Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

For his final visit to Suspense , three-time Academy Award nominee Kirk Douglas starred as a man whose wandering eye lands him and his new love in danger. The star of Spartacus and Ace in the Hole brings his trademark explosive style of acting to "The Butcher's Wife" (originally aired on CBS on February 9, 1950). Then, he recreates his role from William Wyler's Detective Story in an April 26, 1954...

We take a break from "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" to salute the late legend of Hollywood, Doris Day. The Oscar-nominee, box office star, recording sensation, and animal activist passed away at age 97. We'll hear a pair of episodes from The Doris Day Show , her musical radio program. Ms. Day sings along with special guests Danny Thomas (in an episode originally aired on CBS on March 28,...

Marie Wilson was best known for her radio, TV, and film work as the ditzy, scatterbrained sweetheart Irma Peterson in My Friend Irma . She played to her comedy strengths in her only appearance on Suspense – the lighthearted caper "Star Over Hong Kong" (originally aired on CBS on February 22, 1959). We'll also hear her in her signature role in an episode of My Friend Irma (originally aired on CBS o...

In Casablanca as resistance leader Victor Lazlo, Paul Henreid rallies a crowd to drown out the Nazis with a spirited rendition of "La Marseillaise." But in his two visits to Suspense , he played a pair of men with murder on their minds and diabolical plans. We'll hear him in "The Angel of Death" (originally aired on CBS on January 3, 1946) and "No More Alice" (originally aired on CBS on March 14,...

Oscar-winning star and Batman villain Anne Baxter makes her final visit to the podcast in "The Thirteenth Sound," a Suspense story from April 26, 1951. We'll also hear her as she recreates her big screen, award-nominated performance from All About Eve on the Lux Radio Theatre (originally aired on CBS on October 1, 1951).

Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career that spanned two continents, Charles Boyer was one of the screen's most popular stars. The French actor was acclaimed for his romantic leading roles, but he could also be a memorable villain – like when he played Ingrid Bergman's manipulative husband in Gaslight . We'll hear the four-time Oscar nominee in a pair of tales from Suspense : "The Case of He...

Fred MacMurray leaves flying cars and Flubber behind for his third and final appearance on Suspense . We'll hear the star in "The Great Train Robbery" (originally aired on CBS on April 13, 1953) – a story that finds MacMurray more in Double Indemnity than Disney territory. Then, MacMurray co-stars with Irene Dunne in an episode from Bright Star , their syndicated newspaper comedy-drama series.

One of the earliest winners of the "Triple Crown" of acting, Thomas Mitchell was an always-welcome presence in some of the greatest movies of old Hollywood. Whether he was the bumbling but lovable Uncle Billy in  It's a Wonderful Life or the drunk Doc Boone in  Stagecoach , Mitchell is always a treat to watch with an impish charm to his performances. He sheds that friendly nature for his two visit...

For his third and fourth visits to Suspense , James Mason played two criminals who feel the pressure of the law closing in on them. In two different tales, the star of North by Northwest and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea proves once again that the wages of sin is death. First, he's "The Greatest Thief in the World" (originally aired on CBS on June 21, 1951). Then, he recreates his film role in an a...

Sometimes the stars who appeared on Suspense were up and comers in Hollywood, and they made their visits to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" before their big breaks or signature roles. Our leading men this week would go on to find big fame on the small screen in the 1960s. We'll hear Robert Wagner –before It Takes a Thief and long before Hart to Hart – in "Listen, Young Lovers" (originally...

Oscar-winner Ray Milland makes two more visits to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" as two men in two very different but equally desperate situations. First, the star of The Lost Weekend is a man whose wife has been kidnapped in "After the Movies" (originally aired on CBS on December 7, 1950). Then, he stars in a story pulled from the history books - a tense confrontation between the Britis...

Vincent Price delivers a pair of terrifically unhinged performances in two more tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense . The star of House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler plays an axe murderer reliving his crime in "Present Tense" (originally aired on CBS on March 3, 1957). Then, Price stars as an actor who hopes to give his best performance - and get away with murder - in "Rave Notice" (or...

Four-time Oscar nominee Barbara Stanwyck was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood, dazzling audiences with her dynamic turns in Double Indemnity , Stella Dallas , and more. We'll hear Stanwyck in her one and only Suspense appearance - "The Wages of Sin" (originally aired on CBS on October 19, 1950). Then, she stars in a radio recreation of a big screen adaptation of one of the most famous Suspens...

Oscar-winner Ronald Colman was a radio fixture as Jack Benny's long-suffering neighbor and a college president in The Halls of Ivy , but he could also be heard in tales of terror on Suspense . We'll hear Colman in an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" (an Armed Forces Radio rebroadcast of an episode from November 1, 1945) and in "The Noose of Coincidence" (originally aired on CBS...

Whether he was a thorn in the side of The Absent Minded Professor or reluctantly destroying Coke machines in Dr. Strangelove , Keenan Wynn was always a welcome presence on screen. We'll hear the character actor in two of his visits to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" - "The Walls Came Tumbling Down" (originally aired on CBS on June 29, 1944) and "I Had an Alibi" (originally aired on CBS on...

Charles Laughton plays two very different - but equally disturbed - men in these installments of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." The star of Witness for the Prosecution and Mutiny on the Bounty is "An Honest Man" (originally aired on CBS on August 5, 1948) and the infamous English executioner "Jack Ketch" (originally aired on CBS on September 22, 1952).

After she worked on radio as a child actor, Joan Lorring broke out in movies at age 19 with an Oscar-nominated turn in The Corn is Green . It was one of many successes she'd have in a career that took her to the big and small screens as well as the Broadway stage. We'll hear her in two old time radio tales of Suspense : "A Man in the House" (originally aired on CBS on August 2, 1945) and "The Grea...

Oscar-nominated actor Richard Widmark brings more of his unique intensity to Suspense as he stars in a pair of dramas pitting man against nature. We'll hear him in "The Track of the Cat" (originally aired on CBS on February 18, 1952) and "How Long is the Night?" (originally aired on CBS on October 13, 1952).

Oscar and Tony-winning actor Jose Ferrer came to Suspense before he made his Hollywood debut when he was the toast of the Great White Way for his performance as Cyrano. He brought his stage actor's intensity to his only performance on radio's outstanding theater of thrills - an adaptation of Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" (originally aired on CBS on November 28, 1947). We'll also hear the star a...

Feisty, fiercely independent Maureen O'Hara - the red-headed Irish-American leading lady of old Hollywood - made only one visit to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills," but it's a great episode that finds her playing a strong woman stepping up to track down a killer. It's "The White Rose Murders" (originally aired on CBS on July 6, 1943). Then she recreates her screen role from  How Green Was...

Joseph Cotten - hero of  The Third Man and heel of  Shadow of a Doubt - is back for two more visits to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." He stars as a director caught up in a real-life mystery in "Sneak Preview" (originally aired on CBS on March 23, 1944) and as a convict who assumes the identity of a dead reverend in "Beyond Good and Evil" (originally aired on CBS on October 11, 1945).

We couldn't let 2018 end without one more  Star On Suspense , and our final leading lady of the year is the great Judy Garland. She doesn't sing in her one and only visit to  Suspense but she delivers a terrific dramatic performance in "Drive-In" (originally aired on CBS on November 21, 1946). Then, she recreates her iconic film role of Dorothy Gale as  The Lux Radio Theatre presents "The Wizard o...

Dapper British leading man Herbert Marshall returns to the  Suspense microphone in two radio thrillers - including a chiller of a Christmas story. The star of  Foreign Correspondent and  The Little Foxes stars in "My Own Murderer" (originally aired on CBS on May 24, 1945) and in "Holiday Story" - an adaptation of John Collier's "Back for Christmas" - (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1948).

Oscar-winning actress Mary Astor started in the silent era, transitioned to the talkies, and worked on stage, screen, and television even as she struggled with tragedies and trials off screen. We'll hear her in the only visit she made to  Suspense - "In Fear and Trembling" (originally aired on February 16, 1943). Then, Mary Astor recreates her screen role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy in a  Screen Guild...

For Gene Kelly's final performances on  Suspense , he headlined two stories as a pair of dangerous, desperate men - characters who were miles from the men he played in musicals like  Anchors Away and  Singing in the Rain . Kelly trades song and dance for sinister scares in "The Man Who Couldn't Lose" (originally aired on CBS on September 28, 1944) and "To Find Help" (originally aired on CBS on Jan...