Leon Janney

Donald Janney (April 1, 1917 – October 28, 1980) was an American actor and radio personality between 1920 to 1980.

Career

Born Leon Ramon in Ogden, Utah, Janney made his first theatrical appearance at age two before an audience at the Pantages Theatre in his hometown. He spent the next several years in vaudeville, and also made his first appearance on radio in 1926, making the leap to legitimate theater soon after.^[1]

Janney's movie debut came with Victor Sjöström's The Wind starring Lillian Gish. While he was working with some of Hollywood's greatest, he used the oppertunity to study the actors, and ask for advice at every chance he could. He soon began appearing in a string of movies portraying the boyhood incarnations of such actors as Ricardo Cortez, Reginald Denny, and Conrad Nagel. Producer Hal Roach took notice of Janney and hired him to appear in the Our Gang comedy Bear Shooters as "Spud". However, Roach realized that he was too old to gel with the other members of the gang, and Bear Shooters marked his only appearance as a Little Rascal.^[1] In 1931 Janney starred in the second film adaptation of Booth Tarkington's, Penrod and Sam.

By the mid-1930s, Janney was considered the quintessential male juvenile star, and was earning more than $100,000 a year. Leon Janney was quickly becoming a star. As he entered his teenage years, he realised that everywhere he went he would be recocnised and surrounded by fans, something he did not care for. Janney then turned to radio and worked on the series The Parker Family, playing all-American boy Richard Parker.^[2] Although his true love was theater work, he used his radio work to become a master dialectician. Janney was a master of using convincing foreign accents, and even more so at adapting regional dialects of the United States.^[3] After serving in World War II as a translator, he continued working in radio and theater.

Though blacklisted in the 1950s due to the "red scare" (Which is ironic, since the Army drafted him specifically because he could speak fluid Russian, a talent he specfically learned so his accents would sound authentic on radio shows.) Janney continued to work regularly due to his preference for theatrical work, appearing in such plays as The School for Scandal and The Gazebo.^[1] In the early 1940s, he starred in his own radio series, "The Adventures of Dick Cole" an action and adventure show aimed at pre-teen boys. Most episodes still survive, which can be found and listened to on the internet. Janny co-starred in "The Adventures of Charlie Chan" also available on the web.

Janney appeared in dozens of other radio series as well,including some of the most popular and longest running,such as the critically acclaimed dramatic series "Suspense" (1942-1962) - approximately 900 episodes are known to exist, all of which can be found and heard on the internet. Other examples include: "The Mysterious Traveler" Mr. Janney appeared in several episodes of radio's first adult science fiction series, "X Minus One." Often, Mr. Janney played multiple roles, using his extraordinary ability to quickly alter his voice. This talent was used quite often in CBS radio's successful radio drama "revival" series, "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" (1974-1982) Janney starred in at least 80 episodes. He also made countless un-credited appearances too, until his untimely death in 1980. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Janney did voice-overs for hundreds of television commercials and PSA's. Also, his voice was the narrator of the popular Saturday morning cartoon, "Wacky Racers" (1967-1969).

Leon Janney appeared in bit roles on such television shows as Car 54, Where Are You?, The Defenders and The Jackie Gleason Show. He also made his first film appearance in more than a decade, playing a sympathetic guard in The Last Mile. Janney was also the spokesman for the New York Mets in their Rheingold Beer commercials for the team's first two seasons (1962-1963). In his final years, he was a regular on television shows, Another World, and The Edge of Night.^[1] His last film was "Charly" with Cliff Robertson and Dina Merrill in 1966.

Death

Janney died of cancer on October 28, 1980, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Selected filmography

• The Doorway to Hell (1930)
• Penrod and Sam (1931)
• The Mask Falls (1931)

References

Bibliography

• John Holmstrom, The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p.76.

External links

• Leon Janney at the Internet Movie Database
• Leon Janney at AllMovie