Preston Foster

Preston Stratton Foster, born August 24, 1900, in Ocean City, New Jersey, was an American actor whose work encompassed stage, film, radio, and television across a career of nearly four decades. He also maintained a parallel vocation as a vocalist. Foster died on July 14, 1970, in La Jolla, California, following a long illness, at the age of 69.

The eldest of three children born to Sallie R. (née Stratton) and Walter Foster, Preston grew up alongside two sisters, Mabel and Anna. Federal census records confirm the family remained in Ocean City, in Cape May County, through at least 1910, where his father worked as a painter. By 1918, the family had relocated to Pitman, New Jersey, where his father was employed as a machinist. Draft registration records from 1918 and the 1920 census both place Foster at his parents' home at the corner of Laurel and Snyder avenues in Pitman, and document his employment as a clerk for the New York Ship Company in Camden, New Jersey, approximately seventeen miles away. By 1930, census records show he had moved to Queens, New York, where he lived with his first wife, Gertrude, a widow and stage actress seven years his senior. Those same records identify Foster's occupation at that time as an actor working in legitimate vaudeville.

Foster's Broadway career ran from 1929 to 1932 and included five productions: Congratulations, Ladies All, Adam Had Two Sons, Seven, and Two Seconds. He was still appearing in the cast of Two Seconds as late as November 1931. He subsequently reprised that stage role in Hollywood when the play was adapted for film. His transition to motion pictures began in 1929, and his screen credits came to include Doctor X (1932), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Annie Oakley (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), The Informer (1935), Geronimo (1939), My Friend Flicka (1943), and Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944), among others. Directors and producers recognized his range, which extended from villainous roles such as the criminal in The People's Enemy (1935) to the soft-spoken chaplain he portrayed in Guadalcanal Diary (1943). His final film credit was the role of Nick Kassel in Chubasco, released two years before his death.

Foster's film career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served with the United States Coast Guard, attaining the rank of captain during active service and later receiving the honorary rank of commodore in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Beyond acting, Foster was an accomplished singer who performed on radio and in nightclubs. On July 25, 1943, he co-starred with Ellen Drew in a presentation of Silver Theater on CBS radio titled "China Bridge." In 1948, he formed a vocal trio with his second wife, Sheila, and guitarist Gene Leis, who arranged the group's material. The trio performed on radio and in clubs, appearing alongside Orrin Tucker, Peggy Ann Garner, and Rita Hayworth.

Foster entered television in September 1950 with a credited role in "The Westland Case," an episode of the NBC anthology series Cameo Theatre. He later starred in the drama series Waterfront, playing Captain John Herrick during the 1954–1955 broadcast season, and guest-starred in 1963 on the ABC series Going My Way, which starred Gene Kelly.

Foster married twice. His first marriage was to actress Gertrude Elene (Warren) Leonard, a Woodbury, New Jersey native born in 1893. They wed on June 27, 1925, in Manhattan. In the early 1930s the couple relocated to Los Angeles, where in 1939 they adopted a daughter, Stephanie. The marriage ended in divorce in 1945. In his later years, Foster lived in La Jolla, California. In 1969, he wrote a song titled "Let's Go Padres" to mark the debut season of the San Diego Padres as a Major League Baseball franchise, and the song was designated the team's official anthem; Foster performed it at home games that season. He is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.