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Payne in Kansas City Confidential

John Payne (May 28, 1912 - December 6, 1989) was an American movie actor who is mainly remembered as a singer in 20th Century-Fox film musicals.

Payne was born in Roanoke, Virginia. Payne's mother, Ida Hope Shaeffer, graduated from the Virginia Seminary in Roanoke and became the bride of George Washington Payne, a developer of Roanoke. They lived at Ft Lewis, an antbellum mansion that became a state historical property. It burned to the ground in the late fifties. Payne went to Roanoke College then enrolled at Columbia University in the fall of 1930. He studied drama at Columbia and voice at Juilliard. To support himself, he took on a variety of odd jobs, including wrestling and singing in vaudeville. In 1934, he was spotted by a talent scout for the Shubert theaters and was given a job as a stock player.

He toured with several Shubert Brothers shows, and frequently sang on New York-based radio programs. In 1936, Payne was offered a contract by Samuel Goldwyn, and he left New York for Hollywood. He worked for various studios until 1940, when he signed with 20th-Century Fox. Fox made him a star, in 1940s musicals like Tin Pan Alley (1940), Sun Valley Serenade (1941), and Weekend in Havana (1941). A highlight during this period was co-starring with Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power in The Razor's Edge (1946).

Later in his career he changed his image and began playing tough-guy roles in Hollywood films noir and westerns including 99 River Street (1953), Silver Lode (1954), Tennessee's Partner (1955), Slightly Scarlet (1956), and Kansas City Confidential (1952).

Payne's most popular role may be that of attorney Fred Gailey in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). It is almost certainly his most visible role, as it typically receives frequent airplay during the Christmas season.

Payne also starred in a television western series The Restless Gun (1957-59).

In 1955, he paid a $1,000-a-month option for nine months on the Ian Fleming James Bond novel Moonraker (he eventually gave up the option when he learned he could not retain the rights for the entire book series).

In May 1961, he suffered extensive, life-threatening injuries when struck by a car in New York City. His recovery took two years. In his later roles, facial scars from the accident can be detected in close-ups; he chose not to have them removed. One of Payne's first public appearances during this period was as a guest panelist on What's My Line, the popular CBS-TV game show. Dorothy Kilgallen and the other panelists on the episode congratulated Payne on his recovery and wished him well. (Source: Game Show Network rebroadcast, February 8, 2006).

He directed one of his last films, They Ran for Their Lives (1968). Later in life, Payne became wealthy through real estate investments in Southern California.

Payne was married to actress Anne Shirley from 1938 to 1942; they had a daughter, Julie Anne Payne. He then married actress Gloria DeHaven in 1944; the union produced two children, Kathleen Hope Payne and Thomas John Payne. This marriage ended in 1949. Payne married Alexandra Beryl Curtis in 1953. He was the father-in-law of writer-director Robert Towne.

He died in Malibu, California of congestive heart failure, aged 77.

Payne has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

They Ran for Their Lives (1968)
O'Conner's Ocean (1960)
Bailout at 43,000 (1957)
Hidden Fear (1957)
Rebel in Town (1956)
The Boss (1956)
Hold Back the Night (1956)
Slightly Scarlet (1956) with Rhonda Fleming
Hell's Island (1955)
Tennessee's Partner (1955) with Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray, and Ronald Reagan
The Road to Denver (1955) with Lee Van Cleef and Mona Freeman
Santa Fe Passage (1955) with Faith Domergue
Rails Into Laramie (1954) with Dan Duryea and Lee Van Cleef
Silver Lode (1954) with Lizabeth Scott
99 River Street (1953) with Evelyn Keyes
Raiders of Seven Seas (1953) with Gerald Mohr, Donna Reed, and Lon Chaney, Jr.
The Vanquished (1953) with Coleen Gray
The Blazing Forest (1952) with Agnes Moorehead and William Demarest
Caribbean (1952) with Arlene Dahl
Kansas City Confidential (1952) with Coleen Gray, Preston Foster, Lee Van Cleef, and Neville Brand
Crosswinds (1951) with Rhonda Fleming and Forrest Tucker
Passage West (1951) with Dooley Wilson
The Eagle and the Hawk (1950) with Rhonda Fleming
Tripoli (1950) with Maureen O'Hara
El Paso (1949) with Sterling Hayden and Gail Russell
Captain China (1949) with Gail Russell, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Robert Armstrong
The Crooked Way (1949) with Ellen Drew
The Saxon Charm (1948) with Robert Montgomery and Susan Hayward
Larceny (1947) with Shelley Winters and Dan Duryea
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) with Maureen O'Hara
The Razor's Edge (1946) with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney
Sentimental Journey (1946) with Maureen O'Hara
Wake Up and Dream (1946)
The Dolly Sisters (1945) with Betty Grable
Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943) with Alice Faye
Footlight Serenade (1942) with Betty Grable
Iceland (1942)
Springtime in the Rockies (1942) with Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda
To the Shores of Tripoli (1942) with Maureen O'Hara and Randolph Scott
Remember the Day (1941) with Claudette Colbert
Weekend in Havana (1941) with Alice Faye
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) with Milton Berle
The Great American Broadcast (1941) with Alice Faye
Tin Pan Alley (1940) with Alice Faye and Betty Grable
Tear Gas Squad (1940) with George Reeves
The Great Profile (1940) with John Barrymore and Anne Baxter
King of the Lumberjacks (1940) with Gloria Dickson
Maryland (1940) with Walter Brennan
Star Dust (1940) with Linda Darnell
Indianapolis Speedway (1939) with Ann Sheridan
Wings of the Navy (1939) with George Brent and Olivia de Havilland
Kid Nightingale (1939) with Jane Wyman
Garden of the Moon (1938) with Pat O'Brien
College Swing (1938) with George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye, Bob Hope, and Betty Grable
Love on Toast (1937) with Stella Adler
Hats Off (1937) with Mae Clarke
Fair Warning (1937) with Betty Furness
Dodsworth (1936) with Walter Huston

• ^1. TV Tome What's My Line? - EPISODE #591 summary
• ^2. John Payne at Brian's Drive-In Theater (website)

• John Payne (actor) at the Internet Movie Database