Howard St. John

Howard St. John (October 9, 1905 – March 13, 1974) was a Chicago-born actor whose career encompassed Broadway, film, and television, with a particular concentration in unsympathetic and authoritarian character roles. He grew up in several Canadian cities and developed an early interest in sports, participating in football and hockey to the extent that he broke his nose three times. Before pursuing acting, St. John worked as a boy singer on tour in Canada, and later as a newspaperman and a stockbroker.

St. John made his Broadway debut in 1926 playing James Manton in The Blonde Sinner, launching a stage career that would span more than four decades and encompass over twenty productions. Among his Broadway credits were His and Hers, Someone Waiting, and The Highest Tree. His most prominent stage role was General Bullmoose in the 1956 musical Li'l Abner, in which he introduced the song "Progress is the Root of All Evil." He later reprised the role in the film adaptation of Li'l Abner. His final Broadway appearance came in 1968 with the drama Tiger at the Gates.

St. John began working in film in the early 1930s. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train in 1951 and took on the title role in David Harding, Counterspy, returning to the character in the sequel Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard in 1950. He also appeared in The Tender Trap and Born Yesterday, the latter released in 1950 and remembered as one of his more notable film performances. His screen work consistently placed him in rigid or authoritarian parts.

On television, St. John portrayed Lloyd Prior on the NBC crime drama The Investigator in 1958. He died of a heart attack in New York City on March 13, 1974, at the age of 68.