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Barbara Payton Profile
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| (Barbara Redfield) |
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| 16 November 27 | is born in Cloquet, Minnesota, of Norwegian-German stock, to Erwin Lee Redfield and the former Mabel Todahl, who operate a small restaurant in town |
| 38 | her family moves to Odessa, Texas, where her parents operate a motel court |
| 42 | looses her virginity at the age of 15 to a schoolmate's father, who makes love to her in a dry bathtub while the unknowing guests at a surprise birthday party, held in his honor, celebrate downstairs |
| 42 | elopes with her high school sweetheart, William Hodge. Her parents have the marriage annulled quickly. |
| 43 | meets actor James Cagney at a war bond rally in her hometown and asks for an autograph |
| 10 February 45 | marries handsome John Payton, an Air Force Captain, in Monroe, Louisiana |
| Mid-46 | following her husband’s discharge, the couple moves to an apartment in Compton, California, where he attends college while she begins modeling for several local businesses |
| 14 March 47 | gives birth to John Lee Payton, her only child |
| Spring 48 | she formally separates from Payton and takes an apartment in Hollywood with her infant son, with whom she is very close |
| Universal-International places her under contract at $100 per week |
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| 49 | is labeled the "Queen of the Night Clubs" by columnist Harrison Carroll |
| when she has an illicit, six-month affair with married man Bob Hope, Universal-International abruptly terminates her contract |
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| is seen in several of the town’s top nightclubs with billionaire Howard Hughes, mobster Mickey Cohen, actors Robert Lowery and John Ireland and Sunset Strip playboys Jerry Bialac and Don Cougar |
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| has a brief affair with entertainment lawyer Greg Bautzer and is engaged to him for a short time. He will later marry actress Dana Wynter. |
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| film noir director Richard Fleischer hand picks her for the female lead in Trapped |
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| 50 | is signed to a joint contract with Warner Brothers Studios and Cagney Productions with a starting salary of $5,000 per week, and begins a strictly professional relationship with William Cagney, who's the producer for Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye. There are rumors she may have slept with him to get the part. |
| is frequently seen around Hollywood and New York with debonair film and stage star Franchot Tone, who is recently divorced from Jean Wallace |
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| Tone's obsessive passion for her is apparent when he formally announces their engagement at the Stork Club in New York City |
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| there are rumors she is having an affair with co-stars Gary Cooper and Steve Cochran during the production of Dallas |
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| her divorce from Air Force Captain John Payton is granted |
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| 29 October 50 | she's called before a federal grand jury as a defense witness in the perjury trial of her friend, suspected murderer and dope addict, and Sunset Strip playboy, Stanley Adams. Warner Brothers takes careful notice of the damaging publicity and places her on temporary suspension for refusing the secondary role of “Arlene” (later given to Mary Beth Hughes) in Close To My Heart. |
| 51 | along with Piper Laurie, Mona Freeman, Peggy Castle, Mala Powers, and Barbara Bates, she is one of the Hollywood Press Association's "Baby Stars" |
| Confidential reports that she and Guy Madison, who is married to troubled actress Gail Russell, carry their on-screen romance off the lot during the filming of Drums In The Deep South. Franchot Tone allegedly catches the two in bed at Barbara’s Sunset Boulevard apartment. |
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| while Tone's in New York, she meets macho, B-movie actor Tom Neal at a Hollywood pool party and soon announces that she will leave Tone to marry Neal |
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| 13 September 51 | after dining with her at Ciro's, Tone is attacked by Neal in the courtyard of Barbara's new apartment on Courtney Drive in West Hollywood, and spends the next two weeks hospitalized. His face will require extensive plastic surgery. The "Love Brawl" makes headlines throughout the world. |
| 28 September 51 | marries actor Franchot Tone in her childhood home in Cloquet, Minnesota |
| ? | due to the bad publicity, she loses the title role in Lady In The Iron Mask to British actress Patricia Medina |
| ? | allegedly has a sexual encounter with co-star Tom Conway, the depressed and alcoholic brother of George Sanders, during the filming of Bride of the Gorilla |
| ? | she and Tone separate after just seven weeks of marriage and she returns to Tom Neal |
| 20 November 51 | after fifty-three days of marriage, Tone files for divorce, charging extreme mental cruelty |
| December 51 | with Neal as her travelling companion, she hits New York City, promoting her film, Bride Of The Gorilla. One night she accompanies six drunken cowboys to their hotel suite and provokes them into fist-fighting one another for her affections. |
| ? | after her return to Hollywood, she leaves Neal and reconciles with Tone |
| 10 March 52 | during a trip to New York City with Tone, she takes an overdose of sleeping pills. He forces black coffee into his wife until the doctor arrives. Her marriage falls apart. |
| 3 May 52 | goes to the newspapers with the story that Tone had threatened to kill her and Tom Neal |
| 17 May 52 | she and Tone divorce. In the early 1960s, Tone reportedly asks her to marry him again, but she says "no." |
| July 52 | Hollywood gossip columns report that she will star with her lover Neal in Prisoner of War, to be filmed in Mexico, but the project falls through |
| ? | is off to England with Neal for two British productions, Four-Sided Triangle and Bad Blonde |
| ? | while in London, Neal allegedly catches her in bed with wealthy night club owner Siegi Sessler |
| Summer 53 | tours the U.S. with Neal in The Postman Always Rings Twice |
| Fall 53 | is in front of the cameras with Neal for The Great Jesse James Raid. They split up for the last time in November 1953. |
| 54 | begins to fall victim to her sexually compulsive nature and is said to become a nightly fixture in several Hollywood cocktail lounges |
| has an affair with notorious playboy Serge Rubinstein who is later found strangled in his New York City apartment |
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| March 54 | has the silliest hairdo to hit Manhattan and creates some uncomplimentary talk along Gotham's cafe circuit |
| 29 March 54 | announces her plans to remarry her first husband, John Payton, who was shot down in Korea and held in Communist captivity for 16 months |
| 18 October 55 | is arrested on suspicion of writing bad checks at a Hollywood supermarket. Herman Hover, the owner of Ciro's nightclub, helps her out with $100 to pay her fine, and she averts going to jail. |
| November 55 | with her eight-year old son John Lee, she moves to Guaymas, Mexico, for a while, where she meets a 23-year old sport fishing operator named Tony Provas, whom she later marries |
| 12 March 56 | loses custody of her beloved son to her ex-husband John Payton |
| ? | moves to Nogales, Arizona, for a few weeks. Her marriage to Provas will last three years. |
| 12 August 58 | returns to Hollywood to try to reactivate her film career and to announce her divorce from Provas |
| 59 - 62 | she flounders on the streets of Hollywood while her alcoholism worsens |
| 7 February 62 | is arrested for prostitution in a bar on Sunset Boulevard |
| 21 July 62 | at a Hollywood police station, she reports that a teenage gang attempted to rape her at The Jet Inn Motel. The next day she's discovered, covered with bruises, sleeping on a Sunset Boulevard bus stop bench in a bathing suit and a coat, and is charged with public drunkenness. |
| 28 July 62 | is arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in her friend Ruth Kellet’s apartment while entertaining two men in a rowdy afternoon party |
| ? | there are unfounded rumors she's in a pornographic movie |
| c. 62 | spends her nights at the Coach and Horses bar on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood |
| 63 | publishes her infamous memoir I Am Not Ashamed, at Holloway House, in which she pretends she appeared in Frank Sinatra's Four for Texas |
| is suffering from tremendous depression, mental illness and a tragic addiction to alcohol and drugs |
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| Spring 63 | is knifed by a trick and receives 38 stitches for the wound; takes a series of menial jobs for various businesses in Hollywood |
| 17 October 63 | is found guilty of prostitution and fined $150 |
| c. 63 | contacts writer John Gilmore, who is working on a script about the Black Dahlia murder, for a movie to be produced by Neal. She tells him about an alleged kinky encounter Franchot Tone had with "Dahlia" Elizabeth Short prior to Short’s 1947 murder. |
| actor Dennis Hopper allegedly has a sexual encounter with her in a back booth of a Hill Street bar and promises to help her resume her acting career |
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| Mid-65 | her ex-lover Neal is accused of murdering his third wife and spends six years in jail. Barbara is reportedly seen watching the proceedings at the courthouse. |
| April 67 | when both her physical and mental health deteriorate further, she goes to stay with her parents in San Diego |
| 8 May 67 | her mother discovers her ravaged body on the bathroom floor, dead of heart and liver failure, at age 39. Her physical appearance is so drastically changed, it takes two days before authorities realize who she is. |
| 7 August 72 | Tom Neal dies from heart failure at age 58, shortly after his release from Soledad State Prison |
| 05 | plans begin to produce a film project on her life, based on her forthcoming biography by writer John O’Dowd |
| Author: | John O'Dowd |
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| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography Hollywood Starlet Barbara Payton JSR Pages: Barbara Payton Find A Grave | |