Frank Lovejoy began his acting career out of the need for additional income, not seeing any prospects in this occupation. The financial interest grew into something more, and Lovejoy became one of the leading American radio and film actors in the mid-20th century.
Biography
The full name of the actor, given to him at birth, is Frank Andrew Lovejoy Jr. He was born in March 1912 in the family of Frank Andrew Lovejoy, Sr., a salesman in a furniture company, and Nora Lovejoy, a housewife. His homeland was the large American city of New York, but the future actor was brought up and educated in New Jersey.
The father of the family provided the family with everything they needed, but Frank Jr. from childhood felt the need to receive additional funds. As a teenager, he got a job as a clerk in a small office on the famous Wall Street, where he helped with financial matters. In 1929, when Lovejoy was 17 years old, the United States experienced one of the largest stock market crashes in the history of the country - a sharp collapse in stock prices, later called the "Wall Street Crash" and sparked the Great Depression in America. The economic situation was severely shaken and thousands of employees lost their jobs, and Frank Lovejoy Jr. was no exception.
Career in theater, radio and film
The only part-time job that Frank Lovejoy was able to find was the repertory theater, in which he was quickly able to take a place in the main cast of the troupe. Just 4 years later, the young actor achieved such popularity that he was able to go on tour in the cities of America, and a year later - to perform on the stage of the most prestigious theater street in the United States - Broadway. Of course, acting has already become for him not just a part-time job, but a life-long work.
An expressive voice and excellent diction allowed Lovejoy to try himself in another role - an actor of radio serials, radio shows and soap operas. He devoted 15 years of his life to radio, simultaneously playing in performances. The time period from 1935 to 1945 can be safely called a period of rise and flourishing of radio culture, because thousands and millions of listeners listened to it. Thanks to this, Lovejoy gained extraordinary popularity and became one of the most sought-after actors in radio series.
The start of his film career for Lovejoy took place in 1948, and since that year, cinema has taken the main niche in his career. His debut work was the criminal western "Black Bart", in which he got the secondary role of Mark Lorimer.
Two years later, he got his first leading role in the black-and-white crime drama Sound of Fury.
Filmography
Since 1950, Frank Lovejoy has been actively involved in war films, playing the roles of brave, rational and sane people in them. He played characters in the films Retreat, Hell!, With the Stars on Board, The Force of Arms and many others. Repeatedly Lovejoy took part not only in feature films, but also in documentaries about the war.
Noir films occupy a special place in his filmography. This is a genre of Hollywood dramas of the mid-20th century, which tells about the criminal environment of the military and post-war American society. In 1950, the film noir "In a Secluded Place" was released, which was later recognized as one of the most powerful in Lovejoy's career. 1951 "I Was a Communist for the FBI," about an undercover FBI agent, was critically acclaimed as well. In 1953, he, together with the famous American actor and producer Edmond O'Brien, starred in the film "The Hitchhiker" (in some Russian translations - "The Hitchhiker"). The role of a fisherman in a difficult and dangerous situation cemented Lovejoy's fame as an actor in crime films, so this genre occupies most of his filmography.
Several times Frank Lovejoy decided to try himself in other genres. In 1950, he starred in the drama Three Secrets, which tells the story of three women trying to figure out who is the biological mother of a boy who survived a plane crash and whose adoptive parents died. In 1952, the sports biographical film "The Winning Team" was released, where Lovejoy played not the main, but one of the significant roles.
In 1953, the horror film The Museum of Wax (translated as The House of Wax) was released - one of the first stereofilms to use the technology of “surround” picture and “surround” sound. In it, Frank Lovejoy played a detective investigating the disappearance of people around a mysterious museum. The film was doomed to success, and the main actors earned a lot of money from it.
Lovejoy acted in films until 1958. His last work in this direction was the western painting "Cole Jr., the Shooter." But the actor continued to play on television until his death. His most recent television series were Target: The Corruptors and The Persecution.
Frank Lovejoy died in 1962 in his bed. The death was sudden and painless, because the actor died in his sleep from a heart attack. He was 50 years old.
Personal life
Lovejoy made his first marriage in 1939 with the American actress Frances Williams, who also played on Broadway. The family union lasted only a year and fell apart. His next choice was again the actress - Joan Banks, with whom he married in the year of his divorce from his first wife. The couple had two children - a daughter and a son. Frank and Joan were together until the actor's death in 1962. After this marriage, the widow no longer entered into official relations.
