Ben Bard

Ben Bard entered theatrical life in his teens, touring under the name "B.D. Bard" with the Jolly Della Pringle theatre company. He played the Schubert Circuit in Vaudeville as the straight man to comic Jack "Baron Munchausen" Pearl. He was brought to Hollywood in the silent movie era to test as a leading man at Fox Pictures but was type cast as a "Suave Heavy" (dresses well, talks smooth but is evil underneath). In the 1930s, he established Ben Bard Drama, one of the largest and most respected acting schools in Hollywood. It had an attached theatre company that produced stage classics and West Coast premieres of contemporary American plays. Distinguished graduates of the school included Alan Ladd, Jack Carson, Shirley Temple, Gower Champion, Angie Dickinson, Cliff Robertson and Gig Young. In the 1950s, he was the head of the New Talent Department at Twentieth Century Fox.