Barbara Payton
Encyclopedia
Barbara Payton was an American film actress best known for her stormy social life and eventual battles with alcohol
and drug addiction. Her life has been the subject of several books including Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story (2007), by John O'Dowd, and L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes and Bad Times (2005), by John Gilmore
.
, the daughter of Erwin Lee ("Flip") Redfield and Mabel Irene Todahl who were Norwegian immigrants. A son, Frank Leslie III was born in 1931 and in 1938, the family moved to Odessa, Texas
. With financial assistance from his sister, Payton’s father was able to start his own business, a court of tourist cabins, “Antlers Court,” anticipating it would turn out to be a profitable enterprise in a city like Odessa whose population was booming due to the oil business. By various accounts, Payton’s father was a hard-working but difficult man, emotionally closed off, slow to express himself but quick to temper. His interaction with his children was minimal and child-rearing responsibilities were left to his wife Mabel who occupied herself with her homemaking duties and keeping problems out of her husband’s field of consciousness.
As Barbara was growing into maturity her good looks were also blossoming which garnered her attention. This type of attention was valued, even encouraged by her mother. Payton was known as a lively girl, willing to please and she learned early in life that she had a potent effect on the opposite sex.
In November 1943, the then sixteen-year-old eloped with her high school boyfriend William Hodge. The marriage seemingly amounted to nothing more than an act of impulsive, teen-age rebellion, and Payton didn't fight her parent's insistence that the marriage be annulled. A few months later, she quit high school in the eleventh grade. Her parents, who held to the belief that formal education wasn't mandatory for success in life, didn't object to their daughter leaving high school before obtaining a diploma.
In 1944, she met her second husband, a decorated combat pilot named John Payton, who at the time was stationed at Midland Air Base. The couple were married in 1945 and moved to Los Angeles where John enrolled at USC
under the G.I. Bill. It was still early in their marriage that Barbara, restless and feeling confined by her life as a housewife, expressed a desire to pursue a modeling or acting career.
Payton officially launched her modeling path by hiring the services of a local photographer who shot photos of her sporting fashionable outfits. This portfolio attracted the favorable attention of a clothing designer, Saba of California, who signed her to a contract modeling a line of junior fashion. Her career progressed and in September 1947, the Rita La Roy Agency in Hollywood took her on as a client and brought her more work as a model in print advertising; notably in catalogs for Studebaker
cars.
During this period in her life, the couple welcomed their son, John Lee, who was born in February 1947. Payton managed to combine the responsibilities of wife, new mother and professional model, yet the strains on the Payton marriage finally reached the breaking point and Barbara and her husband separated in July 1948. Payton's drive, fueled by her high-energy personality, had become focused on promoting her career and showcasing her beauty around the town’s hot spots. Her notoriety as a luminous, fun loving party girl in the Hollywood club scene ignited the attention of William Goetz, an executive of Universal Studios. In January 1949, he signed her, age twenty-one, to a contract with a starting salary of $100 per week.
Trapped
, co-starring Lloyd Bridges
. In 1950, she was given the opportunity to make a screen test for John Huston
's production of the forthcoming MGM crime drama The Asphalt Jungle
. She wasn't chosen and the part of the sultry mistress of a mob connected lawyer went to Marilyn Monroe
.
After being screen-tested by James Cagney
and his producer brother William, Payton starred with Cagney in the violent noir thriller Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in 1950. William Cagney was so smitten with Payton's sensual appeal and beauty that her contract was drawn as a joint agreement between William Cagney Productions and Warner Bros.
who together saw fit to bestow on Payton a salary of $5,000 a week; a large sum for an actress yet to demonstrate star power at the box-office.
For a relative newcomer, in "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", Payton more than managed to hold her own among a cast of Hollywood veterans and alongside a super-star like Cagney himself. Her portrayal of the hardened, seductive girlfriend, whom Cagney’s character ultimately double-crosses, was critically praised in newspaper reviews of the movie. Her acting skills were recognized and her significant screen charisma widely acknowledged. “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” was the highpoint in Payton’s career, the moment in time she was christened as a player with bonafide star power.
Her other screen appearances opposite Gary Cooper
in Dallas
, and Gregory Peck
in Only the Valiant
, were lackluster productions where her roles were no more than window dressing for the hero and did little to highlight her skills as an actress. Payton's career decline began with the 1951 horror film Bride of the Gorilla
, co-starring Raymond Burr
.
Over time, her very public displays of excess partying, drinking and liaisons with men of dubious reputation, tarnished her credibility as an actress on a serious career track, and ultimately alienated the very Hollywood power brokers whose good will she needed to court in order to have a viable movie career. Through it all however, Payton held to a child-like belief in her Hollywood stardom, which in her mind had never faded. She was unable to acknowledge that her once promising career had crashed and burned, never to be resurrected.
, Bob Hope
, Woody Strode
, Guy Madison
, George Raft
, John Ireland
, Steve Cochran
, and Texas oilman Bob Neal, Payton was married four times as follows:
In 1950, Franchot Tone met Payton at Ciro’s nightclub, where she grabbed center stage dancing in a Charleston contest and won first prize. For Tone, the sparks flew immediately and Payton was able to captivate Tone with their first introduction to each other.
In 1951 while engaged to actor Franchot Tone
, Payton began having an affair with B-movie
actor Tom Neal
. She soon went back and forth publicly between Neal and Tone. Eventually Neal, a former college boxer, physically attacked Tone at Payton's apartment leaving him in an 18-hour coma
with a smashed cheekbone, broken nose and concussion. The incident garnered huge publicity and Payton decided to honor her engagement to Tone.
After being married to Tone for 53 days, she walked out on Tone and returned to Neal. The Payton/Neal relationship, essentially ending their Hollywood film careers, lasted four years. During that time the couple capitalized on the notorious press coverage by touring in plays such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, based on the popular 1946 film
of the same name. They would star together in The Great Jesse James Raid, a B-movie western barely released to theaters in 1953.
for prostitution
.
In 1963, she was paid $1,000 for her ghost-written autobiography, I Am Not Ashamed, which included unflattering photographs taken of her at the time. In the book, Payton admitted to being forced to sleep on bus benches and suffering regular beatings as a prostitute.
In 1967, ill and seeking refuge from her turbulent circumstances, she moved back to San Diego, California
, to live with her parents. On May 8, 1967, Payton died at her parents' home of heart and liver failure
.
Payton was cremated and is interred at Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory in San Diego, California.
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
and drug addiction. Her life has been the subject of several books including Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story (2007), by John O'Dowd, and L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes and Bad Times (2005), by John Gilmore
John Gilmore (writer)
John "Jonathan" Gilmore is an American author and gonzo journalist known for iconoclastic Hollywood memoirs, true crime literature and hard-boiled fiction. A motion picture, television and stage actor in Los Angeles and New York in the 1950s, his friends including James Dean and Marilyn Monroe...
.
Early life
Payton was born Barbara Lee Redfield in Cloquet, MinnesotaCloquet, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 11,201 people, 4,636 households, and 2,967 families residing in the city. The population density was 317.9 people per square mile . There were 4,805 housing units at an average density of 136.4 per square mile...
, the daughter of Erwin Lee ("Flip") Redfield and Mabel Irene Todahl who were Norwegian immigrants. A son, Frank Leslie III was born in 1931 and in 1938, the family moved to Odessa, Texas
Odessa, Texas
Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 99,940 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan...
. With financial assistance from his sister, Payton’s father was able to start his own business, a court of tourist cabins, “Antlers Court,” anticipating it would turn out to be a profitable enterprise in a city like Odessa whose population was booming due to the oil business. By various accounts, Payton’s father was a hard-working but difficult man, emotionally closed off, slow to express himself but quick to temper. His interaction with his children was minimal and child-rearing responsibilities were left to his wife Mabel who occupied herself with her homemaking duties and keeping problems out of her husband’s field of consciousness.
As Barbara was growing into maturity her good looks were also blossoming which garnered her attention. This type of attention was valued, even encouraged by her mother. Payton was known as a lively girl, willing to please and she learned early in life that she had a potent effect on the opposite sex.
In November 1943, the then sixteen-year-old eloped with her high school boyfriend William Hodge. The marriage seemingly amounted to nothing more than an act of impulsive, teen-age rebellion, and Payton didn't fight her parent's insistence that the marriage be annulled. A few months later, she quit high school in the eleventh grade. Her parents, who held to the belief that formal education wasn't mandatory for success in life, didn't object to their daughter leaving high school before obtaining a diploma.
In 1944, she met her second husband, a decorated combat pilot named John Payton, who at the time was stationed at Midland Air Base. The couple were married in 1945 and moved to Los Angeles where John enrolled at USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
under the G.I. Bill. It was still early in their marriage that Barbara, restless and feeling confined by her life as a housewife, expressed a desire to pursue a modeling or acting career.
Payton officially launched her modeling path by hiring the services of a local photographer who shot photos of her sporting fashionable outfits. This portfolio attracted the favorable attention of a clothing designer, Saba of California, who signed her to a contract modeling a line of junior fashion. Her career progressed and in September 1947, the Rita La Roy Agency in Hollywood took her on as a client and brought her more work as a model in print advertising; notably in catalogs for Studebaker
Studebaker
Studebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...
cars.
During this period in her life, the couple welcomed their son, John Lee, who was born in February 1947. Payton managed to combine the responsibilities of wife, new mother and professional model, yet the strains on the Payton marriage finally reached the breaking point and Barbara and her husband separated in July 1948. Payton's drive, fueled by her high-energy personality, had become focused on promoting her career and showcasing her beauty around the town’s hot spots. Her notoriety as a luminous, fun loving party girl in the Hollywood club scene ignited the attention of William Goetz, an executive of Universal Studios. In January 1949, he signed her, age twenty-one, to a contract with a starting salary of $100 per week.
Film career
Payton first gained notice in the 1949 film noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
Trapped
Trapped (1949 film)
Trapped is a semidocumentary film noir directed by Richard Fleischer, written by George Zuckerman and Earl Felton. The drama features Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, and others....
, co-starring Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...
. In 1950, she was given the opportunity to make a screen test for John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
's production of the forthcoming MGM crime drama The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 film noir directed by John Huston. The caper film is based on the novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett and stars an ensemble cast including Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, and, in a minor but key role, Marilyn Monroe, an unknown...
. She wasn't chosen and the part of the sultry mistress of a mob connected lawyer went to Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
.
After being screen-tested by James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
and his producer brother William, Payton starred with Cagney in the violent noir thriller Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in 1950. William Cagney was so smitten with Payton's sensual appeal and beauty that her contract was drawn as a joint agreement between William Cagney Productions and Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
who together saw fit to bestow on Payton a salary of $5,000 a week; a large sum for an actress yet to demonstrate star power at the box-office.
For a relative newcomer, in "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", Payton more than managed to hold her own among a cast of Hollywood veterans and alongside a super-star like Cagney himself. Her portrayal of the hardened, seductive girlfriend, whom Cagney’s character ultimately double-crosses, was critically praised in newspaper reviews of the movie. Her acting skills were recognized and her significant screen charisma widely acknowledged. “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” was the highpoint in Payton’s career, the moment in time she was christened as a player with bonafide star power.
Her other screen appearances opposite Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
in Dallas
Dallas (film)
Dallas is a 1950 American Western film starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Payton and Raymond Massey....
, and Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
in Only the Valiant
Only the Valiant
Only the Valiant is a 1951 western film produced by William Cagney , directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Gregory Peck and Barbara Payton. The screenplay was written by Edmund H...
, were lackluster productions where her roles were no more than window dressing for the hero and did little to highlight her skills as an actress. Payton's career decline began with the 1951 horror film Bride of the Gorilla
Bride of the Gorilla
Bride of the Gorilla is a 1951 B-movie film directed by Curt Siodmak and starring Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr. and Barbara Payton. The pre-release working title was The Face in the Water.-Plot:...
, co-starring Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
.
Over time, her very public displays of excess partying, drinking and liaisons with men of dubious reputation, tarnished her credibility as an actress on a serious career track, and ultimately alienated the very Hollywood power brokers whose good will she needed to court in order to have a viable movie career. Through it all however, Payton held to a child-like belief in her Hollywood stardom, which in her mind had never faded. She was unable to acknowledge that her once promising career had crashed and burned, never to be resurrected.
Personal life
In addition to affairs with Howard HughesHoward Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
, Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Woody Strode
Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
, Guy Madison
Guy Madison
Guy Madison was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Robert Ozell Moseley in Pumpkin Center, California, Madison attended Bakersfield College, a junior college, for two years and then worked briefly as a telephone lineman before joining the United States Coast Guard in...
, George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
, John Ireland
John Ireland (actor)
John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...
, Steve Cochran
Steve Cochran
Steve Cochran was an American film, television, and stage actor, the son of a California lumberman. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1939...
, and Texas oilman Bob Neal, Payton was married four times as follows:
- William Hodge: married 1943; marriage annulled
- John Payton, Jr. (United States Air ForceUnited States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
pilot): married 1945; divorced 1950; one child, John Lee Payton, born 1947 - Franchot ToneFranchot ToneFranchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
(actor): married 1951; divorced 1952 - George A. Provas (a.k.a. Tony Provas): married 1957; divorced 1958
In 1950, Franchot Tone met Payton at Ciro’s nightclub, where she grabbed center stage dancing in a Charleston contest and won first prize. For Tone, the sparks flew immediately and Payton was able to captivate Tone with their first introduction to each other.
In 1951 while engaged to actor Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
, Payton began having an affair with B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
actor Tom Neal
Tom Neal
Thomas Neal was an American actor best known for appearing in the critically lauded film Detour, a tryst with Barbara Payton and later committing manslaughter.-Career:...
. She soon went back and forth publicly between Neal and Tone. Eventually Neal, a former college boxer, physically attacked Tone at Payton's apartment leaving him in an 18-hour coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
with a smashed cheekbone, broken nose and concussion. The incident garnered huge publicity and Payton decided to honor her engagement to Tone.
After being married to Tone for 53 days, she walked out on Tone and returned to Neal. The Payton/Neal relationship, essentially ending their Hollywood film careers, lasted four years. During that time the couple capitalized on the notorious press coverage by touring in plays such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, based on the popular 1946 film
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946 film)
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1946 drama-film noir based on the 1934 novel of the same name by James M. Cain. This adaptation of the novel is the best known, featuring Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames, and Audrey Totter...
of the same name. They would star together in The Great Jesse James Raid, a B-movie western barely released to theaters in 1953.
Later years and death
Payton's hard drinking and hard living ultimately had a decimating effect on her once enviable beauty, destroying her both physically and emotionally. From 1955 to 1963, her growing alcoholism and drug abuse led to multiple skirmishes with the law including the passing of bad checks and eventually an arrest on Sunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
for prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
In 1963, she was paid $1,000 for her ghost-written autobiography, I Am Not Ashamed, which included unflattering photographs taken of her at the time. In the book, Payton admitted to being forced to sleep on bus benches and suffering regular beatings as a prostitute.
In 1967, ill and seeking refuge from her turbulent circumstances, she moved back to San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, to live with her parents. On May 8, 1967, Payton died at her parents' home of heart and liver failure
Liver failure
Acute liver failure is the appearance of severe complications rapidly after the first signs of liver disease , and indicates that the liver has sustained severe damage . The complications are hepatic encephalopathy and impaired protein synthesis...
.
Payton was cremated and is interred at Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory in San Diego, California.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Silver Butte | Rita Landon | |
| 1949 | Once More, My Darling | Girl Photographer | Uncredited |
| 1949 | Trapped Trapped (1949 film) Trapped is a semidocumentary film noir directed by Richard Fleischer, written by George Zuckerman and Earl Felton. The drama features Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt, and others.... |
Meg Dixon | |
| 1949 | The Pecos Pistol | Kay McCormick | |
| 1950 | Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye | Holiday Carleton | |
| 1950 | Dallas Dallas (film) Dallas is a 1950 American Western film starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Payton and Raymond Massey.... |
Flo | |
| 1951 | Only the Valiant Only the Valiant Only the Valiant is a 1951 western film produced by William Cagney , directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Gregory Peck and Barbara Payton. The screenplay was written by Edmund H... |
Cathy Eversham | |
| 1951 | Drums in the Deep South | Kathy Summers | |
| 1951 | Bride of the Gorilla Bride of the Gorilla Bride of the Gorilla is a 1951 B-movie film directed by Curt Siodmak and starring Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr. and Barbara Payton. The pre-release working title was The Face in the Water.-Plot:... |
Mrs. Dina Van Gelder | |
| 1953 | Four Sided Triangle Four Sided Triangle Four Sided Triangle is a 1953 British science-fiction film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Film Productions.The film dealt with the moral and scientific themes that were soon to put Hammer Films on the map with the same director's The Curse of Frankenstein... |
Lena/Helen | Alternative title: The Monster and the Woman |
| 1953 | Run for the Hills | Jane Johnson | |
| 1953 | The Great Jesse James Raid | Kate | |
| 1953 | Bad Blonde | Lorna Vecchi | |
| 1955 | Murder Is My Beat | Eden Lane | |
| 1963 | 4 for Texas 4 for Texas 4 for Texas is a 1963 American western comedy starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Anita Ekberg, Ursula Andress, and featuring screen thugs Charles Bronson and Mike Mazurki, with a cameo appearance by the Three Stooges... |
Town citizen | Uncredited |
External links
- CONELRAD production history of Barbara Payton's film Run for the Hills
- John O'Dowd Presents: Hollywood Starlet Barbara Payton Includes info on 2007 biography.
- Preview on Barbara Payton: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
- Story of Neal and Tone fight at Formosa Cafe
- Bob Hope: The Road to Bed in TimesOnline