FRANCHOT TONE: The “Millionaire” Star

Briefly married, Franchot Tone appeared opposite Joan Crawford in seven pictures, often as the “other man,” including the pre-Code romantic drama SADIE McKEE (1934)
Clark Gable and Franchot Tone both display more than an avid interest in exotic Movita in the Oscar-winning classic MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)

Classic Images,
Issue Number 488,
February 2016

“[I] was the playboy, the white tie and tails, the elegant fellow with the good tailor. That was my movie image. But not for the theatre audience. They saw me as an actor.”

Few actors came off slicker or smoother than FRANCHOT TONE (1905-1968). A posh, meticulous, shaken-not-stirred representative of the silver screen, Tone’s slim, aloof, cultivated-looking actor managed to carve a four-decade niche on stage, film and TV armed with a martini-dry wit, indolent masculinity and elegant exterior. The pre-Code prototype of the penguin-suited playboy who usually lost the girl, his flawed characters often shared a similarly messy, scandalous private life. Nevertheless, Tone brought customary flair and aplomb to each of his roles opposite such 30’s female heavyweights as Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Loretta Young, Katharine Hepburn and one-time wife Joan Crawford.

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