See index for CTFT sketch: Born Irvine E. Theodore Baehr, August 9, 1906, in Mount Vernon, NY; died of lung cancer, October 9, 1998, in Oyster Bay,NY. Actor. Allen enjoyed brief fame playing a cowboy in the "Range Rider" series of Western films produced by Columbia Pictures in the 1930s. He began acting in the 1920s at Dartmouth College, where he had been sent to prepare forthe family import-export business. Soon after graduation, against his father's wishes, he got an agent and a contract with Columbia Pictures and Twentieth Century-Fox. As Bob "Tex" Allen, he landed the role of the cowboy layman in a white hat in such films as The Unknown Ranger, Ranger Courage, Rio Grande Ranger, Law of the Range, The Ghost Ranger, and The Rangers Step In, making him the second most popular Western star of 1937 behind Tim McCoy, according to the Box Office Poll. Allen was soon crowded out of the field by the likes of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and during World War II he toured North Africa and Italy with a USO productionof Over 21. During his long career Allen appeared in numerous films, including a starring role in The Life of Lafayette, for which he earnedan Academy Award nomination in 1936, and supporting roles in Crime and Punishment(by Peter Lorre in 1935), Winter Carnival(in 1939 with AnnSheridan), and The Awful Truth(with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in 1937).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES
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