GRANT WITHERS
January 17th, 1904 -- March 27th, 1959

Above: A young and handsome Grant Withers in a publicity portrait from the silent era.

Incredible as it may seem to those filmgoers familiar with his great performances as evil, snarly, heavy-set villains in so many A and B Westerns (GUNFIGHTERS, THE FIGHTING KENTUCKIAN, and TRIGGER JR., to name a few), Grant Withers was an outstanding serial hero at Universal and Mascot in the 1930s. In his features, Withers used his gruff voice and large size to convey menace, but in his cliffhangers, Grant used his tough-guy persona to convey grim, dogged adherence to the cause of good. Like Buster Crabbe’s heroes, Withers’ heroes were good-natured with the good guys and gruff to the point of crankiness with bad guys or potential bad guys. No matter how complicated things looked, the two-fisted Grant could be counted on to “tough it out” and bring down the villains.

Above: A crop from a poster for RADIO PATROL (Universal, 1937), Withers' final starring serial, shows him on the job in his police car.

Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Withers worked as an oil company salesman and a reporter before getting into films. He made his first movie in 1926, and quickly became a popular star in both action pictures and dramas. However, Grant’s career took an unexplained nosedive when sound arrived, and, after appearing in many low-to-medium budget programmers at other studios, he was signed (as so many A-movie “dropouts” were) to appear in serials. In fact, Withers wasn't the star of his first cliffhanger, THE RED RIDER (Universal, 1934), but he had a major supporting role as Silent Slade, who is blamed for a murder he did not commit. His friend, Sheriff Red Davidson (Buck Jones) helps Silent escape a hanging, and together they track down the real culprit, who proves to be the villainous Jim Breen (Walter Miller). Slade infiltrated Breen’s gang and posed as a thug named Cy, while Red attacked Breen’s smuggling operation from the outside, and together they managed to bring Breen to justice. Withers did an excellent job in the role, conveying genuine frustration at having to be a fugitive, and showing the villainous talents he would utilize later in his career in the scenes where Slade was posing as a villain. Though Grant was second lead to Jones in THE RED RIDER, his part was still a pivotal one and his good performance made Universal decide to keep this actor around for a while longer.

Above: Grant Withers, Buck Jones, and Marion Shilling in THE RED RIDER (Universal, 1934).

Withers' next serial was TAILSPIN TOMMY (Universal, 1934). Based on the comic strip by Hal Forrest, the serial chronicled the adventures of Tommy Tompkins (Maurice Murphy), a young mechanic who dreamed of becoming a pilot. Withers was Tommy's mentor Milt Howe, a pilot who helps the young would-be aviator fulfill his dream, and also aids him in combating the villainous airborne schemes of Tiger Taggart (John Davidson). Withers did a great job as Howe, and convinced the serial world that he was fully capable of handling some starring roles.

Above: Al Ferguson (far left) has the drop on Maurice Murphy (second from left) and Grant Withers (far right) in this scene from TAILSPIN TOMMY (Universal, 1934). Slim Whittaker is the other bad guy in this scene.

The first of Grant's starring serials was THE FIGHTING MARINES (Mascot, 1935). He played Marine Corporal Lawrence, who joined with Sergeant McGowan (Adrian Morris) to battle the evil schemes of a masked mystery villain known as the Tiger Shark, who was out to protect his secret island hideout from discovery by the law. The Shark's means of transportation was a futuristic "flying wing", and he gave the Marines a hard time until they finally uncovered his identity. Though Withers’ character ranked below Morris’, Grant was still the star of FIGHTING MARINES and aided in making the serial--Mascot’s final release--one of their most enduringly popular.

Above: A poster for THE FIGHTING MARINES (Mascot, 1935). In the inset photo, Grant Withers (far left) and Adrian Morris bring a suspect (J. Frank Glendon) before Colonel Bennett (Robert Warwick, seated).

Above: Grant Withers (left) and Adrian Morris are trapped in a compacting room in THE FIGHTING MARINES (Mascot, 1935).

In 1936, Withers returned to Universal for another comic-strip serial: JUNGLE JIM, based on the character created by Alex Raymond. Withers, of course, was Jungle Jim, who was asked to lead a safari into the jungles in search of lost heiress Joan Redmond (Betty Jane Rhodes). The heiress had been presumed lost at sea with her parents as a child, but Tyler (Selmer Jackson), the Redmond family lawyer, suspected that she was actually living as the Lion Goddess of a remote jungle tribe, , and sought Jim’s help in finding her. Jim declined because of a prior safari engagement, but recommended his pal Red Halloran (Frank McGlynn Jr.) as guide instead. However, Bruce Redmond (Bryant Washburn), Joan’s uncle, decided to ensure his continued possession of the family fortune by heading his own safari in an attempt to kill the girl. Redmond also had his henchman LaBatt murder Tyler and Red, but this proved a mistake, as Jim vowed revenge and set out with his friend Malay Mike (Raymond Hatton) to find Joan Redmond and to track down the killers of Red. The heroes succeeded in both goals, but not before running into lots of trouble from the Basumba natives, LaBatt and his partner Slade (Al Bridge), and escaped criminals The Cobra and Shanghai Lil (Henry Brandon and Evelyn Brent). JIM was one of Universal’s best non-Western serials, thanks to Withers’ sincere portrayal of the hero, the peerless supporting cast and the exotic setting.

Above: Jungle Jim (Grant Withers), Joan Redmond/the Lion Goddess (Betty Jane Rhodes), and Malay Mike (Raymond Hatton) in the classic JUNGLE JIM (Universal, 1936).

Grant made his final starring serial the next year--RADIO PATROL, which was also based on a comic strip. Withers played radio patrolman Pat O'Hara, who attempted to solve the murder of an inventor and became involved in a complicated mystery involving a formula for flexible steel, a hypnotic Middle Eastern ambassador (Frank Lackteen), a crooked industrialist (Gordon Hart), and a mystery killer. With the help of his partner Sam (Adrian Morris), the inventor's son Pinky (Mickey Rentschler), and heroine Molly Selkirk (Catherine Hughes), O'Hara cracked the case and won himself a promotion to the detective squad. A little-known but very well-done serial, RADIO PATROL proved a perfect vehicle for Withers, whose no-nonsense toughness lent itself well to the part of a level-headed cop.

Above: Pat O'Hara (Grant Withers) looks like he's about to get squashed in this cliffhanger from RADIO PATROL (Universal, 1937).

Withers' last serial role was a foretaste of the type of parts he would play for the rest of his career. In THE SECRET OF TREASURE ISLAND (Columbia, 1938), Grant played Grindley, the vicious, nasty henchman of a villain called the Shark (not to be confused with the Tiger Shark, from the earlier FIGHTING MARINES). He was exceptionally convincing in the role, showing how versatile he could be. Early on, Grant's character Gridley started operating independently of his boss (Walter Miller) and caused lots of trouble for everyone in the serial with his violent, unexpected attacks. A volcanic eruption finally claimed Withers in the last chapter; he was too busy attempting to explode heroine Gwen Gaze and hero Don Terry to make good his escape from the island.

Above: The mustached Grant Withers engages in a fierce struggle with Don Terry in the back of a speeding ambulance in SECRET OF TREASURE ISLAND (Columbia, 1938).

Withers’ cliffhanger work finally was enough to win him the attention of Hollywood again, and he embarked on a steady string of roles in A and B movies. One of his last sympathetic roles was as a heroic oilman in John Wayne’s WAR OF THE WILDCATS in 1942; afterwards, Grant was almost always a villain. And a great villain he was, a staple at Republic Pictures throughout the forties and early fifties in films like THE SAVAGE HORDE and THE LAST BANDIT--and a regular in John Ford’s westerns as well. He appeared as the bullying Ike Clanton in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, as a corrupt Indian Agent in FORT APACHE, and as a dogged but honest marshal pursuing Ben Johnson in RIO GRANDE, to name but a few. His fellow Ford stock company members, John Wayne and Ward Bond, kept Withers working through the fifties, but the fall from movie star to cliffhanger star to character actor, as well as numerous personal problems, had taken a sad emotional toll on Withers, and he ended his own life in 1959. His final performance, in a 1960 episode of WAGON TRAIN filmed before his tragic death, was one of his best. Grant played an embittered cattle baron whose only son is killed in a gunfight by musician Ricardo Montalban; Withers plans to take vengeance by having Montalban hung, but relents when Montalban’s sweetheart pleads with him and reminds Withers of his own long-dead wife.

Whatever he may have thought of his own talent, Grant Withers was in reality a great actor. Anyone who can so convincingly portray both dedicated crusading spirit (as he did in JUNGLE JIM, RADIO PATROL, and FIGHTING MARINES) and brutal, menacing evil (as he did in SECRET OF TREASURE ISLAND and subsequent movies) deserves to be praised as a truly talented man. Serial fans rarely even think of Withers in connection with the cliffhangers, but if Buster Crabbe was the 1930s’ King of non-western serial heroes, than Grant Withers was easily the Crown Prince.

Above: A poster for JUNGLE JIM (Universal, 1936), featuring Grant Withers and Betty Jane Rhodes.