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A handsome, often-mustachioed silent screen villain, J. Frank Glendon (born Jonathan Frank Glendon) graduated from Montana's Wesleyan University prior to entering a stage career in the early 1910s. By 1915, he was co-starring at Vitagraph in Los Angeles and later became a member of the Lois Weber stock company (What Do Men Want?, 1921). Glendon's acting career waned in the early '20s when he co-produced and co-starred (with stuntwoman Marilyn Mills) in a couple of inexpensive Westerns: Tricks (released 1925) and Three Pals (released 1929). In 1935 he co-directed, with stunt expert Yakima Canutt, rodeo champion roper Montie Montana's failed claim to B-Western stardom, Circle of Death, but is today better remembered for playing the villainous Professor Beetson in the Gene Autry serial The Phantom Empire.