Glen Vernon (October 27, 1923 â€" October 27, 1999) was an American
actor.Born Glenn Vernon in Fall River, Massachusetts, Vernon pursued a
dramatic career upon graduation from high school. By 1944 he was
established as a Broadway juvenile, and he was recruited by RKO
Pictures to play a sensitive Russian soldier in the film Days of
Glory. Signed to a term contract, Vernon went on to play featured
roles in dramas, comedies, and musicals, among them Youth Runs Wild,
Those Endearing Young Charms, Bedlam, Riverboat Rhythm, and The Woman
on the Beach. Vernon usually underplayed his roles, lending his
portrayals a natural charm.The RKO studio often offered its own
version of another studio's popular property. When Universal Pictures
had Abbott and Costello, RKO's answer was Brown and Carney. In the
musical-comedy field, Universal had Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan
while Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. RKO
teamed its popular young players Glenn Vernon and Marcy McGuire. This
pairing resulted in two features, the second being Glenn Vernon's only
leading role: a hapless jazz clarinetist who can't read music, in the
Hollywood-themed feature Ding Dong Williams (filmed in 1945). After
McGuire angrily petitioned her bosses for her own starring vehicles,
RKO released her from the payroll and dissolved the Vernon-McGuire
series. RKO waited for almost a year for the public to forget the
Vernon-McGuire team, and finally released Ding Dong Williams in the
spring of 1946.When tycoon Howard Hughes bought the RKO studio, many
of the resident contract players were dismissed; Vernon left the
studio in 1947. He returned to the stage, playing in Los Angeles-area
productions. He made a brief screen comeback in 1950, now billed as
"Glen Vernon," as a song-and-dance man in the vaudeville revue
Hollywood Varieties and as a drunken wastrel in Lucky Losers with The
Bowery Boys. His movie career never regained its wartime momentum, but
he continued to play small roles in motion pictures and television.
One of his fellow players from Ding Dong Williams, Tommy Noonan,
remembered Vernon's calm screen demeanor and cast him as an Army
chaplain in his 1959 production The Rookie. On television, he
portrayed a bellboy in the 1961 episode ""The Big Spender" of the
television series Window on Main Street, starring Robert Yound.
actor.Born Glenn Vernon in Fall River, Massachusetts, Vernon pursued a
dramatic career upon graduation from high school. By 1944 he was
established as a Broadway juvenile, and he was recruited by RKO
Pictures to play a sensitive Russian soldier in the film Days of
Glory. Signed to a term contract, Vernon went on to play featured
roles in dramas, comedies, and musicals, among them Youth Runs Wild,
Those Endearing Young Charms, Bedlam, Riverboat Rhythm, and The Woman
on the Beach. Vernon usually underplayed his roles, lending his
portrayals a natural charm.The RKO studio often offered its own
version of another studio's popular property. When Universal Pictures
had Abbott and Costello, RKO's answer was Brown and Carney. In the
musical-comedy field, Universal had Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan
while Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. RKO
teamed its popular young players Glenn Vernon and Marcy McGuire. This
pairing resulted in two features, the second being Glenn Vernon's only
leading role: a hapless jazz clarinetist who can't read music, in the
Hollywood-themed feature Ding Dong Williams (filmed in 1945). After
McGuire angrily petitioned her bosses for her own starring vehicles,
RKO released her from the payroll and dissolved the Vernon-McGuire
series. RKO waited for almost a year for the public to forget the
Vernon-McGuire team, and finally released Ding Dong Williams in the
spring of 1946.When tycoon Howard Hughes bought the RKO studio, many
of the resident contract players were dismissed; Vernon left the
studio in 1947. He returned to the stage, playing in Los Angeles-area
productions. He made a brief screen comeback in 1950, now billed as
"Glen Vernon," as a song-and-dance man in the vaudeville revue
Hollywood Varieties and as a drunken wastrel in Lucky Losers with The
Bowery Boys. His movie career never regained its wartime momentum, but
he continued to play small roles in motion pictures and television.
One of his fellow players from Ding Dong Williams, Tommy Noonan,
remembered Vernon's calm screen demeanor and cast him as an Army
chaplain in his 1959 production The Rookie. On television, he
portrayed a bellboy in the 1961 episode ""The Big Spender" of the
television series Window on Main Street, starring Robert Yound.
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