‏Roger Pryor‏

He was considered the "poor man's Clark Gable" at Universal and Columbia studios where he held long-term contracts during the 30s and 40s. The son of composer/band leader 'Arthur Pryor', mustachioed Roger Pryor had slick, roguish leading man looks that helped enable him to become a durable, if not exceptional, co-star of breezy "B" level musicals and slick drama. Making his stage debut at 18 in a New Jersey stock play called "Adam and Eva", he also worked with the Myskle-Harder Stock Company in Connecticut. After years of touring in repertory companies, he finally hit the Broadway lights in 1925 with a production of "The Back Slapper" and went on to appear with Ruth Gordon in "Saturday's Children" in 1927. He replaced Lee Tracy in the popular classic "The Front Page" but it was his stage role in "Blessed Event" that got New York movie studios paying attention. He made his film bow with the musical Moonlight and Pretzels (1933) and went to Hollywood. His biggest picture was as Mae West's paramour in Belle of the Nineties (1934). Divorced in 1933, he married actress Ann Sothern in 1936 during the height of his career but the marriage ended seven years later. As he started to decline into second leads and supports (often as a heavy), he turned successfully to radio hosting in the 40s, possessing a perfectly rich voice that suited the medium. He also carried on the family tradition as a dance band leader and trombonist. At one time, his wife, Ann Sothern, briefly toured with Pryor's band. Though the work was personally satisfying, it wasn't profitable and it drove him into bankruptcy. In 1947, Pryor retired from show business altogether and turned to business, finding a comfortable niche as an ad executive. He remarried a third time and settled comfortably in Pompano Beach, Florida, dying in 1974 of cardiac arrest.