Addison Byron Owen Randall (May 12, 1906 in San Fernando, California

San Fernando, California

San Fernando is a city located in the San Fernando Valley, in northwestern region of Los Angeles, California, United States. The population was 23,645 at the 2010 census, up from 23,564 at the 2000 census.-History:...

 – July 16, 1945 in Canoga Park, California) was an American film actor, chiefly in Westerns

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

. He often used a pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 for his film work, chiefly "Jack Randall", though he also played roles as "Allen Byron" and "Byron Vance".

Film career

Randall began his career as a supporting actor and foil at RKO, but he left when Monogram Pictures

Monogram Pictures

Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...

 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. Many of Randall's early B-movies with Monogram feature him as a singing cowboy

Singing cowboy

A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films, popularized by many of the B-movies of the 1930s and 1940s...

, but his later roles were generally straight Western stories, and all were hampered by the low budgets typical of that studio. 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

Producers Releasing Corporation

Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more lower-end Hollywood film studios on Poverty Row from the late '30s to the mid-'40s. PRC, as it was commonly known, made low-budget B-movies for the lower-half of a double bill. A few of its films have gained a respectable reputation over the...

 were not up to the task. He died unexpectedly in 1945 while filming a serial

Serial (film)

Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, were short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction...

 called The Royal Mounted Rides Again

The Royal Mounted Rides Again

The Royal Mounted Rides Again was a Universal film serial. Adventure serials of this type were popular in the early days of cinema. The serial, often called cliffhangers, would show one episode per week, with an ending that would hide the outcome of an exciting event, sometimes ending with "tune...

for Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

, after a fall from a horse. 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

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 before falling.

Personal life

Addison Randall was born May 12, 1906 in San Fernando, California, and attended Kemper Military School

Kemper Military School

Kemper Military School & College was a private military school located in Boonville, Missouri. Kemper filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2002. The school's motto was "Nunquam Non Paratus" .-Early years under Frederick T. Kemper:...

 in Boonville, Missouri

Boonville, Missouri

This page is about the city in Missouri. For other communities of the same name, see Boonville Boonville is a city in Cooper County, Missouri, USA. The population was 8,202 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cooper County. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the American Civil...

. Randall's older brother Robert Livingston

Robert Livingston (actor)

Robert Livingston was an American film actor. He appeared in 135 films between 1921 and 1975.Often billed as "Bob Livingston," he was the original "Stony Brooke" in the "Three Mesquiteers" Western B-movie series, a role later played by John Wayne for eight films...

 (born Robert Edward Randall) was also an actor in Western films of the time. Addison Randall twice married and divorced actress Louise Stanley

Louise Stanley

Louise Stanley, born Louise Keyes , was an actress of the mid-20th century. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Keyes changed her name to Stanley when she decided to embark on an acting career...

, and he carried on a notorious affair with silent film actress Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks

Mary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...

. At the time of his death he was married to a second wife, actress Barbara Bennett

Barbara Bennett

Barbara Jane Bennett was an American silent film actress.Born into an acting family, she was the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison. Her sisters were actresses Constance and Joan Bennett.Bennett would never succeed to...

. Bennett was the lesser-known sister of actresses Constance Bennett

Constance Bennett

-Early life:She was born in New York City, the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison , a wealthy performer of English and Spanish ancestry...

 and Joan Bennett

Joan Bennett

Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...

, as well as the daughter of actor Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett (actor)

Richard Bennett was an American actor who became a stage and silent screen matinee idol over the early decades of the twentieth century.-Early Life:...

 and actress Adrienne Morrison

Adrienne Morrison

Mabel Adrienne Morrison was a semi-successful stage actress of the early 20th century. She married actor Richard Bennett, with whom she had three daughters who later would become actresses. She was the daughter of actress and actor Lewis Morrison. She appeared as Nat-u-ritch, the Indian squaw, in...

.

External links

at the Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...

.