John Gallaudet

John Beury Gallaudet (August 23, 1903 – November 5, 1983) was an American stage, film, and television actor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Williams College before launching a theatrical career that brought him to Broadway across a decade-long span from 1925 to 1935.

Gallaudet's Broadway appearances included When You Smile (1925), Don Q., Jr. (1926), On the Spot (1930), The Gang's All Here (1931), Here Goes the Bride (1931), Lost Horizons (1934), and Good Men and True (1935). It was during the 1925 production When You Smile that he worked alongside actress Wynne Gibson; the two were married from 1927 to 1930. In 1932, Gallaudet married Constance Helen MacKenzie, and the couple remained together until his death.

Columbia Pictures signed Gallaudet as a character player in 1936, and over the following three years he appeared in more than thirty of the studio's features. His roles at Columbia frequently cast him as newspapermen, radio broadcasters, or associates of the central hero, positioned on either side of the law. Among his Columbia credits, the Bing Crosby musical Pennies from Heaven (1936) has remained the most widely seen; Gallaudet portrayed a condemned convict who, moments before his execution, entrusts Crosby's character with an urgent message he cannot deliver himself.

Columbia's obligations under the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927 required American studios to distribute Canadian-made films in exchange for releasing their own pictures in Canada. To fulfill this arrangement, Columbia dispatched contract players and crew members to Canadian studios, with the studio overseeing production quality. Gallaudet was among those sent north, and the assignment marked the only period in his screen career when he received starring roles. He played crime-busting reporter Jerry Tracey in two action-adventure films, Manhattan Shakedown and Murder Is News, both produced in 1937. Columbia delayed the release of Murder Is News until 1939, at which point Variety criticized the production for skimping on sets, lighting, and technical details, while Showmen's Trade Review acknowledged that Gallaudet performed as well as the material allowed.

Gallaudet departed Columbia in 1938 and pursued a freelance career that took him to Universal Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the postwar years, as major studios shifted toward producing fewer but more costly films, Gallaudet's workload at those studios diminished, and he also took on assignments for smaller companies including Monogram Pictures and Eagle-Lion Films.

Television provided Gallaudet with consistent work and a recognizable presence. He appeared in such programs as Dragnet, World of Giants, Johnny Midnight, and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. In the 1959 western series Bat Masterson, he portrayed General William Tecumseh Sherman, whose life is threatened during a visit to Dodge City. On the long-running Perry Mason series, Gallaudet became one of the show's recurring judges and was among the few such characters given a name on screen, identified as Judge Ben Penner. He continued working in both film and television through 1974, with his 1967 appearance in the feature film In Cold Blood among his later notable credits.

Gallaudet died on November 5, 1983, in Los Angeles at the age of 80.