Morgan Conway

Biography

Square-jawed 'tough guy' actor Morgan Conway's chief claim to fame was being the screen's first feature film Dick Tracy (though Ralph Byrd, who bore a closer physical resemblance to Chester Gould's comic strip detective, had previously enacted the part in four 1930's Republic serials). Columbia University graduate Conway, incidentally a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, started off in films as a small-part actor, playing just about anything from hoodlums to murder victims. His break came courtesy of a long-term contract with RKO (1939-47), which starred him as the nominal hero or romantic interest in a number of modestly-budgeted second features. His role as the stoic Dick Tracy, taking on protagonists with names like Splitface, Cueball, Vitamin Flintheart and Filthy Flora of the Dripping Dagger Inn, proved to be the high point of Conway's brief sojourn in Hollywood. Despite objections from the author, RKO reinstated Ralph Byrd for the next Tracy instalment. Conway's contract was not renewed and he left the industry forthwith to work in real estate on the East Coast.