RALPH BYRD
April 22nd, 1909 -- August 18th, 1952

Above: Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy in the 1947 RKO feature DICK TRACY'S DILEMMA.

Ralph Byrd IS Dick Tracy. Few serial fans would argue with that statement. Byrd played Chester Gould's legendary detective no less than seven times, first in four Republic serials, then in two RKO features, and finally in a TV show produced by Snader Productions, each time assuming an efficient, capable, resourceful manner that seemed to fit the character perfectly. Despite Morgan Conway, who did a good job as Tracy in two earlier RKO features, Byrd will forever be regarded by most folks as the definitive Dick Tracy. However, Byrd was not just a non-actor who was lucky enough to get typecast; he had a wide range of talent that is too often obscured by his identification with Tracy. Ralph’s commanding presence and dedication to duty (on and off screen) helped to make him one of the best of all the serial heroes, but there were other serial heroes with these attributes. It was the incredible energy and sincerity that Byrd brought to his performances that set him above the rest.

Ralph Byrd was born in Dayton, Ohio, and began his acting career on the Broadway stage as a singer and dancer. His first serial--and one of his first films--was Mascot’s THE ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY (Mascot, 1935), in which he supported Kane Richmond in the uncredited role of a forest ranger. For the next two years, Byrd knocked about in B-westerns (such as Tim McCoy's BORDER CABALLERO) and other low-budget films, playing roles of various importance, but when Republic cast him as Dick Tracy in the serial of the same name, "his acting fate was sealed", as Alan Barbour says. DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937) had Byrd, as G-man Dick Tracy (Republic changed Tracy's comic strip position of a big city police detective to that of a FBI agent), battling the Spider Ring, a vicious gang of criminals headed by a mysterious mastermind known as the Lame One. The Lame One (also called the Spider on occasion) was aided by a maniacal hunchback doctor named Moloch (superbly played by John Piccorri) who performed an operation on Tracy's brother Gordon, transforming him into a zombie-like criminal. Gordon then became the Spider Ring's main agent for evil, and the fifteen chapter serial chronicled the struggle of the two Tracy brothers, one representing the forces of law and order, and the other the forces of crime. Carleton Young gave a very memorable performance as the transformed Gordon Tracy, matching Byrd's equally strong presence. Tracy was aided by his secretary, Gwen Andrews (Republic dropped Tracy's comic-strip girlfriend, Tess Trueheart), played by Kay Hughes, his adopted son Junior (played by Lee Van Atta; Junior was the only character besides Tracy carried over from the strip to the serials) and his fellow G-men Steve Lockwood (Fred Hamilton) and Mike McGurk (popular Republic comic sidekick Smiley Burnette, in his only non-western role at the studio). Republic had fought like wildcats to get the rights to Tracy, beating out Columbia and Universal, and they did the character justice. DICK TRACY was a high-quality, atmospheric, and involving serial.

Above: Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) and his boat are about to be crushed between two ocean liners in another scene from DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937).

Above: Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) points the way as he and his sidekick Steve Lockwood (Fred Hamilton) descend from an airplane in DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937).

Byrd's next serial was a big drop for someone who had just done a popular Republic. BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD, released by cheapo Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures in 1937, was a rather off-the-wall release in all departments. Byrd was top-billed, and the publicity material used his name as the serial's big selling point, but he was put into a supporting role that was a kind of combination of sidekick, romantic lead, and inventor-pawn. Byrd's character, Jerry Sheehan, had invented a death ray in collaboration with his fiancee, Hope Mason (Joan Barclay). They intended to turn the ray over to the League of Nations to insure world peace, but a villain called the Scopion kept trying to steal it and put it to sinister use. The real hero was Herbert Rawlinson, as Sir James Blake, Hope's uncle. It was Blake who saved the day time and again, and managed to unmask the Scorpion in the end, while Byrd was mostly relegated to the background.

Above: Ralph Byrd (left) and Herbert Rawlinson bend over the unconscious Joan Barclay in this crop from a lobby card for BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD (Victory, 1937).

Byrd was back at Republic for SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937). He played the part of Terry Kent, a Coast Guard officer who battles a European master spy named Boroff (the great Bela Lugosi) and tries to prevent him from obtaining a deadly disintregration gas that the evil scientist intends to sell to a foreign power. Byrd as Kent was supported by Maxine Doyle (William Witney's wife in real life) as newspaper reporter Jean Norman, and by Lee Ford (later to play Mike McGurk in Byrd's second Tracy serial) as photographer Snapper McGee. Like the first TRACY serial, COAST GUARD was a very eerie and atmospheric production, but it improved on TRACY in pacing and tight plotting, thanks in part to the direction of young William Witney.

Above, from left to right: Richard Alexander, Bela Lugosi, Maxine Doyle, and Ralph Byrd on a poster for the 1940 feature version of SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937).

DICK TRACY RETURNS (Republic, 1938), marked Dick Tracy's return to the screen, as may be inferred by the title. This time Tracy was battling the evil Stark gang, a family of criminals headed by Pa Stark (the incomparably evil Charles Middleton). Tracy goes after the Starks when the criminal clan murders his friend, a rookie G-man named Ron Merton (David Sharpe). Tracy was again aided by Gwen, Junior, Steve, and Mike, but the team was played by different actors: Lynne Roberts, Jerry Tucker, Michael Kent, and Lee Ford, respectively. Stark's sons were played by John Merton (Champ), Jack Ingram (Slasher), Jack Roberts (Dude), Raphael Bennet (Trigger), and Ned Glass (Kid). Tracy and his G-men wiped out the entire felonious family, but only after an intense fifteen-chapter battle (All the Tracy serials were fifteen chapters, as a matter of fact). Directed by William Witney and John English, DICK TRACY RETURNS was a decided improvement over DICK TRACY, and one of Republic's most entertaining serials. Despite the considerable talents of Middleton and the rest, Byrd dominated the serial all the way.

Above: Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) is trapped in a gas chamber in a scene from DICK TRACY RETURNS (Republic, 1938).

DICK TRACY'S G-MEN was the next Tracy, released by Republic in 1939. Nicholas Zarnoff, international spy and saboteur (Irving Pichel) after being apparently executed in the gas chamber, returns from the dead to give Tracy a run for his money. Tracy was still aided by Gwen Andrews and Steve Lockwood, but Junior and Mike were dropped, and the actors playing Steve and Gwen once again switched. Ted Pearson was Steve, and future star Jennifer Jones (billed as Phyllis Isley, which was her real name) played Gwen. Anyway, DICK TRACY'S G-MEN was another extremely well-done cliffhanger, benefiting from Republic's ever increasing professional expertise. Once again, Byrd faced an extremely talented heavy, and still emerged with top acting honors.

Above: A lobby card for DICK TRACY'S G-MEN (Republic, 1939), the third Tracy serial. Byrd (hatless) and Ted Pearson are untying an old lighthouse keeper (Budd Buster), a victim of Zarnoff's spy ring, while other G-men watch. Ted Mapes is on the far left. The card says Chapter Seven, but the actual scene is from Chapter Three.

Above: Gwen Andrews (Jennifer Jones) and Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) in DICK TRACY'S G-MEN (Republic, 1939).

The final (and, many feel, the best) Dick Tracy adventure was released in 1941: DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC. Tracy faced another mystery villain, the Ghost, who was out to destroy the Council of Eight, a group of influential New York citizens who had (with the help of Tracy) smashed the crime ring of his brother Rackets Reagan and sent Reagan to the electric chair. Gwen and Steve were nowhere in sight in this one; Tracy received help from June Chandler, daughter of a murdered Council member, and a new assistant named Bill Carr (Michael Owen). With three of the Council members dead by the end of the first episode, it becomes clear that one of the surviving five must be the Ghost. But which one? Robert Fiske, Ralph Morgan, Hooper Atchely, John Dilson, and Robert Frazer were the suspect Council members, while John Davidson had one of his best roles as the Ghost's lieutenant Lucifer, who devised an ingenious invisibility machine that enabled his boss to carry out his crimes. DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC. was Witney and English's last serial together, Byrd's last Republic serial, and the last Tracy serial, and it was a more than fitting finale for the directors, the actor, and the character.

Above: Byrd (hatless again) and another G-man shoot it out with gangsters in DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC., Byrd's last Dick Tracy serial.

Byrd left serials for a while, hoping to break into bigger films, and managed to land some decent supporting roles in films like Zoltan Korda’s JUNGLE BOOK and the Michael Shayne murder mystery TIME TO KILL. He couldn’t entirely escape from his Tracy image, though, and, as mentioned earlier in the article, returned to the role for two very entertaining thrillesr, DICK TRACY'S DILLEMA and DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME, both made by RKO in 1947.

Ralph also did one more serial in 1947: Columbia's THE VIGILANTE. Byrd played Greg Saunders, the Western movie star, who assumes the guise of the masked Vigilante to fight a mysterious rash of robberies and murders that seem to center around a group of magnificent white "Arabanian" stallions. VIGILANTE is one of the best of the later Columbias, due in large part to Byrd's strong performance. Ralph did a great job handling a comic-book character with no similarity to Tracy, showing his true versatility. He even got to sing some songs, surprising a lot of fans who had never known of his Broadway background.

Above: Ralph Byrd, as the Vigilante's alter ego, B-western star Greg Saunders, sings and strums a guitar with the best of them in THE VIGILANTE (Columbia, 1947).

Byrd was starring in the Dick Tracy TV show when he passed away from a heart attack. The square-jawed, authoritative actor left this world far too soon, but his fans will always remember him as a wise, unshakable, and undefeatable serial hero, who never let anything stand in the way of his battle against evil.

One final photo of Byrd...as Dick Tracy, naturally.