John Harmon was one of those actors whose face you couldn’t forget, even if his name didn’t immediately ring a bell. His distinctive, sharply hooked nose and bald head made him a familiar presence on both the big and small screens. Though he was never a leading man, John Harmon built a career playing a wide range of supporting roles—everything from no-nonsense country sheriffs to shady gangsters and long-suffering husbands.

He first appeared on screen in 1935 in the film Three Kids and a Queen, a heartwarming story about three down-on-their-luck children who take in an injured, well-to-do woman. However, like many of his early roles, his performance went uncredited. It wasn’t until 1949 that he received a significant break, portraying Clubby Blake, the loyal cellmate of a wrongly accused journalist in the film I Was Framed.

Over the years, John Harmon became a staple in Hollywood, showing up in a wide variety of productions. Some of his more memorable roles included a part in Charlie Chaplin’s 1947 dark comedy Monsieur Verdoux, an appearance on the 1953 TV series Adventures of Superman, a guest spot on the groundbreaking sci-fi show Star Trek in 1967, and a role in the popular 1970s emergency services drama Emergency! By the end of his career, John Harmon had appeared in more than 300 films and television shows.

In his later years, he stepped away from acting and settled into a quieter life as a used-book dealer. He also developed a passion for collecting first editions of works by Mark Twain. Interestingly, even after his passing, John Harmon made one final on-screen appearance—two decades after his death—in the 2005 low-budget sci-fi spoof The Naked Monster, which stitched together footage from old B-movies to create a new, albeit quirky, cinematic experience.