Short Biography

Franchot Tone was born into a well-to-do upstate New York family. Tone traveled the world with his parents and attended various schools, including The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania from which he was dismissed "for being a subtle influence for disorder throughout the fall term." He entered Cornell University, studying romance languages with an initial goal of eventually teaching in such. But he also joined Cornell`s drama club, becoming its president his senior year. The interest in theater would sow a seed soon to be germinated.

Tone had no interest in the family electro-chemical business. He decided to become a serious actor. He meant business by joining a theater stock company in the city of Buffalo - earning only fifteen dollars a week. He toiled with dedication, playing bit roles and educating himself in the theater business. He moved to Greenwich Village and auditioned for the New Playwrights` Theater, making his Broadway debut in 1929 with Katharine Cornell in "The Age of Innocence". Tone portrayed Curly in the flop Broadway production of "Green Grow the Lilacs" which would later be developed into the musical "Oklahoma!". He later discovered the Group Theatre in New York formed by Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman. This was the first functional school for method acting in America, followed later by The Actors Studio, also under Strasberg. In late September of 1931, the theater presented its first production, "The House of Connelly", with Tone and Morris Carnovsky in the leading roles. Tone appeared in "Big Night" and later appeared in "Success Story", after which Strasberg proclaimed him as the best actor in the company. His performance in "Success Story" also prompted a contract offer from MGM. He moved to Hollywood in November 1932, although his aspirations as an actor did not include becoming a Hollywood star.

But his first screen appearance was under the Paramount banner not MGM in The Wiser Sex (1932) starring Claudette Colbert. The Paramount brass did not see the potential - a tell tale sigh of the oft chasm between Hollywood acting and that of the theater. But Tone was definitely on the `A` List ladder, His first MGM film Today We Live (1933) co-starred the ambitious `Joan Crawford`. Here his woes with Hollywood actresses began in earnest. They became a couple, and MGM could see the potential for better box office by pairing them in several movies. Tone worked through 1933 with other leading ladies: Loretta Young, Miriam Hopkins, and Jean Harlow before he worked again with Crawford. But he was already being saddled with `the other man` roles. In his next movie with Crawford, _Dancing Lady (1933)_, he was competing with Clark Gable. By their next movie together Sadie McKee (1934), Tone was the leading man but in forthcoming outing with Crawford he would have other film rivals and his characters tended to be less dynamic than hers.

He was loaned to Warner Bros. for Dangerous (1935) with Bette Davis. Davis also became romantically interested in him. Already in an incipient rivalry with Crawford, she became all the more incensed with Crawford on finding out that she was engaged to Tone by now. Davis was envious and ashamed of her advances toward Tone, and the incident is believed by many sources as the start of the famous warfare between Crawford and Davis to last to their dying day. Tone and Crawford did marry in late 1935, but the essential chemistry did not mix. Tone was an eastern blue blood who

Miscellaneous Information

Ambitions

To be a language teacher

Friends and Family

Jimmy Stewart [Friend]

Bill Brady Jr [Friend]

Burgess Meredith [Friend]

Frank Jerome Tone [Brother] (elder brother aka Jerry)

Gertrude Franchot Tone [Mother]

Dr. Frank J. Tone [Father]

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