John Trent (actor)

At the age of 59, on May 12, 1966, LaVerne Browne died, of cancer, at his home in Torrance, California.

Browne made the maiden flight of the first XBT2D-1 (Bu No 09085), later to be re-designated the AD-1 Skyraider from Mines Field, California on March 18, 1945. Browne would retire from Douglas in the 1960s. Friends at the company called him, "Brownie" or "Brown with an 'e'."

From 1942 to 1957, Browne worked as a test pilot at Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, California. First working as a "production test pilot" in 1942, callsign "Tailspin", assigned to the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber program. By 1943, Browne became a project test pilot with his first assignment, the successor to the venerable Dauntless.In March 1945, Browne was appointed Director of Flight Test (chief pilot) of the Douglas El Segundo Flight Test Division.

Using his birth name, LaVerne Browne, he returned to "civilian" life in 1941, finding a job as a test pilot, first with the Fletcher Aviation Corporation, flying the Fletcher FBT-2, an experimental "drone controller" on April 26 and 27, 1942.

Still, his wooden performances in other films sealed his fate and, after two more film roles — as a flight instructor in Monogram's Wolf Call (1939) and in Paramount's I Wanted Wings (1941) (also appearing in the latter in support of Ray Milland and William Holden) — he left Hollywood for good. Trent disparaged his acting, in later years, stating, "It was a pretty good job until politics, sex and long working hours moved in. And when talkies came in, I was finished with my growling voice. Didn‘t go over worth a damn."

With no training and few natural instincts in the art of performing, Trent started off slowly in bit parts. As his visibility grew, he still remained pretty much overlooked in most as the second lead or supporting "B" movie roles presented to him at the time. He gained a popular following in Badge of Honor (1934), A Doctor's Diary (1937), John Meade's Woman (1937), The Great Gambini (1937) and Blossoms on Broadway (1937). Paramount cast him opposite Ann Dvorak in the comedy, She's No Lady (1937) but he proved to be a "rather wooden leading man".

On January 28, 1926, Browne married Dorothy Leonore Bach at Los Angeles, California. They had one daughter, Barbara May Browne, born December 6, 1926, but later divorced. On June 12, 1933, Browne re-married to Harriette Fitzgerald Dodson at Norfolk, Virginia.

Monogram Pictures cast him in four films based on the comic strip aviator, "Tailspin Tommy." Trent was a natural for the part of the obsessed youthful pilot who became the focus of a popular comic strip years back during the Charles Lindbergh craze of the late 1920s. He would be supported by co-star Marjorie Reynolds as girlfriend Betty Lou and Milburn Stone as best buddy "Skeeter". The four films Trent starred in for Monogram were: Mystery Plane (1939), Stunt Pilot (1939), Sky Patrol (1939) and Danger Flight (1939).

John Trent (born LaVerne Ward Browne, December 5, 1906 – May 12, 1966) was an aviator-turned-actor-turned-aviator, best known as an actor for the "Tailspin Tommy" adventure film series in the 1930s. From 1931 to 1941, under the stage name John Trent, Browne appeared in 16 Hollywood films. While flying was a natural for him, acting was not, and he eventually turned his back on his Hollywood career, resuming his career in aviation, as a test pilot..mw-parser-output .toclimit-2 .toclevel-1 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-3 .toclevel-2 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-4 .toclevel-3 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-5 .toclevel-4 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-6 .toclevel-5 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-7 .toclevel-6 ul{display:none}