Dick Foran

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dick Foran (born June 18, 1910 in Flemington New Jersey , † August 10, 1979 in Panorama City , California, USA) was an American actor and singer. In addition to several appearances in musicals and a guest appearance on Broadway , he gained fame through numerous roles as a supporting and character actor in films of various genres, from westerns to horror films , alongside stars such as John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart . His biggest success as a singer was the song I'll Remember April from the Abbott and Costello film Ride 'em Cowboy .

In the mid-1930s, he was also one of the first singing cowboys to star in a series of 12 musical westerns for Warner Brothers .

Life

Youth and first roles

John Nicholas Foran was born on June 18, 1910 in New Jersey Flemington, the first of five sons to Arthur F. and Elizabeth Foran. Both his father and brother Walter E. Foran would later embark on a political career in the Senate of the US state of New Jersey .

In contrast, the athletic Dick discovered his interest in singing and theater during college at Princeton , after singing in the church choir as a student. After graduating in geology and doing various jobs, he finally moved to Hollywood . There he initially worked as a singer in a band, but was soon used as a singing supporting actor, for the first time alongside Shirley Temple in the film Stand Up and Cheer! (1934). This was followed by appearances in several musicals under the stage name Nick Foran for the Fox studio.

"The Singing Cowboy"

Foran's big breakthrough came in autumn 1935. As early as the early 1930s, various western actors had experimented with vocal parts in their films, their most prominent representative (at the time) was Ken Maynard , who had already sung successfully in one of his films in 1929. Republic Pictures first used Gene Autry alongside Maynard in In Old Santa Fe in 1934, triggering a real boom in musical westerns.

The various studios therefore tried to get their own singing cowboy into the race as quickly as possible. In doing so, they often used singers who were already familiar to the audience and so the Warner managers chose Foran. So he changed studios, changed his stage name to Dick Foran, and in November 1935 his first western Moonlight on the Prairie hit theaters, just two months after Autry's first solo appearance, Tumbling Tumbleweeds .

Advertised intensively as The Singing Cowboy , Foran shot a total of twelve musical westerns for Warner by 1937, which, despite the good audience numbers, could not come close to the successes of Autry, Roy Rogers or Tex Ritter . The reason for this is cited by historians that Foran, like most of his colleagues, was an attractive actor and good singer, but lacked a certain credibility as a cowboy, "the ring of the plains".

What was remarkable about Foran's films, however, was that instead of a weird or clumsy adult, a child, usually played by child star Dickie Jones , took on the role of the sidekick. While this has been viewed as a clever move by some critics, others have suggested that teenage viewers would rather look up at a hero than look with envy at a peer on a thrilling adventure. The song My Little Buckaroo (composed by Warner's songwriters Maurice K. Jerome and Jack Scholl), which was introduced by Foran in his film Cherokee Strip (1937 ), which should become a classic of the genre, should also be emphasized .

Further career

During his time at Warner, Foran had starred in several other films, such as The Painted Dessert with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis . After the end of his cowboy series at Warner, he moved to Universal Studios , where he took part in a variety of films, including the horror film The Mummy's Hand (1940) and the sequel The Mummy's Tomb (1942). In 1963 he played a small role alongside John Wayne in the adventure film The Harbor Pub of Tahiti . The high point of his career, however, was the romantic comedy His wife is my wife (1945) with Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert .

In 1943/44 he worked on Broadway in the musical A Connecticut Yankee , an adaptation of Mark Twain's novel A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur . In addition, he had more than 100 guest appearances on television by 1969, including roles in popular series such as Bonanza , Perry Mason and Lassie .

Occasionally he went on excursions into the Western genre, for example in the series Winners of the West (1940) and Riders of Death Valley (1941). The latter was one of Universal's most ambitious projects and was filmed as an “all-star, high budget western cliffhanger” with a large number of stars and financial outlay. He also played alongside John Wayne at Fort Apache (1948). He also appeared with the Sons of the Pioneers on the 10-2-4 Ranch radio show . He had another appearance as a cowboy in the Abbott and Costello film Ride 'em Cowboy (1942). The song I'll remember April performed there was to be his greatest success as a singer and a pop or jazz classic.

After his last film, Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1967), Foran retired into private life, but continued to take on minor television roles. He died on August 10, 1979 in Panorama City, California, where he had lived with his second wife, Suzanne. For his services to American film, he was awarded a star on the Walk of Fame (at 1600 Vine Street).

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Douglas B. Green: Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy. Vanderbilt University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8265-1412-X , pp. 150 ff.
  • Douglas B. Green: Singing Cowboys. Gibbs Smith, 2006, ISBN 1-58685-808-4 , pp. 60 ff.
  • Thomas M. Feramisco: The Mummy Unwrapped: Scenes left on Universal's Cutting Room Floor. McFarland, 2002, ISBN 0-7864-1368-9 , p. 133 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Douglas B. Green: Singing Cowboys. Gibbs Smith, 2006, ISBN 1-58685-808-4 , p. 60.
  2. ^ Douglas B. Green: Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy. Vanderbilt University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8265-1412-X , pp. 151 f.
  3. ↑ Jim Harmon, Donald F. Glut: The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury. Routledge, 1973, ISBN 0-7130-0097-X , p. 361.
  4. ^ I'll remember April on JazzStandards.com
  5. ↑ Chris Costello, Raymond Strait: Lou's on First: The Tragic Life of Hollywood's Greatest Clown Warmly Recounted by His Youngest Child. Macmillan, 1982, ISBN 0-312-49914-0 , p. 79.

Web links

Commons : Dick Foran  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Foran, Dick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Foran, John Nicholas (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH New Jersey Flemington
DATE OF DEATH August 10, 1979
Place of death Panorama City , California, USA