Addison Randall

Active - 1933 - 1943  |   Born - May 12, 1906   |   Died - Jul 16, 1945   |   Genres - Western, Romance, Drama

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Biography by AllMovie

A man of many names, Addison Randall was born Addison Byron Owen Randall and would later appear as both Jack Randall and Allen Byron. Behind all these monikers was a handsome gent whom one reviewer found to possess a "Gary Cooper chassis with a Robert Taylor face." Oddly, even in addition to a pleasant singing voice, these attributes just weren't enough to assure success and Randall spent most of his career toiling in low-budget B-Westerns for Monogram. Having followed his better-known brother Robert Livingston into films in the very early '30s, Addison Randall earned a player's contract with RKO in 1936. That studio, however, wasted him in "other man" roles and he bolted when Monogram offered to star him in his own Western series. As Jack Randall, the new Western hero joined the ever-increasing legion of singing cowboys but when the studio inherited Tex Ritter from the bankrupt Grand National, the Randall series lost its musical elements and became standard oaters; they were good, solid B-Westerns but without anything to lift them above the ordinary. By 1940, Randall was rather better known for marrying B-Western heroine Louise Stanley twice, for carrying on a torrid affair with silent screen star Louise Brooks, and as the new husband of Barbara Bennett, the lesser-known sister of Constance Bennett and Joan Bennett. In an attempt to jumpstart a faltering career, Randall changed his name once again, to Allen Byron, but the resulting supporting roles at low-class PRC was hardly encouraging. He was Addison (Jack) Randall when tragically killed during the filming of the Universal serial The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945). One report had Randall killed in a fall after suffering a heart attack, while another claimed the fatal plunge took place as he attempted to retrieve his hat.

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