Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.[1][2]
This article is about the actor, producer and writer. For the mystery writer, see Jack Webb (novelist). For the Australian rules footballer, see Jack Webb (footballer).
Jack Webb
December 23, 1982 (aged 62)
John Randolph
Actor, producer, director, screenwriter
1932–1982
2
Webb started his career in the 1940s as a radio personality, starring in several radio shows and dramas—including Dragnet, which he created in 1949—before entering television in the 1950s, creating the television adaptation of Dragnet for NBC as well as other series. Throughout the 1960s, Webb worked in both acting and television production, creating Adam-12 in 1968, and in 1970, Webb retired from acting to focus on producing, creating Emergency! in 1972. Webb continued to make television series, and although many of them were less successful and short-lived, he wished to rekindle his prior successes, and had plans to return to acting in a Dragnet revival before he died.
Webb's production style aimed for significant levels of detail and accuracy. Many of his works focused on law enforcement and emergency services in the Los Angeles area, most prominently the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which directly supported the production of Dragnet and Adam-12.
Early life[edit]
Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, on April 2, 1920, son of Samuel Chester Webb and Margaret (née Smith) Webb.[3][4] He grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. His father left home before Webb was born, and Webb never knew him.[5]
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in Echo Park, where he served as an altar boy.[6] He then attended Belmont High School, near downtown Los Angeles, where he was elected student body president. He wrote to Belmont's student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook, Campanile, "You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever."[7] Webb attended St. John's University, Minnesota, where he studied art.
During World War II, Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, but he "washed out" of flight training. He later received a hardship discharge because he was the primary financial support for both his mother and grandmother.[8]
Career[edit]
Acting[edit]
Following his discharge, Webb moved to San Francisco, where a wartime shortage of announcers led to a temporary appointment to his own radio show on ABC's KGO Radio.[9] The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946. Prior to that, he had a one-man program, One Out of Seven, on KGO in which he dramatized a news story from the previous week.[3]
By 1949, Webb had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in Pat Novak, for Hire, a radio show originating from KFRC about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective. The program co-starred Raymond Burr. Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated the hard-boiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler, with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky—like a furnace full of marshmallows." Early in 1949, Webb served as the main antagonist of Alan Ladd's protagonist character Dan Holliday in "The Better Man" episode of the radio series Box 13, which aired on January 2, 1949.
Webb's radio shows included Johnny Madero, Pier 23; Jeff Regan, Investigator; Murder and Mr. Malone; Pete Kelly's Blues; and One Out of Seven. Webb provided all of the voices on One Out of Seven, often vigorously attacking racial prejudice.
In 1950, Webb appeared in three films that would become cult classics. In Sunset Boulevard, he is the fiancé of William Holden's love interest Nancy Olson (his performance is very animated and jovial, unlike his later deadpan style). He played a war veteran in Marlon Brando's first feature, The Men. And in the film noir Dark City, he co-starred with Harry Morgan, his future partner on the second Dragnet series.
Webb's most famous motion-picture role was as the combat-hardened Marine Corps drill instructor at Parris Island in the 1957 film The D.I., with Don Dubbins as a callow Marine private. Webb's hard-nosed approach to this role, that of Drill Instructor Technical Sergeant James Moore, would be reflected in much of his later acting, but The D.I. was a box office failure.
Webb was approached to play the role of Vernon Wormer, dean of Faber College, in National Lampoon's Animal House, but he refused, saying "the movie didn't make any damn sense"; John Vernon ultimately played the role.[10]
Dragnet and stardom[edit]
Webb had a featured role as a crime-lab technician in the 1948 film He Walked by Night, based on the real-life murder of a California Highway Patrolman by Erwin Walker.[11] The film was produced in semidocumentary style with technical assistance provided by Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn of the Los Angeles Police Department. He Walked By Night's thinly veiled fictionalized recounting of the 1946 Walker crime spree gave Webb the idea for Dragnet: a recurring series based on real cases from LAPD police files, featuring authentic depictions of the modern police detective, including methods, mannerisms, and technical language.[12]
With much assistance from Wynn and legendary LAPD chief William H. Parker, Dragnet premiered on NBC Radio in 1949 and ran until 1957. It was also picked up as a television series by NBC, which aired episodes each season from 1952 to 1959. Webb played Sgt. Joe Friday and Barton Yarborough co-starred as Sgt. Ben Romero. After Yarborough's death, Ben Alexander joined the cast.[13]
Webb was a stickler for attention to detail. He believed viewers wanted "realism" and tried to give it to them. Webb had tremendous respect for those in law enforcement. He often said, in interviews, that he was angry about the "ridiculous amount" of abuse to which police were subjected by the press and the public. Webb was also impressed by the long hours, the low pay, and the high injury rate among police investigators of the day, particularly in the LAPD, which had by then acquired a notorious reputation for jettisoning officers who had become ill or injured in the line of duty; in Webb's book, The Badge, one of Erwin Walker's victims, LAPD detective Lt. Colin Forbes, was among those whose experiences were so noted.[14]
In announcing his vision of Dragnet, Webb said he intended to perform a service for the police by showing them as low-key working-class heroes. Dragnet moved away from earlier portrayals of the police in shows such as Jeff Regan and Pat Novak, which had often shown them as brutal and even corrupt. Dragnet became a successful television show in 1952. Barton Yarborough died of a heart attack in 1951, after filming only two episodes, and Barney Phillips (Sgt. Ed Jacobs) and Herbert Ellis (Officer Frank Smith) temporarily stepped in as partners. Veteran radio and film actor Ben Alexander took over the role of jovial, burly Officer Frank Smith. Alexander was popular and remained a cast member until the show's cancellation in 1959. In 1954, a full-length feature-film adaptation of the series was released, starring Webb, Alexander, and Richard Boone.
The television version of Dragnet began with this narration by George Fenneman: "Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent." Webb would intone, "This is the city: Los Angeles, California." He would then make a historical or topical point, describe his duties, his partner, and superior on the episode. The radio series had a similar opening, though Webb, as Friday, did not give a unique LA-themed opening. Webb then set the plot by describing a typical day and then led into the story. "It was Wednesday, March 19th. It was cool in Los Angeles. I was at headquarters, working narcotics...." At the end of each show, Fenneman repeated his opening narration, revised to read: "The story you have just seen is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent."
A second announcer, Hal Gibney, usually gave dates when and specific courtrooms where trials were held for the suspects, announcing the trial verdicts after commercial breaks. Many suspects shown to have been found guilty at the end were also shown as having been confined to the California State Prison at San Quentin. Webb frequently recreated entire floors of buildings on sound stages, such as the police headquarters at Los Angeles City Hall and a floor of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.
During Dragnet's early days, Webb continued to appear in movies, notably as Artie Green, the best friend of William Holden's character in the 1950 Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard. The character Green was an assistant director and fiancé to script reader Betty Schaefer (played by Nancy Olson).
In Dark City, Webb played a vicious card sharp and Harry Morgan a punch-drunk ex-fighter, in contrast to the pair's straight-arrow image in the later Dragnet. Also in 1950, Webb appeared in The Men, Marlon Brando's debut film. Both actors played paraplegics undergoing rehabilitation at a veterans' hospital. In a subplot, Webb's character, a cynical intellectual, is fleeced of his life savings by a woman who feigns romantic interest.
In 1951, Webb introduced a short-lived radio series, Pete Kelly's Blues, in an attempt to bring the music he loved to a broader audience. That show became the basis for a 1955 film of the same name. In 1959, a television version was made. Neither was very successful. The character of Pete Kelly was a cornet player who supplemented his income from playing in a nightclub band by working as a private investigator.
Death[edit]
Webb died of an apparent heart attack in the early morning hours of December 23, 1982, at age 62.[5] He is interred at Sheltering Hills Plot 1999, Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, and was given a funeral with full Los Angeles police honors.[30] On Webb's death, Chief Daryl Gates announced that badge number 714, which was used by Joe Friday in Dragnet, would be retired.[31] Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley ordered all flags lowered to half staff in Webb's honor for a day, and Webb was buried with a replica LAPD badge bearing the rank of sergeant and the number 714.
Legacy[edit]
Webb has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for radio (at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard) and the other for television (at 6728 Hollywood Boulevard). In 1992, Webb was posthumously inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.[32]