Les Tremayne

Lester Tremayne (16 April 1913 – 19 December 2003) was a British actor who performed in Vaudeville, film, theatre, radio and television.

Tremayne was born in Balham, London. He moved with his family at the age of four to Chicago, Illinois, where he began in community theater. His mother, Dolly Tremayne, was a British actress. He danced as a vaudeville performer and worked as an amusement park barker. He began working in radio when he was 17 years old.

Tremayne studied Greek drama at Northwestern University and anthropology at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

In 1974, Tremayne commented, "I've been in more than 30 motion pictures, but it's from radio ... that most people remember me."

His radio career began in 1931, and during the 1930s and 1940s, Tremayne was often heard in more than one show per week. Replacing Don Ameche, he starred in The First Nighter Program from 1936 to 1942. He starred in The Adventures of the Thin Man and The Romance of Helen Trent during the 1940s. He also starred in the title role in The Falcon, and played detective Pat Abbott in Abbott Mysteries from 1946 to 1947. Tremayne was once named one of the three most distinctive voices on American radio. The other two were Bing Crosby and president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In his later years, Tremayne was active in Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters as the group's historian and archivist. Those roles included interviewing people who were active in early radio to provide source material for researchers. Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters materials are at American Radio Archives.

His film credits include A Man Called Peter, The Racket, The Angry Red Planet, The War of The Worlds, Say One for Me, North by Northwest, The Monolith Monsters, The Monster of Piedras Blancas, Fangs, and The Fortune Cookie.

Tremayne's Broadway credits include Detective Story (1949–1950) and Heads or Tails (1947).