Richard Arlen

Arlen served in Canada as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I.

He later taught as a United States Army Air Forces flight instructor in World War II.[https://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=3&new_day=28&new_year=2016 TODAY in Masonic History: Richard Arlen Passes Away.] Masonry Today. Retrieved March 8, 2020.

Following his World War I service, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, then worked a variety of odd jobs before an accident as a film laboratory delivery boy landed him a role as an extra in a silent Hollywood film.

Arlen is best known for his role as a pilot in the Academy Award-winning Wings (1927) with Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Gary Cooper, El Brendel, and his second wife, Jobyna Ralston, whom he married in 1927. Arlen later appeared in the science fiction horror Island of Lost Souls (1932) with Charles Laughton, adapted from the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. He was among the more famous residents of the celebrity enclave, Toluca Lake, California.[http://www.tolucalakechamber.com/History.htm History of Toluca Lake] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717070506/http://www.tolucalakechamber.com/History.htm |date=July 17, 2011 }} Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce, retrieved on September 15, 2010.

In 1939, Universal teamed him with Andy Devine for a series of 14 B-pictures, mostly action-comedies with heavy reliance on stock footage from larger-scale films. They are informally known as the "Aces of Action" series, which is how the stars were billed in the trailers. When Arlen left the studio in 1941, the series continued with Devine teamed with a variety of other actors.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Arlen was active in television, having guest starred in several anthology series, including Playhouse 90, The Loretta Young Show, The 20th Century Fox Hour, and in three episodes of the series about clergymen, Crossroads.

He appeared on the November 9, 1968 episode of Petticoat Junction playing himself. The episode was called "Wings" and it was in direct reference to the 1927 silent movie Wings.{{cite news| url=https://archive.org/details/east-liverpool-review-1968-10-25/page/n28/mode/1up?q=%22buddy+rogers%22+petticoat| title=Out of the Air: Buddy Rogers–47 Years Later| last=Humphrey| first=Hal| date=October 25, 1968| newspaper=East Liverpool Review| page=15| access-date=March 11, 2024}}

Arlen appeared in westerns, such as Lawman, Branded, Bat Masterson, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train, and Yancy Derringer, and in such drama/adventure programs as Ripcord, Whirlybirds, Perry Mason, The New Breed, Coronado 9, and Michael Shayne.

Arlen supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfHXAAAAQBAJ&q=richard%20arlen | title=When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics| isbn=9781107650282| last1=Critchlow| first1=Donald T.| date=October 21, 2013| publisher=Cambridge University Press}}

Arlen married actress Jobyna Ralston in January 1927, and they had one son. She divorced him in 1945 claiming in court that he had "packed up" and left her.{{cite news |title=Richard Arlen Divorced: He Just Packed Up and Left Me, Says His Wife, Jobyna Ralston |work=The New York Times |date=September 5, 1945 |page=19 |id={{ProQuest|107292268}}}} He got married again in 1946 to New York socialite Margaret Kinsella.{{cite news| newspaper=The Evening News| location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania| date=March 23, 1946| page=1| title=Arlen to Wed Again| quote=Actor Richard Arlen and New York Socialite Margaret Kinsella will be married when his divorce from Silent Screen Actress Jobyna Ralston becomes final September 4, he said today.| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7377358/actor_richard_arlen_weds_margaret/| access-date=June 3, 2020}}

On March 28, 1976, Arlen died of pulmonary emphysema in North Hollywood, California.{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=David C. |title=Pine-Thomas Productions: A History and Filmography |date=August 15, 2019 |publisher=McFarland |pages=211–213 |isbn=978-1-4766-7743-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TM2qDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Sylvanus+Richard+Mattimore%22&pg=PA211 |access-date=May 31, 2021 |language=en}}

In 1960, Arlen was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star at 6755 Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the film industry.{{cite web|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/richard-arlen |title=Hollywood Walk of Fame – Richard Arlen |website=walkoffame.com |publisher=Hollywood Chamber of Commerce |access-date=November 8, 2017}}

• A Trip Through the Paramount Studio (1927) as Himself
• Hollywood on Parade No. A-6 (1933) as Himself / The Great Arlen (uncredited)
• Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933) as Himself – Dick Arlen (uncredited)
• How to Break 90 #4: Downswing (1933) as Himself – Dick Arlen (uncredited)
• Hollywood on Parade No. B-6 (1934) as Himself
• Hollywood Hobbies (1935) as Himself
• Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 3 (1935) as Himself
• Swing with Bing (1940) as Himself – Movie Star playing Golf
• Screen Snapshots: Sports in Hollywood (1940) as Himself, Golf Player
• Soaring Stars (1942) as Himself (uncredited)
• Unusual Occupations (1942) as Himself (uncredited)
• Paramount Victory Short: A Letter from Bataan (1942) as Pvt. John W. Lewis
• Bat Masterson (1961) as Sheriff Dan Rainey – S3E16 "The Price of Paradise"

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Category:1899 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male silent film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City

Category:Deaths from emphysema

Category:Male Western (genre) film actors

Category:Male actors from Los Angeles

Category:Male actors from Minnesota

Category:Male actors from Saint Paul, Minnesota

Category:Paramount Pictures contract players

Category:Royal Flying Corps officers

Category:United States Army Air Forces officers

Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II

Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Respiratory disease deaths in California