Harry Townes: From Huntsville to Hollywood and Back

I've written a number of posts on this blog about Alabama natives who have  found success in Hollywood, ranging from actresses before 1960 such as Dorothy Sebastian and Gail Patrick to more recent individuals such as Gail Strickland and two who also graduated from my high school, Kim Dickens and Ned Vaughn. Now comes Harry Townes, Huntsville native, prolific television actor and Episcopal priest. 

Harry Rhett Townes was born in Huntsville on September 18, 1914. I found him and his family in the 1920 U.S. Census via Ancestry.com At that time they rented a home on Eustus Street [probably Eustis Avenue near Maple Hill Cemetery; mistakes by census enumerators were common]. Harry was the younger son of Charles and Jeanne Townes; his brother was Halsey. Sister Jena was three years younger than Harry, who was listed as five at the time of the census. In the 1930 census when Harry was 15, the family lived at 809 Randolph Street. Father Charles is not listed; he had died on November 23, 1922 and is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville. 

Presumably he graduated from high school in Huntsville, although I've yet to determine which one. Recent discussion about Townes on the Facebook "Huntsville Revisited" board indicated he went to Huntsville High. He spent time at the University of Alabama, where he may have caught the acting bug. Townes did not graduate; he's not listed in the UA directory of alumni anyway. He next appears in New York City, where he studied acting at Columbia University. I've run across one source that says he graduated there, but have yet to confirm it. His draft card, included below, puts him in New York in October, 1940. 

He picked up some Broadway credits before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, in which he served from 1942 until 1946. After his service, Townes returned to New York to act, picking up more stage work and making his first forays into television. 

As noted in the next paragraph, Townes' first tv credit was a Dumont program; the network broadcast from New York. Townes played the character of Peter Postman from 1949 until 1951. He also acted in episodes of two other programs from New York, Trapped and Robert Montgomery Presents. During this same period, 1950-1953, he also began acting in programs broadcast from Hollywood. 

The first television credit listed for Townes at the IMDB is The Magic Cottage, a program on the Dumont TV network from 1949 until 1952. His final appearance came on the series Valerie in 1988. Between those dates he acted in episodes on dozens of shows, many multiple times. These included Perry Mason (5), Rawhide (4), Route 66 (3), Twilight Zone (2), Playhouse 90 (3), Studio One (12), Climax! (9), Kraft Theatre (15), Armstrong Circle Theatre (10), Ponds Theater (6), Gunsmoke (7) and The Fugitive (5). He played four different doctors in that many episodes of Quincy, M.E. Townes made single appearances on such programs as Ben Casey, The Outer Limits, The Virginian, Branded, Star Trek, The Big Valley, Mod Squad, Marcus Welby, M.D., Lou Grant, and Magnum, P.I. Whew! And all of these listed only scratch the surface of his tv credits. 

Townes acted in more than 200 television programs, but he also appeared in several films. These include Operation Manhunt [see more on this one below], The Mountain, The Brothers Karamazov, Cry Tough, Sanctuary, The Bedford Incident, In Enemy County and The Hawaiians.  

While in his thirties his sister Jeanne was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Following a vision she had, her disease went into remission. This event prompted Townes' own spiritual journey that eventually led him to the priesthood. He continued acting but put himself through theology school in Los Angeles. In 1973 at age 59 and following ten years of study he became a transitional Episcopal deacon and then was ordained Father Harry Townes at St. Paul's Cathedral in Los Angeles on March 16, 1974. He had several non-stipend assignments in that city, Hollywood and Palm Springs  as he continued to earn his living with film and television work. 

Townes retired from acting in 1988, and returned to Huntsville. According to city phone books available via Ancestry.com, he lived on Randolph Avenue near a childhood home in the mid-1990s and on Mountain Brook Drive SE from 1998 until his death on May 23, 2001. He apparently never married. Townes outlived the other members of his family. Mother Jeanne died in 1967 and is buried in Maple Hill. Sister Jean died in 1998 and is also buried in Maple Hill. Older brother Milton died in 1978 and was interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.

Townes & Barbara Hale as Della Street in the Perry Mason episode “The Case of the Lazy Lover” first broadcast 31 May 1958. Townes made five appearances on the program.

Perry Mason "The Case of the Lazy Lover" May 31, 1958

Townes played a pharmacist in the "Incident of the Town in Terror" episode of Rawhide first broadcast March 6, 1959. A few of the herd's cattle die of what is feared to be anthrax, but Townes' character determines it's the milder cowpox. 

Nancy Kovak and Townes in Perry Mason "The Case of the Golfer's Gambit" January 30, 1966

Both of these photos are from the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Woeful Widower" March 26, 1964. That's Jerry Van Dyke, younger brother of Dick, in the one below with Townes. 

Royal Dano, Inger Stevens & Townes in the "My Brother Richard" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents January 20, 1957. You can read discussions by Jack Seabrook  of other appearances by Townes on this series here and here. 

Townes in "Tail to the Wind" an episode of Gunsmoke from October 10, 1959

The Outer Limits "OBIT" November 4, 1963

Townes as Captain Jesse Coulter in Rawhide "Seven Fingers" May 7, 1964

Townes appeared twice on Wanted Dead or Alive which starred Steve McQueen. This still is from "Mental Lapse" first broadcast on January 2, 1960. The other episode was "Vendetta", also in 1960.  

Operation Manhunt released in 1954 was an early film appearance by Townes, and he was even the male lead!

Townes World War II draft card filled out on October 16, 1940. Note his employer and place of employment! According to the Internet Broadway Database, Townes appeared in seven productions on Broadway between 1942 and 1969. I've yet to discover what he was doing for Warner Brothers, owner of the Strand in 1940. 

Source: Ancestry.com

Harry Townes' grave marker in Huntsville's vast Maple Hill Cemetery

A Note about Ned Beatty

On June 13 veteran character actor Ned Beatty died at the age of 83. I've always been a fan and wondered if any of his work had an Alabama connection. So I checked his Wikipedia and IMDB entries and found one in his long list of film and television credits. More about that in a moment.

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and by the age of 19 began appearing in theatrical productions in that state. His first film was Deliverance, and he started his career with a memorable role. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about; if not, I won't spoil it.

Beatty appeared in a television role in that same year and continued to act frequently in both media until 2013. If you are not familiar with him, I urge you to seek out some of his appearances. I especially urge you to watch him in the 1976 film Network. If you've seen it, go watch it again. I watched it last year [probably for the fourth or so time], and the entire movie just gets better and better.

Network focuses on a low-rated  tv network and its attempt to raise ratings by turning the news division into entertainment. The film is a perfect storm of great personnel and casting. Sidney Lumet directed, Paddy Chayefsky wrote the script, and the stars include William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall and Beatrice Straight. Dunaway won a Best Actress Oscar, Straight a Best Supporting Actress one and Chayefsky won for Best Original Screenplay. Peter Finch received a well-deserved posthumous Oscar as Best Actor, playing newscaster Howard Beale. 

Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Jason Robards in All the Presidents Men, another stellar performance. Beatty's nomination was somewhat unusual; he has only one scene in the movie, which lasts about five minutes. He appears as Arthur Jensen, the CEO of the corporation that owns the network, and who summons Howard Beale to lecture him on how the economic forces of nature work. In his five minute speech, Beatty proves to be a force of nature himself. His delivery has been described as one of the best, and one of the most terrifying speeches in American cinema. Watch and you will understand.

When it was first released, Network was viewed as a well-done but way over the top satire of television and its news business. Watch it today and it seems like a documentary....

Wait, I was supposed to discuss an Alabama connection, right? Two years before Network, Beatty played the priest Father Stafford in a television movie, The Execution of Private Slovik, first broadcast on March 13, 1974. Martin Sheen in the title role plays the only American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War. The film is based on the non-fiction book by William Bradford Huie, a journalist and author with strong state connections. I've written a bit about his life and work here. 

This piece is the 700th blog post I've done since March 2014. Sheesh...

Beatty at the 1990 Emmy Awards

Source: Wikipedia

William Bradford Huie [1910-1986]

Beatty as Arthur Jensen, CEO, and newscaster Howard Beale's ultimate boss, instructing Beale about the primal economic forces of nature. You can watch it on YouTube but if you haven't seen it, watch the film first. The speech is even more impressive in context. 

Source: American Rhetoric Movie Speeches where you can read the entire speech. Impressive as it is even on paper, it's just not the same without Beatty's delivery.

Who Was Davis Roberts?

I recently watched the Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame film In A Lonely Place for the umpteenth time and noticed something that turned out to have an Alabama connection. Early in the 1950 movie Bogart is leaving a Los Angeles  police station just after dawn. He passes a florist shop where a young black man is hosing down the sidewalk before the store opens. Bogart has an exchange with him, and this time I thought the young actor looked familiar. 

So I looked the film up on the Internet Movie Database and there he was, "Flower Shop Employee" played by Davis Roberts in an uncredited role. I looked him up on Wikipedia and found--wait for it--he was born in Mobile, Alabama. His name at birth was Robert Alphonse Davis and the date was March 7, 1917. 

Davis was given the same name as his father; see below for more information on the elder Robert. The family appears in Mobile in the 1920 U.S. Census. Father Robert is 23 years old, a year older than his wife Clara May. Children listed were Robert Jr, age 2, Margret 1, and baby Clarice. By the 1930 census the family had moved to Chattanooga. Father Robert was not listed but more children were included: Robert (13), Marguerite (11), Clarice (10), Charles (7) and Warner (4). That last child was the only Tennessee native listed, so I presume the family moved from Mobile about 1926.

Sometime after 1930 the family moved again, this time to Chicago. The 1940 census only has Robert Jr., Charles, Marguerite and Clarice listed in the household. The mother and Warner are not included. According to one source, Davis graduated from Phillips High School in Chicago, where he edited the newspaper. Then he attended the University of Chicago and began performing with local theater groups. 

After serving in World War II and reaching the rank of first lieutenant, Davis made his way to Hollywood. He studied at the Actors' Lab Workshop there and in 1947 had his first film appearance, credited as Robert A. Davis, in The Long Night. Until the mid-1950's he made various uncredited appearances and some as Robert or Robert A. Davis. His name change must have occurred at that point. 

From 1947 until 1993 Roberts compiled a total of 134 acting credits, 50 of them in films. He also made two appearances in small roles on Broadway. That's why he seemed familiar in the Bogart movie; I've no doubt seen Roberts in some of those many roles.

Some of his films include Knock on Any Door (another Bogart), The Great White Hope, Sweet Bird of Youth, Westworld, and The Chase. He played "Farm Hand with Hoe" in God's Little Acre, "Maitre D" in The Killers, Dr. Elmo Adams in Hotel (a significant role I definitely remember). and Warner in The Demon Seed. 

Roberts had a similar variety of roles on television, beginning with an appearance in The Amos 'n Andy Show in 1951. Some of the shows included Peter Gunn, The Untouchables, The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, Mission Impossible, Kolchak, All in the Family, Dallas, and St. Elsewhere. One well-remembered role was Doc Carter in three episodes of Sanford and Son. Roberts specialized in bringing dignity to whatever part he played. You can see the full film and television list at the Internet Movie Database. 

Another aspect of Roberts' career involved work with various organizations and efforts often related to blacks in film and television. On August 13, 1967, he and a few other members of the NAACP Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch presented the first annual Image Awards to recognize significant work by blacks in film, television, music, literature, etc. A national broadcast of the awards ceremony began in 1994, and the 51st presentation took place on February 22, 2020. 

Roberts also served several terms on the Western Advisory Board of the Actors' Equity Association, which represented theatrical performers. He co-chaired the committee that secured a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for controversial singer and actor Paul Robeson.  

Davis Roberts' career was significant enough that obituaries appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. 

A few more comments are  below. 

Roberts in "The Money Machine" episode of Mission Impossible first broadcast 29 October 1967

Source: Wikipedia

Davis' World War II draft card

Source: Ancestry.com 

This World War I draft registration card for Robert Alphonse Davis,  Davis Roberts' father, gives us some interesting information. The elder Davis registered on June 5, 1917, just a few months after his son Robert Jr. was born. The father's birthday was October 20, 1894. The family lived at 22 Persimmon Street, and he worked for the Mobile County School Board at Barton Academy.  

Source: Ancestry.com 

Here's a screenshot from that brief scene with Roberts and Bogart in the film In a Lonely Place. The scene starts at about the 24 minute mark. 

Johnny Mack Brown's "Complete Surrender" to Clark Gable & Joan Crawford

Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown first gained fame as a football player at the University of Alabama. His talent in the sport in high school earned him a scholarship to play in Tuscaloosa, where he excelled as halfback on the 1924 and 1925 teams coached by Wallace Wade. In the 1926 Rose Bowl Brown scored two of Alabama's three touchdowns as the team defeated the heavily favored Washington Huskies. He was named the game's most valuable player and later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and the initial class of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

His success on the football field led to his portrayal on Wheaties cereal boxes and an offer of a Hollywood screen test. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him to a five-year contract; his film and television career lasted until 1966.

Brown played mostly minor roles in the early years. A big break came in 1928 and only his fourth film, the silent Our Dancing Daughters. He appeared opposite Joan Crawford, already a star by that time. In 1929 he appeared in Coquette, the first talkie for mega-star Mary Pickford. She won a best actress Oscar for the role. In the following year he played the title role in Billy the Kid.  Another 1930 western Montana Moon found him teamed again with Crawford.  

Based on these and several other high-profile, successful films Brown seemed poised for major stardom. A third film with Crawford proved to be his undoing as the leading man MGM wanted him to be. Bob Thomas, in his 1978 biography of Crawford, had this to say about that film: 

"Crawford had meanwhile starred in Complete Surrender as a cabaret dancer who is saved from suicide by a Salvation Army man, Johnny Mack Brown. After a preview audience failed to respond, Mayer ordered a complete remake with Gable in the Salvation Army role. Retitled Laughing Sinners, the movie proved a success." [p. 80]

At about this same time Brown tested for the role of Tarzan, but didn't get the part. Johnny Weissmuller did, and went on to great fame in the role. Brown left MGM and began making westerns exclusively for Universal and then Monogram. Most of these were low budget B-moves, but they made him famous. He retired in 1952, but returned to make a few more films and television shows before 1966. In all he made some 160 movies in his career.

Brown died on November 14, 1974, and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park  in Glendale, California. For some years in the 2007-2011 period Dothan hosted the Johnny Mack Brown Western Festival to honor its native son. 

Johnny Mack Brown in his Alabama football days

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Johnny Mack Brown in 1935

Source: Wikipedia

 Brown first appeared with Joan Crawford in the 1928 silent film Our Dancing Daughters. Also starring in the film is Birmingham native Dorothy Sebastian. You can read more about her on this blog post.

Source: Wikipedia

This 1930 film was one of Brown's earliest westerns and also starred Crawford and Sebastian.

Source: Wikipedia

Johnny Mack Brown performing in one of his many westerns. 

Source: Alabama Mosaic

From March 1950 until February 1959 Dell Comics published a title devoted to Johnny Mack Brown as western star.  

Alabama Natives on the Cover of TV Guide

I stumbled into the TV Guide magazine cover archive again recently and decided to look for some Alabama natives who have made one or more over the years. Here's what I found; comments are below the covers. Some of these individuals appeared on more covers than shown here.

TV Guide began national weekly publication in April 1953. I have limited these choices to people born in Alabama; I'm sure there are many with other Alabama connections. Maybe I'll do a post on some of them in the future. I've probably missed some Alabama natives, too. 

December 7, 1957

Well, a photo of actress Tallulah Bankhead didn't make this cover, but her name did! By this time Tallulah was famous for her stage, film and radio appearances.

September 25, 1976

Kate Jackson was born in Birmingham, but attended school in Mountain Brook. She started college at the University of Mississippi, and left before graduating to study acting in New York City. She has had a long career, especially in television. After a supporting role on The Rookies, she starred in two very successful programs, Charlie's Angels and Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

February 11, 1984

 

By 1988 Jackson had appeared on at least four more covers of TV Guide.

November 18, 1989

Courtney Cox is another Mountain Brook girl who grew up to become a well-known actress, especially for the television series Friends. She has appeared in numerous other TV programs and theatrical films.

 

June 8, 2002

July 25, 1970

Hiding behind the kid on the left and the piece of watermelon is George Lindsey, who played "Goober" Pyle on the Andy Griffith Show and its followup, Mayberry R.F.D. His character was a cousin of Gomer Pyle, played by another Alabama native Jim Nabors. For the record, we have a cat named Goober. 

March 21, 1964

Jim Nabors was born in Sylacauga in 1930. A few years after graduation from the University of Alabama, Nabors ended up performing an act in Los Angeles in which he could use his talents for both comedy and singing. He was soon discovered by Andy Griffith and made an appearance on the Andy Griffith Show as the character of Gomer Pyle. Intended very as a one-shot, the character turned out to be popular and became a regular. Nabors eventually moved the character to another very successful show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. 

November 21, 1964

September 20, 1969

Nabors' long career in entertainment has included television, films, touring stage productions, nightclub shows and the release of 28 albums featuring his rich baritone. Nabors has appeared on the cover of TV Guide at least eight times.