Dragnet is an American media franchise created by actor and producer Jack Webb, following Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Detective Joe Friday and his partners as they conduct by-the-book police work and solve crimes in Los Angeles. Originating as a radio drama on NBC in 1949, Dragnet has been adapted into several successful television shows and films, though the franchise's popularity has reduced since Webb's death in 1982. Its name is derived from the police term "dragnet", a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
John Randolph Webb was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.
The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agencies as the protagonists, as contrasted with other genres that focus on non-police investigators such as private investigators.
Harry Morgan was an American actor whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both December Bride (1954–1959) and Pete and Gladys (1960–1962); Officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet (1967–1970); Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey (1972–1974); and his starring role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H (1975–1983) and AfterMASH (1983–1985). Morgan also appeared as a supporting player in more than 100 films.
Roy Roberts was an American character actor. Over his more than 40-year career, he appeared in more than nine hundred productions on stage and screen.
Herman Arthur "Harry" Lauter was an American character actor.
Douglas Fowley was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs, He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and for his regular supporting role as Doc Fabrique and Doc Holiday in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He was the father of rock and roll musician and record producer Kim Fowley.
Claude Aubrey Akins was a character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. He played Sonny Pruit in Movin' On, a 1974–1976 American drama series about a trucking team, Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series, among a variety of other roles.
Alfred L. Werker was a film director whose work in movies spanned from 1917 through 1957. After a number of film production jobs and assistant directing, Werker co-directed his first film, Ridin' the Wind in 1925 alongside director Del Andrews. He was brought in by Fox Film Corporation executives to re-shoot and re-edit Erich von Stroheim's film Hello, Sister! (1933), co-starring Boots Mallory and ZaSu Pitts.
The Turning Point is a 1952 American film noir crime film directed by William Dieterle and starring William Holden, Edmond O'Brien and Alexis Smith. It was inspired by the Kefauver Committee's hearings dealing with organized crime.
Reed Hadley was an American film, television and radio actor.
The Good Die Young is a 1954 British crime film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Joan Collins, Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart and John Ireland. It was made by Remus Films from a screenplay by Vernon Harris and Gilbert based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Richard Macaulay. It tells the story of four men in London with no criminal past whose marriages and finances are collapsing and, meeting in a pub, are tempted to redeem their situations by a robbery.
Cosh Boy is a 1953 British film noir based on an original play by Bruce Walker. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and featured James Kenney and Joan Collins. It was made at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.
Appointment with Danger is a 1950 American crime film noir starring Alan Ladd and Phyllis Calvert, supported by Paul Stewart, Jan Sterling, and Jack Webb. Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the drama was directed by Lewis Allen and written by Richard L. Breen and Warren Duff.
Bernard Philip Ofner, better known by his stage name Barney Phillips, was an American film, television, and radio actor. His roles include that of Sgt. Ed Jacobs on the 1950s Dragnet television series, appearances in the 1960s on The Twilight Zone, in which he played a Venusian living under cover on Earth in "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?", and a supporting role as actor Fletcher Huff in the 1970s CBS series The Betty White Show.
Robert Kent, was an American film actor. His career included starring roles in several film serials of the 1940s, including The Phantom Creeps, Who's Guilty?, and The Phantom Rider. He also had a role in the 1938 film The Gladiator and was Virginia Vale's leading man in Blonde Comet, a 1941 movie about a female racing driver.
Dragnet was an American radio series, enacting the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show took its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
William Erwin Walker, also known as Erwin M. Walker and Machine Gun Walker, was an American police employee and United States Army World War II veteran, known for having committed several thefts, burglaries, and shootouts with police in Los Angeles County, California, in 1945 and 1946, one of which resulted in a fatality. The film He Walked by Night (1948) was loosely based on Walker's 1946 crime spree.
Dragnet is a 1954 American crime film directed by Jack Webb and written by Richard L. Breen. The film stars Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg and Vic Perrin. The film was adapted from the radio series of the same name, and is part of the wider Dragnet media franchise. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 4, 1954.
James Cardwell was an American actor who appeared in more than 20 Hollywood films in the 1940s.
