Fred Gavin Gordon (April 7, 1901 – April 7, 1983) was an American film, television, and radio actor.
Contents
Life and career
Early years
Born on April 7, 1901, in Chicora, Mississippi, Gordon moved to Mobile, Alabama while in his late teens. He wanted to be an actor, but he was told that his southern accent would limit his stage opportunities, so he studied stenography. He then moved to Chicago, where he found a job, took speech lessons, and tried to lose his accent. While working as a stenographer, Gordon met actor Grant Mitchell, who offered to help Gordon get started in acting when he was ready.
Stage
In 1922, Mitchell helped Gordon begin his stage career in Detroit with the Jessie Bonstelle Players. He went on to act in Jane Cowl's production of Romeo and Juliet, after which he performed in stock theater in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His Broadway credits included The Outsider, as well as Celebrity (1927), Sh, the Octopus (1928), Crashing Through (1928), The Gentleman From Athens (1947), The Devil's Disciple (1950), and Buy Me Blue Ribbons (1951). In 1928 Gordon joined the Stuart Walker Company.
Film
He began getting small roles at studios including at Fox Film and Paramount Pictures in 1927. After a film test, Gordon starred as Greta Garbo's leading man in Romance (1930). Garbo biographer Robert Dance called Gordon "the least remembered of all the men who supported Garbo. ...Gordon was good-looking, rather than handsome, and had a strong, rich speaking voice. But he was either utterly miscast or appallingly directed: it is hard to say even after ninety years."
An automobile accident that injured Gordon as he was to have begun shooting almost resulted in his being replaced. Although he went to set, he was too injured to work and was hospitalized for two weeks. Garbo insisted that he not be replaced and shooting continued until he could resume work.
Dance noted that Gordon's film career largely consisted of small and/or uncredited roles. With his distinctive voice, Gordon acted in numerous radio dramas. Gordon's final film appearance was in 1963's The Nutty Professor.
Personal life and death
In Eccentrics of Comedy, Film historian Anthony Slide concludes his chapter on Edward Everett Horton by noting that the actor "never stopped working and never hid from the public eye.
Despite the last, Edward Everett Horton did manage to maintain a private gay relationship with actor Gavin Gordon, Garbo's leading man in Romance (1930). What a strange couple the two very different men must have made—almost as strange and eccentric a relationship as Edward Everett Horton and his mother.Gordon died on his 82nd birthday in Canoga Park, California. He is interred in Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama.
TV roles
Gordon also appeared on such television programs as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Perry Mason, Playhouse 90, The Real McCoys, The Red Skelton Show, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Petticoat Junction.
