Wallace Ford and his wife were friends of Thelma Todd's.

Wallace Ford

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Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford in Central Park (1932)
Born	Samuel Jones Grundy (1898-02-12)12 February 1898 Bolton, Lancashire, England, U.K.
Died	11 June 1966(1966-06-11) (aged 68) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Wally Ford
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–1965
Spouse(s)	Martha Haworth (m. 1922 – 1966)

Wallace Ford (12 February, 1898 – 11 June, 1966) was an English film and television actor who, with his friendly appearance and stocky build later in life, appeared in a number of film westerns and B-films.
Born Samuel Jones Grundy in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he spent childhood in a Dr. Barnardo's home. At an early age he was adopted by a farmer from Manitoba, Canada where he was ill treated. About the age of eleven, he ran away and did odd jobs later becoming an usher in a theatre.
Following his discharge from the army after World War I, he became a vaudeville actor in a stock company before performing on Broadway.^[1]
He started on a film career when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave him part in the film Possessed and went on to appear in over 200 films including 13 directed by John Ford. (The two were unrelated.)
He also appeared in a 1964 episode of The Andy Griffith Show as Roger Hanover, Aunt Bee's old flame, which originally aired October 19th. Twenty months later, Ford died. He is buried with an unmarked grave in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Partial filmography

X Marks the Spot (1931)
Freaks (1932)
Three-Cornered Moon (1933)
The Lost Patrol (1934)
The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)
The Informer (1935)
Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935)
The Rogues Tavern (1936)
O.H.M.S. (1937)
Of Mice And Men (1937)
The Mummy's Hand (1940)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The Cross of Lorraine (1943)
Spellbound (1945)*The Green Years (1946)
T-Men (1947)
Dead Reckoning (1947)
Coroner Creek (1948)
Embraceable You (1948)
The Set-Up (1949)
Red Stallion in the Rockies (1949)
Harvey (1950)
He Ran All The Way (1951)
She Couldn't Say No (1954)
The Boy from Oklahoma (1954)
Destry (1954)
Lucy Gallant (1955)
Wichita (1955)
The Man From Laramie (1955)
A Lawless Street (1955)
Twilight for the Gods (1958)
The Matchmaker (1958)
Warlock (1959)
A Patch of Blue (1965)

Television

Father Knows Best (1954)
Justice (1954)
Damon Runyon Theatre (1955)
The Andy Griffith Show (1964)

References

^ Hal Erickson, Allmovie biography on Wallace Ford

External links

Wallace Ford at the Internet Movie Database
Wallace Ford at the Internet Broadway Database
Wallace Ford at Find a Grave
Literature on Wallace Ford

* * *

Today, Wallace Ford might be remembered as much for his appearences in the "Mummy" movies as for anything else he did, although he had a long and successful career in the movies and later worked on television. His wife Martha is mentioned in connection with Thelma Todd in various accounts because of her testimony that she had talked to Thelma Todd on the phone the afternoon before she was found dead: the authorities insisted that Thelma Todd must already have been dead at that time and that Mrs. Ford must have been mistaken. A sad aftermath for a festive occasion at any event.

Thelma Todd and Wallace Ford can be seen in one of the photos on this page in the January 1935 issue of PHOTOPLAY.

Leo Carillo, Joan Blondell, Pat O'Brien, and Wallace Ford at barbeque.

Anita Page at one of Wallace Ford's parties.

Anita Page was there at the party when Mrs. Wallace Ford recieved a call from Thelma Todd the day before she was found dead. But according to the authorities, Thelma Todd would already have been dead at that time and could not have made the call.

Mrs. Wallace Ford