Ron Randell

The son of an accountant and the youngest of three boys, Ronald Egan Randell (pronounced Randall, not Ran-DELL) was born in Sydney on October 8, 1918, and began his six-decade-long career as a young teen on radio for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. He promptly moved to the stage and made his debut in the 1937 production of "Quiet Wedding" with the Minerva Theatre Group. He stayed with the company for several years while appearing intermittently in war propaganda short films. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, Ron took a necessary trip to the United States and the Mayo Clinic for treatment. While there he found some work on both the stage and in radio and earned an unbilled bit part in the film noir classic To Have and Have Not (1944). Eventually returning to his native Australia, Ron won a starring role in the biopic Pacific Adventure (1946) as aviator Charles "Smithy" Kingsford-Smith which led to a Hollywood contract and transatlantic move back to the States. He made a strong impre