Trivia of Franchot Tone

 Trivia of Franchot Tone (27 February 1905 - 18 September 1968)

*Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the wealthy president of the Carborundum Company, and his socially prominent wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot.When he studied in Cornell University, he was president of the drama club, acting in productions of Shakespeare.Tone made his film debut with The Wiser Sex (1932) starring Claudette Colbert, filmed by Paramount.

*Clark Gable was initially disappointed when Franchot Tone was cast as Byam in film Mutiny on The Bounty (1935). The two actors had been bitter rivals for the affections of Joan Crawford while filming Dancing Lady (1933), and they did not like each other at all. However, during filming Gable surprisingly became close friends with Tone when they discovered a mutual interest in alcohol and women, both of which were abundantly available in Avalon, the island of Catalina's famous pleasure town.

*He is responsible for the establishment of the Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories in the Academy Awards, owing to his supporting performance (and subsequent Best Actor nomination) in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).He, Gable and co-star Charles Laughton all received Oscar nominations for best actor. This was a first, and certainly an embarrassment which the Academy sought to remedy by introducing Best Supporting Actor and Actress Oscars the next year.

*Tone had been married four times in his life. His first wife was actress Joan Crawford, whom he married on October 11, 1935. They divorced on April 11, 1939. Together, the couple made seven films – Today We Live (1933), Dancing Lady (1933), Sadie McKee (1934), No More Ladies (1935), The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), Love on the Run (1936), and The Bride Wore Red (1937). In the later years of his life, while Tone was suffering from lung cancer, Crawford took care of him and even supported him financially.At one point during this period, Tone even suggested they remarry which Joan turned down.

*He was loaned to Warner Bros for Dangerous (1935) with Bette Davis. Davis became romantically interested in him, and her incipient rivalry with Joan Crawford made her all the more incensed with Crawford on finding out that she was engaged to Tone. Davis was envious and ashamed of her advances toward Tone, and the incident is believed by many sources to be the start of the famous warfare between Crawford and Davis that lasted to their dying days.

*In 1949, he began producing films that he felt would be challenging and successful. One of his best efforts in this capacity was the psychological B noir The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949) as star and producer, with his great friends Burgess Meredith and Charles Laughton as directors.

*His relationship with actress Barbara Payton made headlines in 1951 after he was knocked unconscious for 18 hours and sustained numerous facial injuries after he got into a fistfight with actor Tom Neal, who also sought the attention of Payton.Plastic surgery nearly restored his broken nose and cheek. Tone subsequently married Payton, divorcing her in 1952, after obtaining photographic evidence she had continued her relationship with Neal.