John Dehner Forkum (November 23, 1915February 4, 1992) was an American actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performance credits, often in roles as sophisticated con men, shady authority figures, and other smooth-talking villains. His credits just in feature films, televised series, and in made-for-TV movies number almost 300 productions.
Dehner worked extensively as a radio actor during the latter half of that medium's "golden age," accumulating hundreds of additional credits on nationally broadcast series. His most notable starring role was as Paladin on the radio version of the television Western Have Gun – Will Travel, which aired for 106 episodes on CBS from 1958 to 1960.
He continued to work as a voice actor in film, such as narrating the film The Hallelujah Trail. Earlier in his career, Dehner also worked briefly for Walt Disney Studios, serving as an assistant animator from 1940 to March 1941 at the company's facilities in Burbank, California. He appeared in Columbo episodes "Swan Song" (1974) with Johnny Cash, and as Commodore Otis Swanson in "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976). He appeared in a two-part episode of Mission: Impossible.
Early life Born in 1915 in New York City on Staten Island, John Dehner was the middle child of three children of Ella Susana (née Dehner) and Ralph LeRoy Forkum."United States Census, 1930", J. Dahner Forkum in household of Ella D. Forkum, Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester, New York, census date April 7, 1930; enumeration district 139, sheet 6A; National Archives Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C. Digital image of original census page retrieved via FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, January 4, 2022. Dehner's father was an accomplished artist who was widely recognized in the United States as a landscape painter, illustrator, and a specialist in painting "highly realistic" backgrounds for stage productions and later for animated features and shorts."Indian Melodies Presented", Motion Picture News (New York, N.Y.), June 11, 1921, p. 3553. Retrieved via Internet Archive, March 15, 2022. Dehner's mother was a gifted musician with artistic talents as well.Balch, David Arnold (1920). "R. L. and E. D. Forkum," New York Tribune (New York, N.Y.), February 1, 1920, p. D2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved April 29, 2022. Prior to the 1920s, Ella Forkum even collaborated with her husband on art projects and in some instances was co-credited for helping him to compose content for his drawings and paintings widely used in newspaper and magazine advertising. One example is a full-page advertisement in the March 18, 1917, issue of the Washington, D.C., newspaper Evening Star."Djer-Kiss", advertisement for French soap and credited at lower left to Ralph LeRoy Forkum and Ella Dehner Forkum, Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Sunday edition, March 18, 1917, p. 42. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Retrieved April 29, 2022. That ad is for Djer-Kiss, a very exclusive line of French perfumes and soaps. It depicts a highly stylized, fairytale-like scene of young women bathing beneath a waterfall. The artwork itself bears the attribution to both of Dehner's parents, to "R.L. + E.D. Forkum".
By the early 1920s, R. L. or "Roy" Forkum's growing artistic reputation earned him a commission that allowed him to take young Dehner and the rest of his family to live in Oslo, Norway while he produced illustrations for an elaborate publication celebrating the music of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.Minnette, Marcia. "Paladin Rides the Airwaves", TV Radio Mirror, March 1959, pp. 46–47, 80–81. Retrieved via Internet Archive, April 22, 2022. It was in Oslo that Dehner gained his first experiences performing publicly in musicales and school plays.Minnette, p. 80. Following the completion of his work on the Grieg project, Roy took Ella and the children for extended stays in Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, and finally in Paris, where for two and a half years in the French capital's suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine, Dehner and his two sisters, Amy and Alice, continued their education in public schools.
Schooling in France Dehner's studies in France expanded his interests in art, music, and theater, as well as in the sport of fencing, in which he demonstrated sufficient skills by his early teens to qualify as a "champion" competitor.John Dehner, Actor", obituary, "Washington Post", February 10, 1992, p. D4. Retrieved November 14, 2021 – via ProQuest Historical Newspapers, hereinafter cited "ProQuest"."Champion Fencer," news item about John Dehner, The Atlanta Constitution, September 23, 1951, p. 4F. ProQuest. In her interview with Dehner in 1959, Marcia Minnette, a reporter for the New York trade magazine TV-Radio Mirror, quotes the actor's recollections of attending French schools three decades earlier, in particular his reactions to the rigorous study and strict discipline demanded by his teachers: Living and studying in Europe "at a formative age" certainly expanded Dehner's knowledge of different cultures and languages. In addition to becoming fluent in Norwegian and French, he also spoke "some" Swedish, Spanish, German, and Italian. That broad knowledge of languages would prove to be very helpful later during his acting career, when Dehner's characters were required to speak with accents or to sprinkle their English dialogue with various foreign words and phrases.
Return to the United States from Europe While in France, Dehner's parents separated in Paris and on November 15, 1929, were granted a divorce there."Wife Divorces Artist / Abandonment Charged by Mrs. Ralph LeRoy Forkum in Paris", The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), November 15, 1929, p. 28. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.). Retrieved May 4, 2022. Ella Forkum soon returned to the United States with 14-year-old Dehner and his sisters and resettled in the Riverview Manor section of Hastings-on-Hudson, a village located approximately 20 miles north of midtown Manhattan, where Dehner's father resided separately. Between 1930 and 1932, "Dehner Forkum", his mother, and sisters were cited periodically in society columns in the New York Herald Tribune, which reported their attendance and personal performances at charity events, dances, music recitals, and plays presented in Hastings.Examples of the Forkums' performances at social events in Hastings can be found in "Hastings Art Exhibit Offers Rare Westchester Landscape Views" (see item regarding the Dehners' involvement in "three short plays"), New York Herald Tribune, April 6, 1930, p. F13; in "Club Affairs Engage Hastings; Literary and Choral Groups Meet", New York Herald Tribune, March 22, 1931, p. F8; and in "100 Music Club Members Attend Last Meeting of Season", New York Herald Tribune, May 31, 1931, p. F11. ProQuest."Hastings Plans Community Dance To Raise Funds for Relief Work", New York Herald Tribune, February 28, 1932, p. E2. ProQuest. In February 1932, as part of their high school's bicentennial celebration of George Washington's birthday, Dehner and his older sister Amy performed in Conway Cabal, a historical play written by one of their classmates. The siblings then acted the next month in an adaptation of the 1900 novel Monsieur Beaucaire, a production that won Hastings High School first prize in a regional competition for student plays."Charity Parties, Musicale and Tea Interest Residents of Hastings", New York Herald Tribune, March 20, 1932, p. 14. ProQuest.
After graduating from Hastings High School in June 1932,"Hastings", news item in the New York Herald Tribune announcing recent graduates from Hastings High School, including "Dehner Forkum", July 3, 1932, p. D3. ProQuest. Dehner enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art in Manhattan, evidently with intentions to pursue a career in art like his father, who soon relocated to California to continue painting and to work in set design and later drawing backgrounds and storyboards for animation projects being made by Walter Lantz, Walt Disney, and other producers."'Boy Meets Dog'", cartoon directed by Walter Lantz, "Ray" Forkum co-credited in review for animated short's backgrounds, The Film Daily, March 16, 1938, p. 6. Retrieved via Internet Archive, March 18, 2022. Despite Dehner's early work in amateur stage productions and his natural talents and training as a painter and sculptor, he did not immediately embrace acting or studio art as a long-term profession.
University studies, 1935–1937 By the fall of 1934, Dehner and his sisters left New York with their mother and relocated to the West Coast, where Amy enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.Dehner's sister Amy Forkum mentioned as freshman at Berkeley in "Little Theater Cuts Disclosed", The Daily Californian (Berkeley, California), October 2, 1934, p. 1. Retrieved via HathiTrust Digital Library, May 5, 2022. The next year Dehner enrolled as well at Berkeley to continue his formal studies in fine arts.Minnette, pp. 80–81.John Dehner Forkum and sister Amy Mellicent Forkum listed in "Undergraduate Students/Departments at Berkeley" section, University of California Bulletin Published at Berkeley (April 1, 1936), volume 29, number 14, p. 252. Retrieved via HathiTrust, May 14, 2022. While at the university, he also gained more practical experience acting in campus stage productions and refining his musical talents by playing piano and composing arrangements for three local dance bands. Later school and military records indicate that he decided to leave Berkeley in the summer of 1937 after completing two years of study."United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946", John Dehner Forkum, enlisted March 5, 1941, Los Angeles, California; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938–1946", National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); College Park, Maryland. Retrieved March 14, 2022, via FamilySearch
Professional stage training Dehner left Berkeley at the end of his second year to return to New York City to try acting in professional stage productions. There he joined a troupe associated with the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT), where he obtained intensive training in the "system" of method acting established by Soviet theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski."John Dehner: Successful Actor With a 'Character'", Los Angeles Times, September 23, 1971, p. SG, A11. ProQuest. Years later, long after Dehner had established himself as a popular actor in films and on radio and television, he credited MAT for profoundly influencing his performance style, although it was a style that over time required him to adjust substantially his acting techniques in order to achieve widespread success with American audiences. In particular, he recognized Mikhail Chekov, a former student of Stanislavski and the leading consultant to the New York troupe, as being professionally "'the most important man in my career.'" The Los Angeles Times in a 1971 interview with Dehner recounted how his approach to acting evolved with his MAT training: