Cause of death Heart attack Role Actor Name Richard Hart | Years active 1943-1951 Occupation Actor Partner Phyllis Eileen Buswell | |
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Full Name Richard Comstock Hart Spouse Louise Valery (m. 1945–1951), Mrs. Hart (m. 1938) Children Christopher Rawson, Hillary, Richard Lee Hart, Sheila Movies and TV shows Green Dolphin Street, Desire Me, Reign of Terror, The Adventures of Ellery Similar People Victor Saville, Van Heflin, Felicia Montealegre, Christopher Rawson, Frank Morgan | ||
Richard Comstock Hart (April 14, 1915 – January 2, 1951) was an American actor, who appeared in film and TV productions, but was most active on stage.
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Early years
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Hart is the son and grandson of Henry Clay Hart and Richard Borden Comstock, leading Rhode Island lawyers. He went to Moses Brown School and Brown University, where he was an all-American soccer player.
Hart first worked as a journalist and at the Gorham Silver Company before becoming seriously interested in acting through a summer theater in Tiverton, Rhode Island.
Radio
Early in his career, "Hart earned as he learned by appearing in radio soap operas."
Stage
After he gained early experience with the Providence Players, Hart's big break came when, as resident juvenile in a summer theater at the Brattle Playhouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he played John the witch boy, the lead role in a new play trying out there, Dark of the Moon. The Shuberts took it to Broadway (1945), keeping little of the original company except Carol Stone (Barbara Allen) and Hart, who went on to win a Theatre World Award for his debut. A Broadway run of 318 performances then led to a national tour and a contract for Hart with Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
After some work in film, Hart left MGM to go back to the stage. Back on Broadway he appeared in a flop, Leaf and Bough (1949), then took over for Sam Wanamaker in Goodbye, My Fancy (1948-1949) and had a hit as the original Uncle Desmonde in The Happy Time (1950-1951) opposite Claude Dauphin and Eva Gabor.
He also appeared in Pillar to Post (1943-1944).
Film
Hart appeared in four films, three for MGM. Hart's first two were as a leading man: Green Dolphin Street (1947), where he was loved by two sisters, played by Lana Turner and Donna Reed, and Desire Me (1947), as the villain who takes Greer Garson away from Robert Mitchum. Hart's final two films were supporting roles: B.F.'s Daughter (1948), as the jilted first love of the title character, played by Barbara Stanwyck, and Reign of Terror (1949), a Walter Wanger production (released by Eagle-Lion) directed by Anthony Mann.
Television
Hart was seen on television on Silver Theater, Ford Theatre, Masterpiece Playhouse, and Studio One, playing such roles as Eilert Lovborg in Hedda Gabler and Marc Antony in Julius Caesar. He had played four episodes as Ellery Queen in the DuMont Television Network series The Adventures of Ellery Queen—the first to do so on TV—when he died suddenly at age 35 of a heart attack.
Personal life
Hart married his teenage sweetheart, Eugenia Getchell in 1938, and had one son Christopher. His desire to work in New York City led to a divorce from his wife, who chose to stay in Providence with their son in 1941. He later married actress Louise Valery, whom he had met in Dark of the Moon, and they had two daughters, Hillary and Sheila.
While he was estranged from Louise, "reportedly, in 1947, a son, Richard Lee Hart, was born out of wedlock with Phyllis Eileen Buswell." He was said to have lived with actress Felicia Montealegre during his last four years of life.
Death
Hart died "at French Hospital of a coronary occlusion" January 2, 1951. He was 35.