Barbara Payton

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Barbara Payton
in Bad Blonde (1953)
Born	Barbara Lee Redfield November 16, 1927(1927-11-16) Cloquet, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	May 8, 1967 (aged 39) San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1949–1955
Spouse(s)	William Hodge (1942–1942) John Lee Payton (1945–1948) Franchot Tone (1951–1952) George A Provas (1955–1958)

Barbara Payton (November 16, 1927 – May 8, 1967) was an American film actress.

Early life and career

Born Barbara Lee Redfield, in Cloquet, Minnesota, she was the daughter of restaurateurs, and raised in Odessa, Texas. In 1945, at age seventeen, she headed for Hollywood in search of a career in movies and was eventually placed under contract by Universal Studios where she began appearing in bit parts. After being discovered by James Cagney and his producer brother William, Payton starred in Cagney’s Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in 1950. She signed a contract with Cagney’s production company.

Personal life

In 1951, while engaged to movie actor Franchot Tone, Payton proposed marriage to b-movie actor Tom Neal. She went back and forth publicly from being engaged to Neal to being engaged to Tone. Eventually, Neal, a former college boxer, fought with Tone, giving him a smashed cheekbone, a broken nose and a concussion, and leaving him in a coma in hospital for 18 hours. After being married to Tone for 53 days, she walked out on him and returned to Neal. Their relationship lasted for four years. During that time, the couple capitalized on the press coverage of their steamy affair by touring in plays, such as "The Postman Always Rings Twice", based on the popular film noir. Ironically, when that film was remade in 1981, Jack Nicholson gave his costar, Jessica Lange, a copy of Payton's autobiography; Lange quickly saw the parallels between Payton's life and that of the character, Cora. Lange was also startled to learn she and Payton both hailed from the same small town, Cloquet, Minnesota.

In addition to numerous love affairs (including ones with Howard Hughes, Ava Gardner, Texas oilman Bob Neal and actor Guy Madison, and, reportedly, James Cagney and Bob Hope),^{[1][page needed]}, she was married four times:

1. William Hodge (m. 1943, annulled)
2. John Lee Payton, an Air Force pilot (m. 10-Feb-1945, div. 1950, one child, John Lee Payton Jr., born 1947)
3. Franchot Tone, actor (m. 1951, div. 1952)
4. George A. Provas (a.k.a. Tony Provas, m. 1957, div. Aug. 1958)

From 1955 to 1963, there were several skirmishes with the law - passing bad checks, public drunkenness, mental illness, drug abuse, and, ultimately, prostitution.^[2] She was paid $1,000 for the ghost-written autobiography I Am Not Ashamed in 1963. Payton admitted to being forced to sleep on bus benches and was often beaten as a prostitute.

Death

In 1967, after failed efforts to curb her drinking, she moved in with her parents in San Diego in an attempt to dry out. On May 8, 1967, Payton died at her parents' home; the cause of death was heart and liver failure.^[3]

Payton was cremated and is interred in a niche at Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory in San Diego, California.

Filmography

• Silver Butte (1949)
• Once More, My Darling (Uncredited, 1949)
• Trapped (1949)
• The Pecos Pistol (1949)
• Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)
• Dallas (1950)
• Drums in the Deep South (1951)
• Only the Valiant (1951)
• Bride of the Gorilla (1951)
• Run for the Hills (1953)
• The Flanagan Boy (1953)
• Four Sided Triangle (1953)
• The Great Jesse James Raid (1953)
• Murder Is My Beat (1955)

References

Further reading

• O'Dowd, John. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story. (Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media, 2007) ISBN 1-59393-063-1

External links

• Barbara Payton at the Internet Movie Database
• John O'Dowd Presents: Hollywood Starlet Barbara Payton Includes info on the upcoming, February 2007 published, biography.
• Preview on Barbara Payton: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
• Story of Neal and Tone fight at Formosa Cafe
• Bob Hope: The Road to Bed in TimesOnline
• Barbara Payton at Find A Grave

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