John Payne's career went through so many phases that even longtime moviegoers could be forgiven for losing track of his successes — one round of pictures tended to eclipse an earlier round, mostly because his work was so different in each of them. He was born John Howard Payne in Roanoke, VA, in 1912, to a wealthy family whose ancestors included the composer — also named John Howard Payne — of the song "Home Sweet Home." The family still had a strong focus on music in his time, his mother having been a successful opera singer at the turn of the century. Payne studied music from an early age and proved a natural singer.

The family was left impoverished by the 1929 stock market crash, and his father passed away just a few months later, but that didn't stop the 18-year-old Payne from attending Columbia University in New York, as well as studying voice at the Juilliard School. He supported himself doing odd performing jobs, including singing on the vaudeville stage and wrestling professionally. In 1934, he was seen by a talent scout for the Schubert theatrical organization and put into their touring productions, and advanced from vaudeville to singing on the radio. He went out to Hollywood in 1935 under contract to Samuel Goldwyn and played supporting roles in a pair of the latter's films, most notably in William Wyler's …  » Read more