Sunday, December 19, 2010

Celebrity Grave: Radio, Film, Stage & TV Actor Les Treymayne

Les Tremayne (16 April 1913 – 19 December 2003) was a radio, film, and television actor. Born Lester Tremayne in England, he moved with his family at the age four to Chicago, where he began in community theater. He danced as a vaudeville performer and worked as amusement park barker. He began working in radio when he was 17 years old.[1][2]

Radio

On radio during the 1930s and 1940s, Tremayne was heard in as many as 45 shows a week. Replacing Don Ameche, he did The First Nighter Program from 1936 to 1942. He starred in The Adventures of the Thin Man and The Romance of Helen Trent during the 1940s. He also starred in the title role in The Falcon, and played detective Pat Abbott in The Abbott Mysteries in 1946-1947. Tremayne was married four times. He did a morning talk show, The Tremaynes with his second wife, Alice Reinhardt. When Tremayne died in 2003, he was married to his fourth wife, Joan.[1]

Film

His film credits include A Man Called Peter, The Racket, The War of The Worlds and North by Northwest.[1]

Television

Between 1974 and 1977, Tremayne appeared on the Saturday morning Shazam! television series based on the DC Comics superhero Captain Marvel. In the role of Mentor, Tremayne served as the literal mentor of the program's protagonist, young Billy Batson. He appeared in General Hospital as Edward Quartermaine, the oldest character in that series. He played the deceased Victor Lord for one month on One Life to Live during the 1987 Heaven storyline in which daughter Vicki Lord Buchanan was reunited with most every character that had died on the show after a heart attack left her in purgatory.

After doing more than 30,000 broadcasts, Tremayne was elected to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2003, Tremayne died of heart failure at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California at the age of 90.[1][2]

He was entombed in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.


References

1.^ IMDb
2.^ Mclellan, Dennis. "Les Tremayne, 90; Radio Icon’s Acting Career Ran 6 Decades," Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2003.

No comments:

Post a Comment