John Boles

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia John Boles October 28 1895 February 27 1969 was an American singer and actor best known for playing Victor Moritz in the 1931 film Frankenstein He started out in Hollywood in silent movies but became a huge star with the advent of talkies After the war Boles moved to New York to study music He quickly became well known for his talents and was selected to replace the leading man in the 1923 Broadway musical Little Jesse James He became an established star on Broadway and attracted the attention of Hollywood producers and actors Boles Broadway credits include One Touch of Venus 1943 Kittys Kisses 1925 Mercenary Mary 1924 and Little Jessie James 1923 He was hired by MGM to appear in a silent film in 1924 He starred in two more films for that studio before returning to New York and the stage In 1927 he returned to Hollywood to star in The Love of Sunya 1927 opposite Gloria Swanson which was a big success for him Unfortunately because the movies were still silent he was unable to show off his singing ability until late in the decade In 1929 Warner Brothers hired him to star in their lavish musical operetta The Desert Song 1929 This film featured sequences in Technicolor and was a boxoffice success Soon after Radio Pictures later known as RKO selected him to play the leading man in their extravagant production the last portion of the film was photographed in Technicolor of Rio Rita opposite Bebe Daniels Audiences were enthralled by his beautiful voice and John Boles suddenly found himself in huge demand RCA Victor even hired him to make phonograph records of songs that he had sung in his films As soon as Rio Rita was completed Boles went back to Warner Brothers as the leading man in an even more extravagant musical entitled Song of the West 1930 that was filmed entirely in Technicolor Shortly after this film Universal Pictures offered John Boles a contract which he accepted He starred in a number of pictures for them most notably the allTechnicolor musical revue entitled The King of Jazz 1930 and a historical operetta entitled Captain of the Guard 1930 In 1931 he starred in One Heavenly Night 1931 which would prove to be his last major musical Boles portrayed Victor Moritz in Frankenstein 1931 He starred with Irene Dunne in a 1934 film adaptation of Edith Whartons 1920 novel The Age of Innocence directed for RKO Radio Pictures by Philip Moeller and took the role of Edward Morgan in Curly Top 1935 starring Shirley Temple In 1937 Boles starred alongside Barbara Stanwyck in the King Vidor classic Stella Dallas In 1943 he costarred with Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in One Touch of Venus Description above from the Wikipedia article John Boles licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia