Sometimes leading men don’t fit the stereotype. In the late 1940s and early 50s these two men had names above the title, and romanced BIG female stars.
But leading men? Not exactly. Barry Sullivan (seen at the top above) and Frank Lovejoy occupied that professional purgatory for actors known as “second leads” — a space occupied by supporting players with something extra that often landed them that top-of-the-title billing.
They had similar backrounds. Both actors were born in New York City in 1912. Both had stage experience on Broadway (Sullivan’s more extensive than Lovejoy’s). Both excelled at playing cops and other rough-around-the-edges types although Sullivan’s in-your-face masculinity onscreen contrasted with the gruff but essentially decent guy projected by Lovejoy.
And, they made some pretty good pictures. Sullivan’s extensive CV (nearly 190 movie and tv credits over a a half century) includes such high-end titles as 1949’s The Great Gatsby and 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful. Lovejoy appeared in that early Doris Day musical, 1951’s I’ll See You In My Dreams, and countered Vincent Price in the 1953 3-D horror outing, House of Wax.
(Lovejoy’s list of 55 credits can’t compare to Sullivan’s because he didn’t live long. Lovejoy died of a heart attack in 1962; he was just 50. Sullivan died of a respiratory ailment in 1994, at the age of 81.)
Both actors, we’re happy to note, received true top-of-the-line billing in most of the film noir and crime dramas they made (Sullivan appeared in at least eight such titles; Lovejoy in four including 1951’s I Was A Communist for The FBI, with Dorothy Hart (see below).
Sullivan’s romantic leading man capabilities can be seen in 1946’s Suspense. He gets to seduce ice skating queen Belita in a tale of adultery and murder. It provided Belita with an opportunity to showcase her skating and acting versatility, and it was poverty-row studio Monogram’s ‘A’ production, complete with million-dollar budget.
There’s Barry below in a clinch with an off-the-ice Belita.
For his part Lovejoy, although doesn’t get to romance anyone, shines as Edmond O’Brien’s costar in the harrowing 1953 thriller The Hitch-Hiker, from RKO.
Two likable blokes (O’Brien and Lovejoy) on a leisurely car trip pick up the wrong man, and all hell breaks loose. This one is based on a true-life incident, and was the only noir directed by a woman, Ida Lupino, who graced many a genre title as a superbly sultry actress. What pulls the movie together is the evil performance of working actor William Tallman as the murderous psychotic waving that pistol in the back seat. in this case in Lovejoy’s direction.
For noir fans, Lovejoy is perhaps best known for his role in Nicholas Ray’s 1950 title, In A Lonely Place.
Lovejoy plays a detective secure in a warm marriage to a faithful wife (Jeff Donnell) who harbors doubts about their screenwriter pal, who is a murder suspect. No, Lovejoy isn’t the leading man here. Humphrey Bogart is.
When those two names popped up this morning, I immediately heard their voices. Don’t need more than a few words to identify them. Not quite sure why they are linked in this article, but it’s fun to be able to remember them and think about that swath of fine performers who make it in the acting game and work hard at it for their entire lives. Not as stars, but as working, honorable actors.
I believe that Paul Fix, a fine character actor and “America’s marshal” as Micah Torrance on “The Rifleman”, said something like (very paraphrased) “I never made more than $800 a week, but I was never out of work (for more than a few weeks).”
It’s a 2 FOR 1 SALE today with Joe & Frank giving us two good actors that we saw so many times in so many great movies, and you can catch a number of them free on YouTube if anyone’s interested…
But really, these 2 fine actors deserve a lot more attention than to be bundled together, and I hope the ‘guys’ agree.
Meantime…
FRANK LOVEJOY began his career in acting to make extra money after the stock market crash in 1929. He made his Broadway debut in 1934 and enjoyed a long career in radio and film.
Lovejoy’s voice was one of the most recognizable voices and also one of the most prolific actors in radio history, having performed in hundreds of police dramas, soap operas, mystery shows, and dramatic anthologies.
He became known for detective dramas like Nightbeat, Gangbusters, Dragnet, Damon Runyan, and Box 13. Lovejoy was the Blue Beetle over a dozen of the first episodes and a staple actor on Screen Directors Playhouse, The Whistler and Suspense.
Frank Lovejoy was typecast as the ‘no nonsense cop, agent, soldier, and reporter’ in a wide varied of films in the detective and police genre. Some of his best rolls in addition to those already mentioned were TRY AND GET ME, THE SYSTEM, BEACHHEAD, STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND, THE CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER, THE CROOKED WEB and JULIE to name just a few good roles.
And then, there was the repeated confusion with a similar but more name-recognizable character actor of the day EDWARD BINNS… When Binns would deny being Frank Lovejoy people would sometimes say, “Oh, you’re joking.” It happened frequently enough that he got so he could identify that hey-you’re-Frank Lovejoy-look before a word was spoken. So he had a card made up that he could hand off which said, “Yes I am an actor. No, I’m not Frank Lovejoy.”
As for BARRY SULLIVAN…
Sullivan played a wide range of roles in his long career: early on he was many a doctor, cop, writer, cowboy, soldier, and ”the other guy” who loses the girl to the star. He then moved into leading roles opposite tough female actresses like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, etc., usually as a rich, boozing, philandering businessman husband. Sullivan later aged into such character types as politicians, professors, generals, secretaries of state, attorney generals, judges, bishops, power brokers, and even more doctors.
Sullivan livened up the action with Barbra Stanwyck in THE MAVERICK QUEEN FORTY GUNS and JEOPARDY… Now Sullivan was also known in HOLLYWOOD as a ladies man and it was rumored he had an affair with Stanwyck, he certainly had one with Bette Davis had whilst making PAYMENT ON DEMAND in 1951. She was still married to Gary Merrill at the time.
In ‘bundling’ up the 2, Joe and Frank may have had some method in their madness, because Lovejoy and Sullivan had worked together more than once.
Sullivan scored big on Broadway as Lt. Barney Greenwald, in the 195-55 Bwdy. production of THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL, directed by Charles Laughton… He recreated that role for the 1955 FORD STAR JUBILEE televison show presentation of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, snagging an Emmy Nomination for Best Actor–Single Performance, losing to his cast mate Lloyd ‘Capt. Queeg’ Nolan. Frank Lovejoy played cowardly Lt.Steve Maryk the role made famous by Fred MacMurray in the movie version.
Sullivan and Lovejoy teamed up again for STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND and JULIE…
Barry Sullivan had a long and prolific career in television, and he sometimes appeared with his daughter Jenny, who later went on to become a playwright.
His second daughter Patricia was married to iconic songwriter Jimmy Webb, who wrote MacArthur Park and many of Glen Campbell’s top hits.
Maybe, someone new would like to COMMENT?
At least I’m glad we now have DAN to help bolster and open-up Joe & Frank’s worthy efforts !