John Hart

Tall and athletic, and possessed of "movie star" good looks, 'John Hart' (qv) acted on the stage of the renowned Pasadena Playhouse as a young man, before making his screen debut in a supporting role in director 'Cecil B. DeMille' (qv)'s big-budget _The Buccaneer (1938)_ (qv). With these physical assets and early acting credentials, the native Los Angeleno seemed bound for bigger and better things but military service slowed his momentum: Returning to Hollywood after World War II, he found himself back at the proverbial starting line. Hart soon fell into the low-budget Western and serial rut, but he served with distinction in many youth-oriented productions: He was the perfect embodiment of radio-comic strip hero Jack Armstrong in a 1947 serial, rode the Western plains in 52 episodes of TV's _The Lone Ranger (1949)_ (qv) (playing the Masked Man) and brought life to 'James Fenimore Cooper' (qv)'s courageous frontiersman Hawkeye in TV's _Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans (1957)_ (qv). In more recent years, he worked behind-the-scenes (as a cameraman, post-production supervisor, dubbing supervisor, etc.).::'Tom Weaver' (qv) <tomweaver@aol.com>