John Howard

Actor

About

Also Known As

John R Cox Jr., John Cox Jr.

Birth Place

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Born

April 14, 1913

Died

February 19, 1995

Cause of Death

Heart Failure

Biography

Filmography

Buck and the Preacher (1972)

George

The Destructors (1968)

Bushnell

Destination Inner Space (1966)

Dr. James

The Unknown Terror (1957)

Dan Mathews

Photos & Videos

View All

High And The Mighty, The (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Cocktails With The Chipmunks

Lost Horizon (1937) -- (Movie Clip) If There Is A Prolonged Delay

Family & Companions

Eva Howard

Wife

Survived him.

Notes

Received the Croix de Guerre for valor and Navy Cross during WWII.

Biography

John Howard was a 20th-century actor who was one of the earliest screen stars to transition into television. He launched his career producing numerous films with Paramount Pictures throughout the 1930s, most notably as Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, the star of the "Bulldog Drummond" adventure series of films that were released en masse between 1937 and 1939. Howard's numerous co-stars en route included John Barrymore, Louise Campbell, and Reginald Denny. His most illustrious film projects, however, were outside the Paramount umbrella, particularly Frank Capra's 1937 drama "Lost Horizon," in which Howard played George Conway alongside star Ronald Colman's Robert Conway, and as George Kittredge, Katherine Hepburn's fiancé in the Oscar-winning romantic comedy "The Philadelphia Story," from 1940, which also starred Cary Grant and James Stewart. After serving with honors in the Navy during World War II, Howard returned to less glamorous, and less central, film roles, though he did keep intermittently active from the late 1940s to the mid 1970s. He was an early adopter of television, meanwhile, making the rounds on numerous theater/playhouse shows starting in the late '40s, and in the latter '50s played two series leads: the title character on the medical drama "Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal" and as Commander John "Pliny" Hawk on "Adventures of the Sea Hawk." Through the '60s, Howard earned spots on many of the decade's top shows, meanwhile working as headmaster at the Highland Hall private school. Howard died at age 81 from heart failure.

Filmography

Life Events

1933

First notable feature film role, in "Day of Reckoning"

1975

One-shot return to feature films after a thirty-year absence, "Moonrunners"

1986

Again returned to films to appear in his last, "The Aurora Encounter"

1988

Cast in "A Cry in the Dark" a true story of a mother whose child was killed in an animal attack, only to have herself accused of the infant's murder

1991

Portrayed Silverthorn in the television movie "The Girl From Tomorrow"

2001

Appeared in "The Man Who Sued God," which starred Billy Connolly and Judy Davis

2003

Cast in "Japanese Story," starring Toni Collette

Photo Collections

The Philadelphia Story - Behind-the-Scenes Photos

Here are a number of Behind-the-Scenes photos taken during production of The Philadelphia Story (1940), directed by George Cukor and starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart.