John Larkin (April 11, 1912 â€" January 29, 1965) was an American
actor whose nearly 30-year career was capped by his 1950s portrayal of
two fictional criminal attorneys â€" Perry Mason on radio and Mike
Karr on television daytime drama The Edge of Night. After having acted
in an estimated 7,500 dramatic shows on radio, he devoted his final
decade to television and, from April 1962 to January 1965, was a key
member of the supporting cast in two prime-time series and made at
least twenty major guest-starring appearances in many of the top drama
series of the period.A native of the San Francisco Bay city of
Oakland, Larkin developed a distinctively resonant voice perfectly
suited to radio, the prime entertainment venue in American homes
during the Depression 1930s. By the latter part of the decade, when he
was in his mid-twenties, Larkin had worked for a number of stations,
including KCKN and WHB in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, where he
was an announcer and, later, in Chicago, where he became known for
versatility in performing announcing and hosting duties in addition to
acting in front of the microphone for numerous scripted shows,
including Vic and Sade, one of network radio's most popular programs
of the 1930s, and the one for which he received his first major credit
as a radio actor.He also played Frankie McGinnis in the 1935â€"41 NBC
radio soap opera Girl Alone, a role that included some singing. An
item in Movie Radio Guide noted, "when the script calls for Frankie to
sing, John Larkin does his own singing."Following military service in
World War II, he established himself in the capital city of network
radio, New York and, having become one of the medium's top dramatic
voices, was offered, in 1947, the title role in CBS Radio Network's
three-and-a-half-year-old afternoon crime serial, Perry Mason which,
as was the case with all radio daytime dramas, consisted of an
11-minute script, broadcast Monday through Friday in a 15-minute time
slot, including commercials, promos and credits.
actor whose nearly 30-year career was capped by his 1950s portrayal of
two fictional criminal attorneys â€" Perry Mason on radio and Mike
Karr on television daytime drama The Edge of Night. After having acted
in an estimated 7,500 dramatic shows on radio, he devoted his final
decade to television and, from April 1962 to January 1965, was a key
member of the supporting cast in two prime-time series and made at
least twenty major guest-starring appearances in many of the top drama
series of the period.A native of the San Francisco Bay city of
Oakland, Larkin developed a distinctively resonant voice perfectly
suited to radio, the prime entertainment venue in American homes
during the Depression 1930s. By the latter part of the decade, when he
was in his mid-twenties, Larkin had worked for a number of stations,
including KCKN and WHB in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, where he
was an announcer and, later, in Chicago, where he became known for
versatility in performing announcing and hosting duties in addition to
acting in front of the microphone for numerous scripted shows,
including Vic and Sade, one of network radio's most popular programs
of the 1930s, and the one for which he received his first major credit
as a radio actor.He also played Frankie McGinnis in the 1935â€"41 NBC
radio soap opera Girl Alone, a role that included some singing. An
item in Movie Radio Guide noted, "when the script calls for Frankie to
sing, John Larkin does his own singing."Following military service in
World War II, he established himself in the capital city of network
radio, New York and, having become one of the medium's top dramatic
voices, was offered, in 1947, the title role in CBS Radio Network's
three-and-a-half-year-old afternoon crime serial, Perry Mason which,
as was the case with all radio daytime dramas, consisted of an
11-minute script, broadcast Monday through Friday in a 15-minute time
slot, including commercials, promos and credits.
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.