung cancer.
Regis Toomey
Born August 13, 1898
Died October 12, 1991
Stalwart actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 5́ 11˝ Toomey was in amdram for five years before trying his hand at the professional game. He went on to appear in over 170 films as well as making several regular appearances on television shows. His films included: Alibi (1929) as Danny McGann, Illusion (1929) as Eric, Rich People (1929) as Jef MacLean, Framed (1930) as Jimmy McArthur, Crazy That Way (1930) as Robert Metcalf, Good Intentions (1930) as Richard Holt, Under Eighteen (1931) as Jimmie, Scandal Sheet (1931) as Regan, Other Men’s Women (1931) as Jack, 24 Hours (1931) as Tony Bruzzi, Finn And Hattie (1931) as Collins, Touchdown (1931) as Tom Hussey, Shopworn (1932) as David Livingston, State Trooper (1933) as Michael Rolph, She Had To Say Yes (1933) as Tommy Nelson, Redhead (1934) as Scoop, Murder On The Blackboard (1934) as Detective Smiley North, Skull And Crown (1935) as Bob Franklin, Red Morning (1935) as John Hastings, Great God Gold (1935) as Phil Stuart, One Frightened Night (1935) as Tom Dean, Manhattan Moon (1935) as Eddie, Bulldog Edition (1936) as Hardy, Midnight Taxi (1937) as Hilton, Back In Circulation (1937) as Buck, Hunted Men (1938) as Donovan, Thunder Afloat (1939) as Ives, Street Of Missing Men (1939) as Parker, Smashing The Spy Ring as Ted Hall, Union Pacific (1939) as Paddy O’Rourke, His Girl Friday as Sanders, Northwest Passage as Webster, North West Mounted Police (1940) as Constable Jerry Moore, Arizona (1940) as Grant Oury, Meet John Doe (1941) as Bert Hansen, Dive Bomber (1941) as Tim Griffin, You’re In The Army Now (1941) as Captain Joe Radcliffe, They Died With Their Boots On as Fitzhugh Lee, Tennessee Johnson (1942) as McDaniel, Bullet Scars as Dr Steven Bishop, I Was Framed (1942) as Bob Leeds, Jack London (1943) as Scratch Nelson, Destroyer (1943) as Lieutenant Commander Clark, Murder In The Blue Room (1944) as Inspector McDonald, Dark Mountain (1944) as Steve Downey, Strange Illusion (1945) as Dr Vincent, Spellbound (1945) as Sergeant Gillespie, Follow That Woman (1945) as Barney Manners, Mysterious Intruder (1946) as James Summers, The Big Sleep (1946) as Bernie Ohls, The Big Fix (1947) as Lieutenant Brenner, I Wouldn’t Be In Your Shoes (1948) as Judd, Station West as Goddard, Mighty Joe Young as John Young, Undercover Girl as Hank Miller, Frenchie (1950) as Carter, My Pal Gus (1952) as Farley Norris, My Six Convicts (1952) as Dr Gordon, Son Of Belle Starr (1953) as Tom Wren, Island In The Sky (1953) as Sergeant Harper, Drums Across The River (1954) as Sheriff Jim Beal, Top Gun (1955) as Jim O’Hara, Guys And Dolls (1955) as Arvide Abernathy, Warlock (1959) as Skinner, Johnny Shiloh (1963), Cover Me Babe (1970) as Michael, Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) as a burlesque stage-hand and C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979) as Chief Patterson.
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