Ralph Byrd

Infobox actor
name = Ralph Byrd
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birthdate = birth date|1909|4|22|df=y
birthplace = Flagicon|USA Dayton, Ohio, United States
deathdate = death date and age|1952|8|18|1909|4|22|df=y
deathplace = Flagicon|USA Tarzana, California, United States
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spouse = Virginia Carroll
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notable role = Dick Tracy
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Ralph Byrd (22 April 1909 - 18 August 1952) was an American actor. He was most famous for playing the comic strip character Dick Tracy on screen, in serials, movies and television.

Early life and career

Byrd was a good, all-purpose actor with a gift for delivering dialogue in a natural, ingratiating way. Once established in Republic Pictures' Dick Tracy serials (beginning in 1937), he was usually cast in action features (as a truck driver, lumberjack, cowboy, etc.), despite not having the usual brawny frame that went with these roles. He had a strong, resolute jaw, however, which gave him a heroic presence.

Dick Tracy

Republic cast Byrd as Chester Gould's comic-strip detective Dick Tracy in the 1937 serial of the same name. The film was so successful that it spawned three sequels (unheard of in serials): "Dick Tracy Returns", "Dick Tracy's G-Men" (featuring a young Jennifer Jones, under her real name of Phylis Isley), and "Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc." (reissued in 1952 as "Dick Tracy vs. Phantom Empire").

RKO Radio Pictures made a feature film, "Dick Tracy", in 1945, but not with Ralph Byrd (see the Wikipedia entry for Morgan Conway). After two films, exhibitors complained. To them, Ralph Byrd "was" Dick Tracy, and only Ralph Byrd would do. RKO accepted this and hired Byrd to finish the series. "Dick Tracy's Dilemma" and "Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome" (with Boris Karloff as Gruesome) were both released in 1947.

Later life and death

Ralph Byrd's screen characters could be breezy and affable, or tough and authoritative as the role required. Yet he is most often remembered for one comic-strip role, which he played in four serials, two feature films, and a television series that he did not survive. (It was so cheaply and quickly made by slave-driving producers that the strenuous filming is said to have killed him).

In these respects Byrd closely paralleled screen actor George Reeves (who portrayed Superman): he had the same rock-like jaw, the same acting versatility, the same pleasant personality, the same audience identification with a comic-book hero, and the same untimely death following his TV series' completion. Interestingly, Reeves and Byrd were teamed for two low-budget action thrillers in 1948, "Thunder in the Pines" and "Jungle Goddess".

External links

*imdb name|id=0126049|name=Ralph Byrd
*amg name|id=2:9254|name=Ralph Byrd
* [http://www.serialexperience.com/showarticle.php?fldRecNum=256 Ralph Byrd Article] at [http://www.serialexperience.com/ Todd Gault's Serial Experience]

Persondata
NAME = Byrd, Ralph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Actor
DATE OF BIRTH = 22 April, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH = Dayton, Ohio, United States
DATE OF DEATH = 18 August, 1952
PLACE OF DEATH = Tarzana, California, United States