Opal Wright
Who was Jack Webb 's spouse from 1980 to 1982?
Jack Webb John Randolph Webb ( April 2 , 1920 – December 23 , 1982 ) was an American actor , television producer , director , and screenwriter , who is most famous for his role as Sgt . Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise ( which he created ) . He was also the founder of his own production company , Mark VII Limited . Early life . Webb was born in Santa Monica , California , on April 2 , 1920 , son of Samuel Chester Webb and Margaret ( née Smith ) Webb . He grew up in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles . His father left home before Webb was born , and Webb never knew him . Webb was raised in the Catholic faith of his mother . One of the tenants in his mothers boarding house was a former jazz musician , who began Webbs lifelong interest in jazz by giving him a recording of Bix Beiderbeckes At the Jazz Band Ball . In the late 1920s and early 1930s , Webb lived in the parish of Our Lady of Loretto Church and attended Our Lady of Loretto Elementary School in Echo Park , where he served as an altar boy . He then attended Belmont High School , near downtown Los Angeles . Webb was elected student body president of his high school . He wrote to Belmonts student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook , Campanile , You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know , and you know , I will carry with me forever . Webb attended St . Johns University , Minnesota , where he studied art . During World War II , Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps , but he washed out of flight training . He later received a hardship discharge because he was the primary financial support for both his mother and grandmother . Career . Acting . Following his discharge , he moved to San Francisco , where a wartime shortage of announcers led to a temporary appointment to his own radio show on ABCs KGO Radio . The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946 . Prior to that , he had a one-man program , One Out of Seven , on KGO in which he dramatized a news story from the previous week . By 1949 , he had abandoned comedy for drama , and starred in Pat Novak , for Hire , a radio show originating from KFRC about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective . The program co-starred Raymond Burr . Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated the hard-boiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler , with lines such as : She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke . Her voice was hot and sticky—like a furnace full of marshmallows . Early in 1949 , Webb served as the main antagonist of Alan Ladds protagonist character Dan Holliday in The Better Man episode of the radio series Box 13 , which aired on January 2 , 1949 . Webbs radio shows included Johnny Madero , Pier 23 , Jeff Regan , Investigator , Murder and Mr . Malone , Pete Kellys Blues , and One Out of Seven . Webb provided all of the voices on One Out of Seven , often vigorously attacking racial prejudice . Webbs most famous motion-picture role was as the combat-hardened Marine Corps drill instructor at Parris Island in the 1957 film The D.I. , with Don Dubbins as a callow Marine private . Webbs hard-nosed approach to this role , that of Drill Instructor Technical Sergeant James Moore , would be reflected in much of his later acting . But The D.I . was a box-office failure . Webb was approached to play the role of Vernon Wormer , Dean of Faber College , in National Lampoons Animal House , but he turned it down , saying the movie didnt make any damn sense ; John Vernon ultimately played the role . Dragnet and stardom . Webb had a featured role as a crime-lab technician in the 1948 film He Walked by Night , based on the real-life murder of a California Highway Patrolman by Erwin Walker . The film was produced in semidocumentary style with technical assistance provided by Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn of the Los Angeles Police Department ( LAPD ) . He Walked By Nights thinly veiled fictionalized recounting of the 1946 Walker crime spree gave Webb the idea for Dragnet : a recurring series based on real cases from LAPD police files , featuring authentic depictions of the modern police detective , including methods , mannerisms , and technical language . With much assistance from Sgt . Marty Wynn and legendary LAPD chief William H . Parker , Dragnet premiered on NBC Radio in 1949 and ran till 1957 . It was also picked up as a television series by NBC , which aired episodes each season from 1952 to 1959 . Webb played Sgt . Joe Friday and Barton Yarborough co-starred as Sgt . Ben Romero . After Yarboroughs death , Ben Alexander joined the cast . Webb was a stickler for attention to detail . He believed viewers wanted realism and tried to give it to them . Webb had tremendous respect for those in law enforcement . He often said , in interviews , that he was angry about the ridiculous amount of abuse to which police were subjected by the press and the public . Webb was also impressed by the long hours , the low pay , and the high injury rate among police investigators of the day , particularly in the LAPD , which had by then acquired a notorious reputation for jettisoning officers who had become ill or injured in the line of duty ; in Webbs book , The Badge : True and Terrifying Crime Stories that Could Not Be Presented on TV , from the Creator and Star of Dragnet , one of Erwin Walkers victims , LAPD detective Lt . Colin Forbes , was among those whose experiences were so noted . In announcing his vision of Dragnet , Webb said he intended to perform a service for the police by showing them as low-key working-class heroes . Dragnet moved away from earlier portrayals of the police in shows such as Jeff Regan and Pat Novak , which had often shown them as brutal and even corrupt . Dragnet became a successful television show in 1952 . Barton Yarborough died of a heart attack in 1951 , after filming only two episodes , and Barney Phillips ( Sgt . Ed Jacobs ) and Herbert Ellis ( Officer Frank Smith ) temporarily stepped in as partners . Veteran radio and film actor Ben Alexander took over the role of jovial , burly Officer Frank Smith . Alexander was popular and remained a cast member until the shows cancellation in 1959 . In 1954 , a full-length feature-film adaptation of the series was released , starring Webb , Alexander , and Richard Boone . The television version of Dragnet began with this narration by George Fenneman : Ladies and gentlemen , the story you are about to see is true . The names have been changed to protect the innocent . Webb would intone , This is the city : Los Angeles , California . He would then make a historical or topical point , describe his duties , his partner , and superior on the episode . The radio series had a similar opening , though Webb , as Friday , did not give a unique LA-themed opening . Webb then set the plot by describing a typical day and then led into the story . It was Wednesday , March 19th . It was cool in Los Angeles . I was at headquarters , working narcotics.. . At the end of each show , Fenneman repeated his opening narration , revised to read : The story you have just seen is true . The names were changed to protect the innocent . A second announcer , Hal Gibney , usually gave dates when and specific courtrooms where trials were held for the suspects , announcing the trial verdicts after commercial breaks . Many suspects shown to have been found guilty at the end were also shown as having been confined to the California State Prison at San Quentin . Webb frequently recreated entire floors of buildings on sound stages , such as the police headquarters at Los Angeles City Hall and a floor of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner . In Dragnets early days , Webb continued to appear in movies , notably as the best friend of William Holdens character in the 1950 Billy Wilder film as Artie Green , assistant director and fiancé to script reader Betty Schaefer ( Nancy Olson ) in Sunset Boulevard . In 1950 , Webb appeared alongside future 1960s Dragnet partner Harry Morgan in the film noir Dark City . In contrast to the pairs straight-arrow image in Dragnet , here Webb played a vicious card sharp in Dark City and Morgan a punch-drunk ex-fighter . Also in 1950 , Webb appeared in The Men , the film in which Marlon Brando made his film debut . Both actors played paraplegics undergoing rehabilitation at a veterans hospital . In a subplot , Webbs character , a cynical intellectual , is fleeced of his life savings by a woman who feigns romantic interest . In 1951 , Webb introduced a short-lived radio series , Pete Kellys Blues , in an attempt to bring the music he loved to a broader audience . That show became the basis for a 1955 film of the same name . In 1959 , a television version was made . Neither was very successful . Pete Kelly was a cornet player who supplemented his income from playing in a nightclub band by working as a private investigator . 1960s . In 1963 , Webb took over from William T . Orr as executive producer of the ABC/Warner Bros . detective series 77 Sunset Strip . He brought about wholesale changes in the program and retained only Efrem Zimbalist , Jr. , in the role of private detective Stuart Bailey . Gone were co-stars Roger Smith and Edd Byrnes and the lively series set . The altered program began with Bailey quietly entering an elevator to an upper floor of a bleak office building . The story lines were far different from those of the first five years of the series . The result was a disaster , and critics accused Webb of being out of touch with the younger generation , a perception that the revival of Dragnet subsequently did nothing to correct . Ratings fell , and 77 Sunset Strip was cancelled before the end of the sixth season . John Gavins Destry , a light-hearted Western series , filled the remaining three months of the Friday-night time slot vacated on ABC by 77 Sunset Strip . Meanwhile , Webb teamed with actor Jeffrey Hunter to form Apollo Productions . They produced a failed television series , Temple Houston , with Hunter in the title role . In the summer of 1963 , Webb pushed Temple Houston to production . The series was loosely based on the life of the frontier lawyer Temple Lea Houston , the youngest son of the legendary Texan Sam Houston . The series was added to the NBC schedule after the planned drama , The Robert Taylor Show , based on case files of the United States Department of Health , Education and Welfare , was suddenly disbanded after making four episodes . Under orders from Webb , Temple Houston episodes were put together in just two or three days each , something previously thought impossible in television production . Work began on August 7 , 1963 , with the initial airing set for September 19 . Jimmy Lydon , a former child actor , adult actor , and a television producer with Warner Bros . at the time , recalled that Webb told the staff , Fellas , I just sold Temple Houston . We gotta be on the air in four weeks ; we cant use the pilot , we have no scripts , no nothing--do it ! Lydon recalled the team having worked around the clock to get Temple Houston on the air . Co-producer William Conrad directed six episodes , two scripts simultaneously on two different soundstages at WB . We bicycled Jeff ( series star Jeffrey Hunter ) and Elam ( supporting star Jack Elam ) between the two companies , and Bill shot em both in four-and-a-half days . Two complete one-hour shows ! recalled Lydon . Temple Houston ended after its 26-week run . In a 1965 interview with The Milwaukee Journal , Hunter described the situation : 1967 : Dragnet returns . Shortly after leaving his position at Warner Bros. , Webb teamed with Universal Television to begin work on a new Dragnet series . A pilot telefilm , based on the Harvey Glatman serial killings , was produced in 1966 for NBC , with Webbs Sgt . Joe Friday joined by Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon . Webb had tried to get Ben Alexander to reprise his role as Frank Smith , but he was unable to get Alexander to leave the ABC series Felony Squad . The new Dragnet premiered as a midseason replacement series on January 12 , 1967 , and aired until April 16 , 1970 . To distinguish it from the original series , the year of production was added to the title ( Dragnet 1967 , Dragnet 1968 , etc. ) . The revival emphasized crime prevention and outreach to the public . Its attempts to address the contemporary youth-drug culture ( such as the revivals first episode , The LSD Story , guest-starring Michael Burns as Benjamin John Blue Boy Carver , voted 85th-best TV episode of all time by TV Guide and TV Land ) have led certain episodes on the topic to achieve cult status due to their strained attempts to be with-it , such as Joe Friday grilling Blue Boy by asking him , Youre pretty high and far out , arent you ? What kind of kick are you on , son ? Don Dubbins , who had acted alongside Webb in The D.I . in 1957 , was another featured actor in Mark VII Limited programs beginning in the 1960s . In 1968 , Webb and his production partner R.A . Cinader launched Adam-12 on NBC . A spinoff of Dragnet , Adam-12 starred Martin Milner and Kent McCord as a pair of LAPD beat cops , and followed their escapades while on patrol . Running till 1975 , for a total of seven seasons , Adam-12 was Webbs second-longest running television series , with the eight seasons recorded by the original Dragnet being the longest . Also in 1968 , Webb and Johnny Carson performed a sketch on The Tonight Show that has since become known as the Copper Clapper Caper sketch . Webb , in character as Joe Friday , was working on the case of a robbery at a school-bell factory . Carson played the owner of the factory and victim of the theft , which consisted of each bell being relieved of its clapper ( the device that makes the bell ring ) . The sketchs dialogue consisted of Webb and Carson discussing the situation in deadpan style and using alliteration and tongue twisters to describe the incident , each word having either a c or cl sound at the beginning . Both Webb and Carson tried desperately not to lose composure , but both did , near the end of the sketch . 1970s and 1980s . In 1970 , Webb decided to bring an end to Dragnet and cease acting to focus on expanding Mark VII Limiteds production profile . In 1971 , Webb entered the world of district attorneys and federal government work with two series . The first , The D.A. , starred Robert Conrad and Harry Morgan as a pair of Los Angeles County ADAs , with Conrad playing a junior ADA and Morgan his superior . The second , OHara , United States Treasury , was a co-production of Webb and David Janssen , the former star of The Fugitive and future star of Harry O , for CBS ( a rare non-NBC Mark VII effort ) and featured Janssen as a Nebraska county sheriff-turned-United States Treasury Department agent . Neither series lasted very long , as The D.A. , Webbs last 30-minute series , was cancelled after 15 episodes and OHara ended after 22 . Later in the 1971–72 season , Webb and Cinader launched Emergency! , a spin-off of Adam-12 , which focused on the fictional Station 51 Rescue Squad of the L.A . County Fire Department , and its work in coordination with the emergency department staff of the fictional Rampart General Hospital . LACoFDs paramedic program was among the first paramedic services in the United States . Webb cast his ex-wife , Julie London , as well as her second husband and Dragnet ensemble player Bobby Troup , as head nurse Dixie McCall and Dr . Joe Early , respectively , with Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe playing paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto and Robert Fuller playing Dr . Kelly Brackett , Ramparts Chief of Emergency Medicine . Emergency ! ran as part of NBCs Saturday-night lineup for six entire seasons , and it was a popular series , sometimes winning its time slot against CBSs popular Saturday-night comedy block , which included All in the Family . The series came to an end in 1977 , but it spawned a series of telefilms that ran until 1979 . Webbs company and Universal also contracted with animator Fred Calvert to produce a spin-off Saturday-morning cartoon show for NBC titled Emergency +4 , which ran for three seasons ( the last in reruns ) and featured the paramedics Gage and DeSoto assisted by four youngsters and their three pets . Emergency ! was Webbs last sustained success . Of the remaining series his company produced , the only two that lasted longer than one season were Hec Ramsey , a two-season component of the NBC Mystery Movie wheel series that featured former Have Gun – Will Travel star Richard Boone as a pioneering forensic scientist in the Old West , and Project UFO , an anthology based on the investigations into UFOs as compiled by Project Bluebook that also ran for two seasons beginning in 1978 . In 1987 , Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks starred in a movie parody ( and homage ) to Webb , titled Dragnet , along with Harry Morgan , who reprised his role from the television series as Bill Gannon , who had by now become a captain of detectives . The comedy film was written and directed by Tom Mankiewicz , in his directorial debut . Aykroyd played the role of Joe Friday , described as the namesake nephew of the original series lead , while Hanks co-starred as Detective Officer Pep Streebeck , Fridays new smart-alecky and streetwise partner . Personal life . Webbs personal life was better defined by his love of jazz than his interest in police work . He had a collection of more than 6,000 jazz recordings . Webbs own recordings reached cult status , including his deadpan delivery of Try A Little Tenderness . His lifelong interest in the cornet allowed him to move easily in the jazz culture , where he met singer and actress Julie London . They married in 1947 and had daughters Stacy and Lisa . They divorced in 1954 . He was married three more times after that , to Dorothy Towne for two years beginning in 1955 , to former Miss USA Jackie Loughery for six years beginning in 1958 , and to his longtime associate , Opal Wright , for the last two years of his life . Stacy Webb authorized and collaborated on a book , Just the Facts , Maam : The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb , Creator of Dragnet , Adam-12 , and Emergency! , of which Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez were the primary authors . It was published in 1999 . Stacy did not live to see the publication of the book , having been killed in a collision with a California Highway Patrol car three years earlier . Death . Despite his string of short-lived series in the late 1970s , Webb still kept trying to recapture his previous success and decided to bring Dragnet back to television for a third series in 1983 . Five scripts had been produced and Kent McCord , one of the stars of Adam-12 , was cast as Joe Fridays new partner . Webb died of an apparent heart attack in the early morning hours of December 23 , 1982 , at age 62 . He is interred at Sheltering Hills Plot 1999 , Forest Lawn , Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles , and was given a funeral with full Los Angeles police honors . On Webbs death , Chief Daryl Gates announced that badge number 714 , which was used by Joe Friday in Dragnet , would be retired . Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley ordered all flags lowered to half staff in Webbs honor for a day , and Webb was buried with a replica LAPD badge bearing the rank of sergeant and the number 714 . Webb has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , one for radio ( at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard ) and the other for television ( at 6728 Hollywood Boulevard ) . In 1992 , Webb was posthumously inducted into the Television Hall of Fame . Discography . - Songs from Pete Kellys Blues ( 1955 ) - Youre My Girl : Romantic Reflections by Jack Webb ( 1958 ) - Pete Kelly Lets His Hair Down ( 1958 ) - Golden Throats volume 1 ( 1988 ) - Just the Tracks , Maam : The Warner Brothers Recordings ( 2000 ) Further reading . - September 12 , 19 , 26 , October 3 , 1954 . External links . - Badge 714 ( Dragnet and Webb fan site ) - Pat Novak For Hire ( Pat Novak For Hire fan site ) - AAFCollection.info Pictures of Jack Webb as an Air Cadet at the Rankin Aeronautical Academy at Tulare , California in 1943 .