Barbara Payton

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Barbara Payton (November 16, 1927 – May 8, 1967) was an American film actress.

Early life and careerBorn Barbara Lee Redfield, in Cloquet, Minnesota, she was the daughter of restaurateurs, and raised in Odessa, Texas. In 1945, at age seventeen, she headed for Hollywood in search of a career in movies and was eventually placed under contract by Universal Studios where she began appearing in bit parts. After being discovered by James Cagney and his producer brother William, Payton starred in Cagney’s Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in 1950. She signed a contract with Cagney’s production company.

Personal life

In 1951, while engaged to movie actor Franchot Tone, Payton proposed marriage to b-movie actor Tom Neal. She went back and forth publicly from being engaged to Neal to being engaged to Tone. Eventually, Neal, a former college boxer, fought with Tone, giving him a smashed cheekbone, a broken nose and a concussion, and leaving him in a coma in hospital for 18 hours. After being married to Tone for 53 days, she walked out on him and returned to Neal. Their relationship lasted for four years. During that time, the couple capitalized on the press coverage of their affair by touring in plays, such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, based on the popular 1946 film noir.

In addition to numerous love affairs (including ones with Howard Hughes, Ava Gardner, Texas oilman Bob Neal and actor Guy Madison, and, reportedly, James Cagney and Bob Hope),^{[1][page needed]}, she was married four times:

1. William Hodge (m. 1943, annulled)
   
2. John Payton Jr., an Air Force pilot (m. 10-Feb-1945, div. 1950, one child, John Lee Payton , born 1947)
   
3. Franchot Tone, actor (m. 1951, div. 1952)
   
4. George A. Provas (a.k.a. Tony Provas, m. 1957, div. Aug. 1958)
   

From 1955 to 1963, there were several skirmishes with the law - passing bad checks, public drunkenness, mental illness, drug abuse, and, ultimately, prostitution.^[2] She was paid $1,000 for the ghost-written autobiography I Am Not Ashamed in 1963. Payton admitted to being forced to sleep on bus benches and was often beaten as a prostitute.

Death

In 1967, after failed efforts to curb her drinking, she moved in with her parents in San Diego in an attempt to dry out. On May 8, 1967, Payton died at her parents' home; the cause of death was heart and liver failure.^[3]

Payton was cremated and is interred in a niche at Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory in San Diego, California

FilmographyYearFilmRoleNotes1949Silver ButteRita LandonOnce More, My DarlingGirl PhotographerUncreditedTrappedMeg DixonThe Pecos PistolKay McCormick1950Kiss Tomorrow GoodbyeHoliday CarletonDallasFlo1951Only the ValiantCathy EvershamDrums in the Deep SouthKathy SummersBride of the GorillaMrs. Dina Van Gelder1953The Flanagan BoyLorna VecchiAlternative titles: Bad Blonde

The Woman Is TroubleFour Sided TriangleLena/HelenAlternative title: The Monster and the WomanRun for the HillsJane JohnsonThe Great Jesse James RaidKate1955Murder Is My BeatEden Lane

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