Addison Byron Owen Randall (May 12, 1906 – July 16, 1945) was an American film actor, chiefly in Westerns. He often used a pseudonym for his film work, chiefly Jack Randall, and he played roles as Allen Byron and Byron Vance.
Early life
Randall was born May 12, 1906, in San Fernando, California as Addison Byron Owen Randall. He attended Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri. The reference book Who's Who in Hollywood gives Randall's place of birth as Quincy, Illinois.
Film career
Randall began his career as a supporting actor and foil at RKO, but he left when Monogram Pictures promised him the chance to star in films. They were true to their word, and he appeared in a series of Western films through the 1930s and 1940s. (In 1935, he actually played a star of Westerns in RKO's Another Face, released in 1935.)
Many of Randall's early B-movies with Monogram feature him as a singing cowboy, but his later roles were generally straight Western stories, and all were hampered by the low budgets typical of this studio. Many of his cowboy characters were named "Jack". His older brother Robert Livingston (born Robert Edward Randall) was also an actor in Western films of the time.
Randall adopted his new "Allen Byron" identity in the 1940s in an effort to boost his fading professional fortunes, but the roles he received with new studio Producers Releasing Corporation were not up to the task.
Death
He died unexpectedly in 1945 while filming a serial called The Royal Mounted Rides Again for Universal Studios, after a fall from a horse at Canoga Park, California, in which he struck a tree. Some sources attribute his death to injuries sustained during the fall, which in those versions resulted from an attempt to recover a hat he had dropped, while others state that he suffered a fatal heart attack before falling. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in the Garden of Memory, near his older brother, Robert Livingston.
Personal life
Randall twice married and divorced actress Louise Stanley, and carried on an affair with former silent film actress Louise Brooks. At the time of his death, he was married to his second wife, actress Barbara Bennett, sister of actresses Constance Bennett and Joan Bennett.
Partial filmography
His Family Tree (1935) as Mike Donovan
Another Face (1935) as Tex Williams
Two in the Dark (1936) as Duke Reed
Love on a Bet (1936) as Jackson
Mariners of the Sky (1936) aka Navy Born as Lt. Tex Jones
Don't Turn 'Em Loose (1936) as Al - Henchman
Red Lights Ahead (1936) as Nordingham
Flying Hostess (1936) as Earl Spencer
Danger Valley (1937) as Jack Bruce
Stars Over Arizona (1937) as Jack Dawson
Riders of the Dawn (1937) as Marshal Josh Preston
Blazing Barriers (1937) as Arthur Forsythe
Wild Horse Canyon (1938) as Jack Gray
Gun Packer (1938) as Jack Denton
The Mexicali Kid (1938) as Jack Wood
Man's Country (1938) as Jack Haid
Gunsmoke Trail (1938) as Jack Lane
Land of Fighting Men (1938) as Jack Lambert
Where the West Begins (1938) as Jack Manning
Overland Mail (1939) as Jack Mason
Oklahoma Terror (1939) as Jack Ridgley
Across the Plains (1939) as Jack Winters, Cherokee
Trigger Smith (1939) as Jack 'Trigger' Smith aka Arizona Jones
Drifting Westward (1939) as Jack Martin
Riders from Nowhere (1940) as Jack Rankin
Wild Horse Range (1940) as Jack Wallace
The Kid from Santa Fe (1940) as Santa Fe Kid
Land of the Six Guns (1940) as Jack Rowan
Covered Wagon Trails (1940) as Jack Cameron
The Cheyenne Kid (1940) as The Cheyenne Kid
Pioneer Days (1940) as Jack Dunham
High Explosive (1943) as Joe
Girls in Chains (1943) as Johnny Moon
Danger! Women at Work (1943) as Danny
Cry 'Havoc' (1943) as Lt. Thomas Holt
References
External links
1906 births
1945 deaths
Male Western (genre) film actors
American male film actors
People from San Fernando, California
Male actors from California
20th-century American male actors
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)