John Craven was an American actor, and the son of noted character actor Frank Craven

Frank Craven

Frank Craven was an American stage and film actor, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for originating the role of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town....

. He appeared in almost 50 films, numerous plays, and many TV roles, but was best remembered for originating the role of George Gibbs in the original stage version of Our Town

Our Town

Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...

, where his father played the role of the Stage Manager. Craven was overlooked in the movie version, however, with the part going to the then-unknown William Holden

William Holden

William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

.

Though born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 he attended Beverly Hills High School

Beverly Hills High School

Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...

, in the early 1930s. His stage family had a long history of alternating generations of men named John with subsequent generations of men named Frank.

External links

• Obituary in the New York Times