Richard Arlen

Richard Arlen, born Sylvanus Richard Mattimore on September 1, 1899, in St. Paul, Minnesota, was an American actor whose career spanned silent film, sound film, television, and Broadway. He died on March 28, 1976, in North Hollywood, California, of pulmonary emphysema.

During World War I, Arlen served in Canada as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps. After the war, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently worked a series of odd jobs. An accident while employed as a delivery boy for a film laboratory led to his being cast as an extra in a silent Hollywood production, marking the beginning of his screen career.

Arlen is most closely associated with his role as a pilot in Wings (1927), the Academy Award-winning silent film that also featured Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Gary Cooper, El Brendel, and Jobyna Ralston, whom he married in January 1927. The couple had one son. Ralston divorced him in 1945, stating in court that he had abandoned the marriage. Arlen married New York socialite Margaret Kinsella the following year, in 1946. During World War II, he served as a flight instructor with the United States Army Air Forces.

Among his other notable film appearances was Island of Lost Souls (1932), a science fiction horror production starring Charles Laughton and adapted from H. G. Wells's novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. Beginning in 1939, Universal Pictures paired Arlen with actor Andy Devine for a series of fourteen action-comedies, informally referred to as the "Aces of Action" series, which drew heavily on stock footage from larger productions. When Arlen departed the studio in 1941, the series continued with Devine alongside other performers.

In 1945, Arlen appeared on Broadway in the comedy Too Hot for Maneuvers. That same year marked the end of his first marriage.

Television occupied much of Arlen's professional life during the 1950s and early 1960s. He made guest appearances on anthology programs including Playhouse 90, The Loretta Young Show, and The 20th Century Fox Hour, as well as three episodes of Crossroads, a series centered on clergymen. His television work also included westerns such as Lawman, Branded, Bat Masterson, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train, and Yancy Derringer, and drama and adventure programs including Perry Mason, Ripcord, Whirlybirds, The New Breed, Coronado 9, and Michael Shayne. On November 9, 1968, he appeared as himself in an episode of Petticoat Junction titled "Wings," a direct reference to his 1927 film. Arlen was also among the notable residents of the celebrity community of Toluca Lake, California, and he publicly supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election.

In 1960, Arlen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6755 Hollywood Boulevard, honoring his contributions to motion pictures.