1. Leon Janney was an American actor and radio personality from 1920 to 1980.
23 Facts About Leon Janney
1. 2.
Leon Elbert Janney was born in Ogden, Utah, to Nathan Haines Janney and Bernice Rebecca Kohn.
3.
Leon Janney's mother had reportedly performed using the name Bernice Raymon, or Ramon.
4.
The story in the Inquirer states that Leon Janney's mother gave him the stage name Laon Ramon after moving to Los Angeles to seek more acting work for him.
5.
Sources stating that Leon Janney was born with the surname Ramon are thus incorrect.
6.
Leon Janney made his first theatrical appearance at age two before an audience at the Pantages Theatre in his hometown.
7.
Leon Janney spent some years in vaudeville, and made his first appearance on radio in 1926, making the leap to legitimate theater soon after.
8.
Leon Janney appeared in a string of movies portraying the boyhood incarnations of actors such as Ricardo Cortez, Reginald Denny, and Conrad Nagel.
9.
Producer Hal Roach took notice of Leon Janney and hired him to appear in the Our Gang comedy Bear Shooters as "Spud".
10.
Leon Janney turned to radio and worked on the series The Parker Family, playing all-American boy Richard Parker.
11.
Leon Janney portrayed that character in an experimental TV broadcast of the program on NBC-TV on May 9,1941.
12.
Leon Janney was a master of using convincing foreign accents, and even more so at adapting regional dialects of the United States.
13.
Leon Janney portrayed Lee Chan on "The Adventures of Charlie Chan" on old-time radio.
14.
Leon Janney appeared in several episodes of the adult science fiction series X Minus One.
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Leon Janney made countless uncredited appearances too, until his death in 1980.
16.
Leon Janney made his first film appearance in more than a decade, playing a sympathetic guard in The Last Mile.
17.
Leon Janney was the spokesman for the New York Mets in their Rheingold Beer commercials for the team's first two seasons.
18.
Leon Janney was elected to The Lambs in 1940, and was a member of the board of the Screen Actors Guild and the council of Actors' Equity Association.
19.
Leon Janney was involved in activities of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, including being president of its New York local in 1963 and serving on that local's board.
20.
Leon Janney lost a campaign for sheriff of Bergen County, New Jersey, after campaigning on a platform of abolishing the office.
21.
On March 26,1936, Leon Janney married Jessica Pepper in Armonk, New York.
22.
When he died, Leon Janney was married to Dorothy, his fourth wife.
23.
Leon Janney died of cancer on October 28,1980, in Guadalajara, Mexico, aged 63.