Stanislas Pascal Franchot Tone (1905-1968)
Movie and stage actor with multiple marriages and a rather colorful personal life. Named "Stanislas Pascal Frachot" after his maternal grandfather.
An obituary summarizes things:
Franchot Tone, 63, Dies; Suave Star of Films, Plays
Franchot Tone, 63, long a star of Broadway and Hollywood, died at 11 a.m. yesterday in his apartment at 158 E. 62d St.
His death was attributed to lung cancer, for which he had been under treatment for some time. With him when he died was his younger son, Thomas Jefferson Tone, 23.
The body will be at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, Madison Ave. at 81st St., from noon today to noon tomorrow. Private services will be held tomorrow afternoon.
Famed for his "perfect gentleman" movie roles, Tone was also notorious for his off-screen brawls, stormy marriages explosive love affairs and feuds with Hollywood columnists. His four wives were screen star Joan Crawford and bosomy blonde actresses Jean Wallace, Barbara Payton, and Dolores Dorn-Heft. All his marriages ended in divorce.
Son of Millionaire
Born Feb. 27, 1905, in Niagara Falls, he was the son of millionaire scientist Frank Jerome Tone, president of the Carborundum Co. of America. Franchot was educated at the exclusive Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and Cornell University, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa.
He began his actin career in 1928 at the New Playwrights Theater in Greenwich Village. The following year, he made his Broadway debut. He later appeared on Broadway with such stars as Katherine Cornell, Sylvia Sidney and Peggy Shannon.
In 1931 he went to Hollywood, where he was billed as the "millionaire actor." He married Joan Crawford, already an established star, in 1935. They were divorced three years later.
His next marriage, to curvy Jean Wallace, produced two sons, Pascal, 25, and Thomas.
After Tone and Jean split, they fought a bitter custody battle over the two boys. Then he fell for buxom Barbara Payton and lost a slugging match to her other suitor, ex-boxer Tom Neal. Less than two months after Franchot wed Barbara in 1951 he filed for his third divorce.
His fourth matrimonial ven ture, with Dolores Dorn-Heft, be gan secretly in 1956 and ended with a Mexican decree in 1959.
- Parents: Frank Jerome Tone (1868-1945), Gertrude V. V. Franchot (1876-1953)
- Spouse:
- Siblings: Frank Jerome Tone (1901-1978)
- Children: Thomas J. Tone (1945-2005)