Franchot
Tone was born at Niagara Falls, on 18th
September, 1905. After an education at Cornell University, Tone joined
the Group Theatre, a company formed in
New York by Harold
Clurman and Lee Strasberg. He appeared
in Big Night and Success
Story, and Strasberg rated him the best actor in the company.
In November 1932, Tone moved to Hollywood. He appeared in over fifty
movies during the next fifteen years. By the late 1930s he was one
of Hollywood's leading actors and appeared in some notable successes,
including the Academy Award winning Mutiny
on the Bounty (1935) and the highly acclaimed, Five
Graves to Cairo (1943).
Like most former members of the Group Theatre,
Tone had difficulty making films in Hollywood during the 1950s. He
returned to the cinema with Advise and Consent
in 1962 and followed it with In Harm's Way
(1965) and Mickey One
(1965).
