Franchot Tone Franchot Tone Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American stage, film and television actor. He was Oscar-nominated for his role as Midshipman Roger Byam in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935), starring alongside Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. He was a leading man in many films and appeared as a guest star in episodes of several television series, including "The Twilight Zone" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the wealthy president of the Carborundum Company, and
Clark Gable to attempt a film career. In 1924, with Dillon's financing, they went to Hollywood, where she became Gable's manager and first wife. He changed his stage name from W. C. Gable to Clark Gable. He found work as an extra in such silent films as Erich von Stroheim's "The Merry Widow" (1925), "The Plastic Age" (1925), which starred Clara Bow, "Forbidden Paradise" (1924), starring Pola Negri, plus a series of two-reel comedies called "The Pacemakers". He appeared as an extra in Fox's "The Johnstown Flood" (1926). Seventeen-year-old Carole Lombard, later his third wife, appeared as an extra in that film