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Jack Webb
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Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.
Webb started his career in the 1940s as a radio personality, starring in several radio shows and dramas—including Dragnet, which he created in 1949—before entering television in the 1950s, creating the television adaptation of Dragnet for NBC as well as other series. Throughout the 1960s, Webb worked in both acting and television production, creating Adam-12 in 1968, and in 1970, Webb retired from acting to focus on producing, creating Emergency! in 1972. Webb continued to make television series, and although many of them were less successful and short-lived, he wished to rekindle his prior successes, and had plans to return to acting in a Dragnet revival before he died.
Webb's production style aimed for significant levels of detail and accuracy. Many of his works focused on law enforcement and emergency services in the Los Angeles area, most prominently the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which directly supported the production of Dragnet and Adam-12.
Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, on April 2, 1920, son of Samuel Chester Webb and Margaret (née Smith) Webb. He grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. His father left home before Webb was born, and Webb never knew him.[failed verification]
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in Echo Park, where he served as an altar boy. He then attended Belmont High School, near downtown Los Angeles, where he was elected student body president. He wrote to Belmont's student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook, Campanile, "You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever." Webb attended St. John's University, Minnesota, where he studied art.
During World War II, Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, but he "washed out" of flight training. He later received a hardship discharge because he was the primary financial support for both his mother and grandmother.
Following his discharge, Webb moved to San Francisco, where a wartime shortage of announcers led to a temporary appointment to his own radio show on ABC's KGO Radio. The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946. Prior to that, he had a one-man program, One Out of Seven, on KGO in which he dramatized a news story from the previous week.
By 1949, Webb had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in Pat Novak, for Hire, a radio show originating from KFRC about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective. The program co-starred Raymond Burr. Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated the hardboiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler, with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky — like a furnace full of marshmallows." Early in 1949, Webb served as the main antagonist of Alan Ladd's protagonist character Dan Holliday in "The Better Man" episode of the radio series Box 13, which aired on January 2, 1949.
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Jack Webb
John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.
Webb started his career in the 1940s as a radio personality, starring in several radio shows and dramas—including Dragnet, which he created in 1949—before entering television in the 1950s, creating the television adaptation of Dragnet for NBC as well as other series. Throughout the 1960s, Webb worked in both acting and television production, creating Adam-12 in 1968, and in 1970, Webb retired from acting to focus on producing, creating Emergency! in 1972. Webb continued to make television series, and although many of them were less successful and short-lived, he wished to rekindle his prior successes, and had plans to return to acting in a Dragnet revival before he died.
Webb's production style aimed for significant levels of detail and accuracy. Many of his works focused on law enforcement and emergency services in the Los Angeles area, most prominently the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which directly supported the production of Dragnet and Adam-12.
Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, on April 2, 1920, son of Samuel Chester Webb and Margaret (née Smith) Webb. He grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. His father left home before Webb was born, and Webb never knew him.[failed verification]
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in Echo Park, where he served as an altar boy. He then attended Belmont High School, near downtown Los Angeles, where he was elected student body president. He wrote to Belmont's student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook, Campanile, "You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever." Webb attended St. John's University, Minnesota, where he studied art.
During World War II, Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, but he "washed out" of flight training. He later received a hardship discharge because he was the primary financial support for both his mother and grandmother.
Following his discharge, Webb moved to San Francisco, where a wartime shortage of announcers led to a temporary appointment to his own radio show on ABC's KGO Radio. The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946. Prior to that, he had a one-man program, One Out of Seven, on KGO in which he dramatized a news story from the previous week.
By 1949, Webb had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in Pat Novak, for Hire, a radio show originating from KFRC about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective. The program co-starred Raymond Burr. Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated the hardboiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler, with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky — like a furnace full of marshmallows." Early in 1949, Webb served as the main antagonist of Alan Ladd's protagonist character Dan Holliday in "The Better Man" episode of the radio series Box 13, which aired on January 2, 1949.
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