Actor, Film Director. He is probably best remembered as the narrator and host of the May 8, 1945 CBS Radio broadcast of writer Norman Corwin’s epic dramatic poem “On a Note of Triumph,” a commemoration of the fall of the Nazi regime in Germany and the end of World War II in Europe. The broadcast was so popular that the CBS, NBC, Blue and Mutual networks broadcast a second live production of the program five days later and Columbia Masterworks record label subsequently published an album of the latter production. One of the original members of Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre, he played ‘Javert’ in the radio adaptation of “Les Misérables,” and he portrayed ‘Cassius’ in the company’s 1937 modern-dress production of “Julius Caesar.” In 1961 he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor for the comedy “Big Fish, Little Fish” and was also noted for his performances in the Broadway productions of “Baker Street” (1965), in which he played ‘Professor Moriarty’ and “The Rivalry,” in which he played ‘Stephen A. Douglas’. In 1947 he made his first and only foray into film directing with the “The Lost Moment.” He appeared in a number of films over his career, usually in small roles, including the role of crime boss ‘Tomas Rienzi’ in Richard Brooks’s “Deadline U.S.A.” (1952, with Humphrey Bogart), the narrator in “The James Dean Story” (1957), the narrator in “The Making of the President 1960” (1963), businessman ‘Mr. Strutt’ in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie” (1964, with Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery), another mob figure in “Lady in Cement” (1968, with Frank Sinatra), ‘Warden Francis LeGoff” in “There Was a Crooked Man…” (1970, with Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas), the psychiatrist in the Billy Wilder version of “The Front Page” (1974, with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon), then co-starred again with Sinatra in “Contract on Cherry Street” (1974) and “The First Deadly Sin” (1980). He was also a frequent guest panelist on the popular CBS Television Sunday night game show “What’s My Line?.” He died of a heart attack at the age of 73. In 2005 the production of “On a Note of Triumph” became the title focus of the Academy Award-winning short film “A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin”, the 60th anniversary year of the broadcast. He was the husband of actress, radio talk show host, and television game show panelist Arlene Francis. (bio by: William Bjornstad)  Family links:  Spouse:  Arlene Francis (1907 – 2001)Cause of death: Heart attack Inscription:Beloved Husband & Father