Actor

6 series in the catalog

John Merton (born Myrtland F. LaVarre; February 18, 1901 – September 19, 1959) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 250 films between 1927 and 1959, mostly as a villain. He was the brother of filmmakers André de la Varre and William LaVarre, the father of actor Lane Bradford, the grandfather of actress Diane Delano, and the great-uncle of academic Hollis Robbins.

Biography

Merton was born in Seattle, Washington to naval shipbuilder William Johanne LaVarre and Leilia Goddin Hayes LaVarre, and raised in Washington, D.C. with three other brothers, Franklin, Claude, and William LaVarre. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War I.

He joined the New York Theatre Guild in 1919 and appeared in a variety of shows, including playing the robot Marius in R.U.R. (1922). He made his film debut as a police officer in Running Wild (1927) filmed in Long Island's Astoria Studios. He travelled to Hollywood in 1932 and began a long career of small parts in major films and villain roles in B-movies and film serials. He met Cecil B. DeMille who cast him as a Roman guard in Cleopatra (1934) that led to him appearing in all of DeMille's films up to and including The Ten Commandments (1956). It was DeMille who suggested he change his name to a more masculine John Merton.

Merton's first wife, Esther Anita Swarts, whom he married in Manhattan, New York in 1921, sued him for divorce in 1940. They had six children. Merton married his second wife, Ellen Margaret Curtan, in Los Angeles in 1942 and remarried her in 1950 in Carson City, Nevada. Merton is the grandfather of actress Diane Delano; his daughter Gloria Mae (LaVarre) Delano is Diane Delano's mother.