John Hubbard

John Hubbard (April 14, 1914 – November 6, 1988) was an American television and film actor. Career MGM changed Hubbard's professional name to Anthony Allen and cast him in modest feature films and short subjects for one year. In 1939, Hal Roach signed John Hubbard (under his given name) as one of five promising young actors with "star" potential (the other four were Lon Chaney Jr., Victor Mature, Carole Landis, and William Bendix). Roach saw something in Hubbard, whose handsome features lent themselves to romantic roles while his dialogue skills allowed him to play farce comedy. He was showcased in The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939) and Turnabout (1940), but when Roach abandoned full-length features for shorter featurettes, Hubbard found roles elsewhere. During World War II Hubbard was busily engaged as a "male lead for hire" at several studios, substituting for established male stars who had joined the armed forces. With no single studio guiding his career, Hubbard never advanced to important roles in major productions, and wound up in roles in romances, mysteries, and musical comedies produced on lower budget. Hubbard himself joined the military in 1944, and resumed his movie career in 1947 at smaller, independent studios.