John Dall

Sensitive, soulful-eyed actor John Dall was trained at the Theodore Irvine School of the Theater and the Pasadena Playhouse. On the strength of his leading role in the original 1944 Broadway production of Dear Ruth, Dall was brought to Hollywood. In 1946, he earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of bookish, young Welsh coal miner Morgan Evans, the alter ego of playwright Emlyn Williams, in the cinema adaptation of Williams' play The Corn Is Green. Though his subsequent screen work was limited, he was most impressive as the homosexual murderer in Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and the fire arms-obsessed bank robber in Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy (1949). After a long absence from the screen, Dall returned in 1960 to essay character roles in the costume dramas Spartacus (1960) and Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961). John Dall succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 52.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide