Glen Vernon (born Elmer Vernon, Jr., also known professionally as Glenn Vernon, October 27, 1923 – October 27, 1999) was an American actor.
Early life Vernon hailed from Fall River, Massachusetts, and joined his father Elmer Vernon's song-and-dance vaudeville act at the age of six.New York Herald Tribune, "Dad Said 'Vaudeville's a Goner'; Helped Son Win Film Success", Jan. 16, 1944, p. C3. The elder Vernon split up the act, studying accountancy while sending his son to New York to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Vernon, Jr. took various odd jobs while in New York. He recalled, "One of them was hustling film back and forth between a downtown exchange and a newsreel theater on upper Broadway." His first stage job was as a "Dancing Boy" in the George Abbott musical Best Foot Forward, under his real name of Elmer Vernon.Internet Broadway Database.
Career He soon became established as a reliable stage juvenile; in August 1942 he took a leading role in the road company of Max Gordon's Broadway production of Junior Miss. In 1943 he was recruited by Casey Robinson of RKO Radio Pictures to play a sensitive Russian soldier in the film Days of Glory. Signed to a term contract and rechristened "Glenn Vernon", he went on to play featured roles in dramas, comedies, and musicals, among them Youth Runs Wild, Step Lively,Those Endearing Young Charms, Bedlam, Riverboat Rhythm, and The Woman on the Beach. Vernon and his parents settled in Southern California.
The RKO studio often offered its own version of another studio's popular property. When Universal Pictures had Abbott and Costello, RKO's answer was Brown and Carney. In the musical-comedy field, Universal had Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan while Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. RKO teamed its popular young players Glenn Vernon and Marcy McGuire. This pairing resulted in two features, the second being Glenn Vernon's only leading role: a hapless jazz clarinetist who can't read music, in the Hollywood-themed feature Ding Dong Williams (filmed in 1945). The third Vernon-McGuire film was to be the Leon Errol feature Riverboat Rhythm, but McGuire objected to the size of her role. After McGuire angrily petitioned her bosses for her own starring vehicles, RKO released her from the payroll and dissolved the Vernon-McGuire series. RKO waited for almost a year for the public to forget the Vernon-McGuire team, and finally released Ding Dong Williams in the spring of 1946. Vernon recruited his Broadway co-star Joan Newton to replace McGuire in Riverboat Rhythm. Vernon and Newton were to co-star in a romantic comedy, Growing Pains,Personal letter from Glenn Vernon, 1945. which was never made.
When tycoon Howard Hughes bought the RKO studio, many of the resident contract players were dismissed; Vernon left the studio in 1947. He returned to the stage, playing in Los Angeles-area productions. He resumed his screen career as a freelance actor, mostly for the independent studios Republic, Monogram, and Lippert.
In 1949 the young actor married Ruth Heinen, who handled scripts at 20th Century-Fox.
In 1950, now billed as "Glen Vernon," he was a song-and-dance man in the vaudeville revue Hollywood Varieties and played a drunken wastrel in Lucky Losers with The Bowery Boys. His movie career never regained its wartime momentum, but he continued to play small roles in motion pictures and television. According to his son Jeff Vernon, "The acting, it took kind of a back seat because he had a family now. He wasn't getting quite as many roles because he was starting to get a little older; the juvenile look was kind of leaving. He started working for the West Coast advertising for the Hollywood Reporter. He had a really good position, but he met so many different people that the would still get offered little parts, and the Hollywood Reporter was cool with him going and doing little parts."Medeiros, Dan. Fall River Herald News (Fall River, MA), "Glen Vernon is in a classic Christmas film -- and he had a wonderful life", Dec. 21, 2021.
One of his fellow players from Ding Dong Williams, Tommy Noonan, remembered Vernon's calm screen demeanor and cast him as an Army chaplain in his 1959 production The Rookie. On television, he portrayed a bellboy in the 1961 episode "The Big Spender" of the television series Window on Main Street, starring Robert Young. He also made two brief appearances on the Perry Mason series (one as a ship steward, the other as a plainclothes detective).
In the 1980s and 1990s, Vernon was cast as quaint old men, in films (So I Married an Axe Murderer) and television (Doogie Howser, M.D.,The Golden Girls).
Today's audiences may recognize Glenn Vernon from a movie he never actually made: near the beginning of the famous RKO feature It's a Wonderful Life, when the pharmacist Mr. Gower gazes at a picture of his deceased son, it's a photo of Glenn Vernon. His son Jeff recalled, "At the time he didn't think much of it at all. He went, 'Yeah, well, okay, use my picture. I mean, who's even going to see it?'"Medeiros, 2021.
Death Vernon died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, from complications of a stroke, on October 27, 1999 – his 76th birthday.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1944 Days of Glory Mitya 1944 Marine Raiders Marine in Recording Booth Uncredited1944 Step Lively Bellboy Uncredited1944 Youth Runs Wild Frankie Hauser 1945 Those Endearing Young Charms Radioman 1st Class William Zantifar 1945 Mama Loves Papa Delivery Boy Uncredited1945 Sing Your Way Home Jimmy McCue 1946 Ding Dong Williams Ding Dong Williams leading role, filmed 19451946 Riverboat Rhythm John Beeler 1946 Bedlam The Gilded Boy 1946 The Bamboo Blonde Shorty Parker 1947 The Devil Thumbs a Ride Jack Kenny, Gas Station Attendant 1947 The Woman on the Beach Kirk 1948 Heart of Virginia Bud Landeen 1948 Beyond Glory Yearling in Mess Hall Uncredited1949 Impact Ed 1949 Sands of Iwo Jima Marine Uncredited1950 Hollywood Varieties Minstrel act with partner Eddie Ryan 1950 Lucky Losers Andrew Stone III 1951 Belle Le Grand Bellboy 1951 The Wild Blue Yonder Crewman Uncredited1952 The Rose Bowl Story Student Manager Uncredited1952 Flat Top Sailor Uncredited1952 Thunderbirds Driver Uncredited1953 The Stars Are Singing Bit Role Uncredited1956 Miracle in the Rain Master of Ceremonies Uncredited1958 I Bury the Living Stuart Drexel Uncredited1959 The Rookie Army Chaplain Uncredited1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's Reporter Uncredited1965 I Saw What You Did John Adams 1969 The Love God? Mayor Uncredited1974 Airport 1975 Passenger Uncredited1990 Spaced Invaders Old Guy #1 1993 So I Married an Axe Murderer Uncle Angus 1999 Eating L.A. Street Preacher
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