Barton MacLane

Barton MacLane (December 25, 1902 – January 1, 1969) was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter born in Columbia, South Carolina. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he played American football, and his athletic background led directly to his first film appearance, in The Quarterback (1926). He subsequently trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before launching a career that spanned Broadway, Hollywood film, and television.

MacLane made his Broadway debut in 1927 in Bayard Veiller's The Trial of Mary Dugan, where he played the assistant district attorney. The following year he appeared in Gods of the Lightning, and in 1929 he joined the original cast of Subway Express as Officer Mulvaney. He also wrote the play Rendezvous, which he sold to Arthur Hopkins and in which he performed in a featured role on Broadway. Additional Broadway credits include the plays Steel and Hangman's Whip, with his stage work continuing through 1934.

The success of Rendezvous brought MacLane a contract with Warner Bros. and drew the attention of directors including Fritz Lang, Michael Curtiz, and William Keighley. Throughout the 1930s he took major supporting roles in The Case of the Curious Bride, G Men, and The Prince and the Pauper, as well as Lang's You Only Live Once and You and Me. He also appeared in the Marx Brothers' 1929 film debut The Cocoanuts, and his first credited film role came in the 1931 romantic drama His Woman. During the 1930s MacLane played detective Steve McBride opposite Glenda Farrell in seven of the nine films featuring the fictional newspaper reporter Torchy Blane.

MacLane worked alongside Humphrey Bogart on multiple occasions. He played Lieutenant Dundy opposite Bogart's Sam Spade in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel, and later reunited with both Bogart and Huston on the Academy Award-winning 1948 adventure film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. His 1940s film credits also include The Big Street, Victor Fleming's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Fritz Lang's Western Union, Reginald Le Borg's The Mummy's Ghost, Frank Borzage's The Spanish Main, and two Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller — Tarzan and the Amazons and Tarzan and the Huntress — in which he played villains. In 1955 he appeared as Jim Mablett in Foxfire, co-starring Jane Russell. Other 1950s credits include Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The Glenn Miller Story, in which he portrayed real-life Air Force General "Hap" Arnold, and Three Violent People.

MacLane began appearing regularly on television during the 1950s, guest starring between 1953 and 1967 on programs including Conflict, Lux Video Theatre, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Laramie, The Monkees, and Gunsmoke. He appeared in three episodes of Perry Mason: as Senator Harriman Baylor in "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll" (1958), as Eugene Norris in "The Case of the Violent Village" (1960), and as Archer Osmond in "The Case of the Ruinous Road" (1964). During the 1960–1961 television season he was a series regular on twenty-seven episodes of NBC's western Outlaws, playing Marshal Frank Caine. In 1965, building on his earlier portrayal of General Arnold, MacLane was cast as fictional Air Force General Martin Peterson on NBC's I Dream of Jeannie, alongside Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. He appeared in 35 episodes of the series between 1965 and 1969, and three of those episodes were broadcast after his death. His final feature film was Buckskin (1968).

In his personal life, MacLane played the violin, piano, and guitar. He married actress Charlotte Wynters in 1939 and adopted a daughter. From the 1940s until his death he maintained a cattle ranch in eastern Madera County, California. MacLane died of double pneumonia on January 1, 1969, at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, one week after his 66th birthday, having been admitted to the hospital two weeks earlier. He was buried at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. For his contributions to the television industry, MacLane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6719 Hollywood Boulevard.