In Remembrance: Lon McCallister

     Lon McCallister, an actor well known for his boyish good looks and whose films included Stage Door Canteen and Winged Victory, has passed away on Saturday, June 11, 2005. He was 82.

     Born on April 17, 1923 in Los Angeles, California, McCallister was just a teenager when he first began appearing in Hollywood films. At age 13, he had a small bit part in George Cukor’s Romeo and Juliet (1936), with Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard.

     McCallister’s boyish looks earned him roles playing clean-cut characters, like one of the schoolboys in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938). He was later seen in a couple of the Dead-End Kids pictures – 1938’s Little Tough Guys in Society and 1939’s The Angels Wash Their Faces. 

     He landed small roles in Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney pictures, including That Certain Age (1938) and Judge Hardy's Children (1938) and Babes in Arms (1939), respectively.

     McAllister also appeared uncredited in 1942’s musical drama Yankee Doodle Dandy, leading to even bigger roles like the 1943 wartime musical Stage Door Canteen, in which he played a shy GI opposite Katharine Cornell.

     George Cukor, who was now a close friend of McCallister’s, gave him a supporting role as a pilot in the director’s WWII saga Winged Victory (1944). From there he had leading roles in the 1947 thriller The Red House (with actress Allene Roberts), Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948), and 1949’s The Story of Seabiscuit, opposite Shirley Temple.

     McCallister found it difficult to get more adult roles and after appearing in more than 40 films, he retired after his appearance in the 1953 movie Combat Squad to invest in real estate.

-John L. Gibbon