Jack Randall (actor)


Addison Byron Owen Randall was an American film actor, chiefly in Westerns. He often used a pseudonym for his film work, chiefly Jack Randall, and he played roles as Allen Byron and Byron Vance.

Early life

Randall was born May 12, 1906, in San Fernando, California. He attended Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri. The reference book Who's Who in Hollywood gives Randall's place of birth as Quincy, Illinois.

Film career

Randall began his career as a supporting actor and foil at RKO, but he left when Monogram Pictures promised him the chance to star in films. They were true to their word, and he appeared in a series of Western films through the 1930s and 1940s.
Many of Randall's early B-movies with Monogram feature him as a singing cowboy, but his later roles were generally straight Western stories, and all were hampered by the low budgets typical of this studio. Many of his cowboy characters were named "Jack". His older brother Robert Livingston was also an actor in Western films of the time.
Randall adopted his new "Allen Byron" identity in the 1940s in an effort to boost his fading professional fortunes, but the roles he received with new studio Producers Releasing Corporation were not up to the task.

Death

He died unexpectedly in 1945 while filming a serial called The Royal Mounted Rides Again for Universal Studios, after a fall from a horse at Canoga Park, California, in which he struck a tree. Some sources attribute his death to injuries sustained during the fall, which in those versions resulted from an attempt to recover a hat he had dropped, while others state that he suffered a fatal heart attack before falling. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in the Garden of Memory, near his older brother, Robert Livingston.

Personal life

Randall twice married and divorced actress Louise Stanley, and carried on an affair with former silent film actress Louise Brooks. At the time of his death, he was married to his second wife, actress Barbara Bennett, sister of actresses Constance Bennett and Joan Bennett.

Partial filmography

  • His Family Tree as Mike Donovan
  • Another Face as Tex Williams
  • Two in the Dark as Duke Reed
  • Love on a Bet as Jackson
  • Mariners of the Sky aka Navy Born as Lt. Tex Jones
  • Don't Turn 'Em Loose as Al - Henchman
  • Red Lights Ahead as Nordingham
  • Flying Hostess as Earl Spencer
  • Danger Valley as Jack Bruce
  • Stars Over Arizona as Jack Dawson
  • Riders of the Dawn as Marshal Josh Preston
  • Blazing Barriers as Arthur Forsythe
  • Wild Horse Canyon as Jack Gray
  • Gun Packer as Jack Denton
  • The Mexicali Kid as Jack Wood
  • Man's Country as Jack Haid
  • Gunsmoke Trail as Jack Lane
  • Land of Fighting Men as Jack Lambert
  • Where the West Begins as Jack Manning
  • Overland Mail as Jack Mason
  • Oklahoma Terror as Jack Ridgley
  • Across the Plains as Jack Winters, Cherokee
  • Trigger Smith as Jack 'Trigger' Smith aka Arizona Jones
  • Drifting Westward as Jack Martin
  • Riders from Nowhere as Jack Rankin
  • Wild Horse Range as Jack Wallace
  • The Kid from Santa Fe as Santa Fe Kid
  • Land of the Six Guns as Jack Rowan
  • Covered Wagon Trails as Jack Cameron
  • The Cheyenne Kid as The Cheyenne Kid
  • Pioneer Days as Jack Dunham
  • High Explosive as Joe
  • Girls in Chains as Johnny Moon
  • Danger! Women at Work as Danny
  • Cry 'Havoc' as Lt. Thomas Holt