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
Charles Laughton best of the 1950s, and has been selected by the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress. At the time of its original release it was a critical and box-office failure, and Laughton never directed again. The documentary "Charles Laughton Directs The Night of the Hunter" by Robert Gitt (2002) features preserved rushes and outtakes with Laughton's audible off-camera direction. Laughton made his London stage debut in Gogol's "The Government Inspector" (1926). He appeared in many West End plays in the following few years and his earliest successes on the stage were as Hercule Poirot