His popularity grew, and by 1937, Republic Pictures brought the character to television.
Dayton native Ralph Byrd was chosen from hundreds of applicants considered for the role of the ace detective.
Growing up in Dayton
Byrd was born in 1909 to George and Edna Dudhane Byrd, who lived at 419 Hulbert St.
Byrd graduated from Steele High School with the class of 1926.
At that time, he was well known for his activity in school plays and was also a member of the Little Theater group.
He appeared in the Dayton Theater Guild’s The Queen’s Husband and other stock company productions.
Byrd was also heavily involved with the Boy Scouts organization. He became an Eagle Scout from Dayton Troop 16, earning 37 merit badges.
After high school, Byrd worked as a secretary and later as insurance salesman with the Hooven-Huffman company.
He also worked for radio station WSMK, which later became WING.
Dick Tracy franchise
Byrd’s greatest fame was with his portrayal of Dick Tracy.
Byrd moved to Hollywood and got small parts in a number of movies before landing the Dick Tracy role. After he became established, his mother and a brother, Al, joined him in Hollywood.
Byrd appeared in four “Dick Tracy” 15-chapter serials. They were called, “Dick Tracy” (1937), and the others, in order, were, “Dick Tracy Returns” (1938), “Dick Tracy’s G-Men” (1939), and “Dick Tracy vs Crime, Inc.” (1941).
In the first movie, “Dick Tracy,” the main character went up against a master criminal called The Spider who put the famous detective’s brother under a hypnotic spell and turned him against Dick.
Each episode was filled with fast-paced action, often involving a car chase scene.
The serials were shown Saturday mornings at neighborhood theaters. The serials attracted huge audiences, mostly young people.
Each episode ended with a cliffhanger, the lead character in certain danger, which was always turned around when the next chapter appeared.
In 1945, when RKO bought the screen rights to the comic strip and decided to do four new films on the comic detective, they didn’t use Byrd in the first two, “Dick Tracy” (1945) and “Dick Tracy vs. Cueball” (1946).
Tracy fans, however, didn’t want to see anyone other than Byrd as the detective, so the studio restored Byrd to the role in the last two feature films, “Dick Tracy’s Dilemma” and “Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome,” both of which were done in 1947.
In 1951, Byrd took Dick Tracy to ABC television. The series only lasted half a season.
Other career highlights
Byrd had an 18-year career in Hollywood both as a leading man and as a character actor.
During his film career he was a contract player for RKO and 20th-Century Fox.
Byrd became known as the “Serial King.”
“The Vigilante” was another serial in which he played the title role for 15 episodes.
He appeared in more than 30 movies. His first being “Hellship Morgan,” in 1936.
He starred in the Alexander Korda movie, “Jungle Book.” Other productions in which he appeared included “The Redhead and the Cowboy,” “Canon City,” “Stage Struck,” “Waterloo Bridge,” “Phantom Valley,” “Guadalcanal Diary” and more.
Byrd married Virginia Carroll, an actress who appeared with him in “Waterloo Bridge” and “The Phantom Cowboy.” The couple had a daughter, named Carol.
A serious auto accident slowed down his film career in the late 1940s, but he was eventually able to return to acting.
Byrd died in 1952 when he was only 43. Some accounts list the cause of his death as a sudden heart attack suffered while sitting in his car waiting for his wife to finish shopping. However, Carroll claimed that he actually died of cancer in the Sawtelle Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles.
About the Author
