Men Of Character Character Actors
John Archer
Destination Moon/ Jim Barnes
White Heat/ Philip Evans
Colorado Territory/ Reno Blake
The Big Trees/ Frenchy Lecroix
Per Quinlan's Film Stars:
Big, squarely built American actor with crinkly, reddish brown hair and crooked grin, who came to Hollywood at 22 after winning a talent contest. Played a few leading roles in his thirties, but his features thickened rather quickly, and the impetus of his career was also somewhat disrupted by war service.
He was born Ralph Bowman in 1915 at Osceola, NE the son of Joseph Emmett and Eunice Melba Bowman.
Archer moved with his parents to California at age 5 and attended and graduated from Hollywood High School and the University of Southern California. At college he studied cinematography, hoping to work behind the camera.
He found work in the cinematographic field hard to come by. So he eventually drifted into acting. He worked at first as a radio announcer and a radio actor. He starred on on the radio as Lamont Cranston in The Shadow.
Archer also appeared on Broadway in The Day Before Spring as well as films for Universal and Republic using his original name.
In a radio contest sponsored by Jesse L. Lasky he won first prize which was an RKO film contract in the name of John Archer.
He film debut came in the year 1938 in the film Flaming Frontiers using the name Ralph Bowman. His television debut came in Your Show Time TV series in 1949.
Some of the film roles of John Archer were:
Flaming Frontiers (1938) as Tom Grant
Dick Tracy Returns (1938) as Mr. Clark
Overland Stage Raiders (1938) as Bob Whitney
Career (1939) as Ray Cruthers
Curtain Call (1940) as Ted Palmer
Barnyard Follies (1940) as Jeff Hill
Scatter Good Baines (1941) as Johnny Bones
Cheers For Miss Bishop (1941) as Richard Clark
City Of Missing Girls (1941) as James Horton
King Of The Zombies (1941) as Bill Summers
Paper Bullets (1941) as Bob Elliot
Mountain Moonlight (1941) as Dr. Ed
Hi Neighbor (1942) as Dr. Hall
Police Bullets (1942) as Prof. J. Thomas Quincy
Scatter Good Survives A Murder ( 1942) as Dunker Gilson
Bowery At Midnight (1942) as Richard Dennison
Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943) as Ned Clark
The Purple V (1943) as Jimmy Thorne
Sherlock Holmes In Washington (1943) as Naval Lt. Pete Merriam
Shantytown (1943) as Bill Allen
Crash Dive (1943) as Curly Bowman
Guadalcanal Diary ( 1943) as Lt. Thurman
The Eve Of St. mark (1944) as Pvt Carter
Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944) as FBI Agent Kerrigan
The Lost Moment (1947) as Charles
Colorado Territory (1949) as Reno Blake
White Heat (1949) as Philip Evans
Destination Moon (1950) as Jim Barnes
The Great Jewel Robber (1950) as Police Detective Lou Sampter
High Lonesome (1950) as Pat Farrell
Santa Fe (1951) as Clint Canfield
Best Of The Badmen (1951) as Curley Ringo
My Favorite Spy (1951) as Henderson
The Big Trees (1952) as Frency LeCroix
Rodeo (1952) as Slim martin
A Yank In Indo-China (1952) as Mulvaney
Sound Off (1952) as Major Paul Whiteside
Sea Tiger (1952) as Ben McGrun
The Stars Are Singing (1953) as Dave Parish
Dragon's Gold (1954) as Mack Rossiter
No Man's Woman (1955) as Harlow Grant
Rock Around The Clock (1956) as Mike Dodd
Emergency Hospital (1956) as Dr. Herb Ellis
Affair In Reno (1957) as Tony Lamarr
She Devil (1957) as Barton Kendall
Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957) as Bob Dudley
Decision At Sundown (1957) as Dr. John Storrow
City Of Fear (1959) as Lt. mark Richards
Blue Hawaii (1961) as Jack Kelman
Apache Rifles (1964) as Colonel Perry
I Saw What You Did ( 1965) as John Austin
How To Frame A Figg (1971) as Gerald
Thursday's Game (1974-TV) as Mr. Wood
Amelia Earhart (1976-TV) as Dr. Patterson
The Little Sister (1986) as Warehouse Cop
Mr. Archer was active on television appearing in such programs as Your Show Time, Fireside Theater, The Silver Theater, The Bigelow Theater, The Unexpected, Ford Television Theater, Mayor Of The Town, Armstrong Circle Theater, The Millionaire, The Loretta Young Show, Schlitz Playhouse Of Stars, TV Reader's Digest, Science Fiction Theater, Private Secretary,Code 3, The George Sanders Mystery Theater, The Silent Service, Zane Grey Theater, The Californians, The Bob Cummins Show, Broken Arrow, The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet, Mackenzie's Raiders, State Trooper, Mike Hammer, Bat Masterson, Laramie, M Squad, Riverboat, Colt 45, Cheyenne, Lock Up, Sea Hunt, The Tall Man, Coronado 9, Twilight Zone, Tales Of Wells Fargo, Hawaiian Eye, Wagon Train, Hazel, McHale's Navy, Perry Mason, The Virginian, Batman, Lassie, Bonanza, Mannix, The Name Of The Game, Ironside, Colombo and 77 Sunset Strip among others.
He appeared five times on the Perry Mason TV series: Frank Maddox in The Case Of The Sleepwalkers Niece, Major Frank Lessing in The Case Of The Sardonic Sergeant, J R Bradbury in The Case of The Lucky Legs , Burt Farwell in The Case Of The Red Riding Boots and Harry Arnold in The Case Of The Candy Queen.
Archer also made six guest appearances on Bonanza and seven guest appearances on Lassie.
Mr. Archer was married twice. He was married from 1941 to 1953 to actress Marjorie Lord and they had two children. One of the children from this union was actress Anne Archer.
He was married to his second wife, Ann Leddy from 1956 until his death. This marriage also produced two offspring.
John Archer passed away in 1999 at age 84 from lung cancer.
I enjoyed Mr. Archer in the films White Heat, Destination Moon, The Big Trees, Santa Fe, Colorado Territory, Guadacanal Diary, Bowery At Midnight, Decision At Sundown and Apache Rifles.
Louie The Movie Buff