He received further good reviews for his next play One Man Show 1945 in which he was the

He received further good reviews for his next play, One Man Show (1945), in which he was the young man who woos Constance Cummings away from an unhealthy devotion to her father. “John Archer has a winning way with him,” wrote Robert Garland in the Journal-American, and the New York Sun found him “direct and believable”.After a praised performance in Elliot Nugent’s anti-isolationist play A Place Of Our Own (1945), Archer accepted a role in the Lerner-Loewe musical, The Day Before Spring in which, though not a singer, he was given one solo, “Where’s The Wife?”, which he handled capably “The show was a semi-success,” said Archer later. Though the play was roundly panned, the New York Post stated, “John Archer, a newcomer, indicated that he might be a personable enough leading man” while the World-Telegram called him “an attractive juvenile”. He kept none of the scripts, which are now collectors’ items. “As we finished each page of a radio script, we dropped it on the floor. Who knew that pile of litter would be valuable some day?”Archer made his Broadway debut in a short-lived comedy, The Odds On Mrs Oakley (1944).

In September 1944 he took over the role of Lamont Cranston, alias `The Shadow’, in an episode called The Ebony Goddess and he played the part in 30 episodes until April 1945. I thought I would give up the name of John Archer because it might have an onus, being a contest winner. That’s when the radio people said, “No, no – the John Archer name still means something. It still has a little marquee value because it’s had so much exploitation.”Archer quickly became one of radio’s most familiar voices, his deep voice being heard both as as announcer and as actor on such shows as the soap opera Amanda of Honeymoon Hill and the crime series The FBI In Peace and War. They were very helpful, and each had a subtle sense of humour.”Archer moved into big-budget films when signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox, but his roles in such productions as Guadalcanal Diary (1943) and Hello, ‘Frisco, Hello (1943) were small ones. He said,I realised that all the young actors out of New York, like Vincent Price and Michael O’Shea, were getting the good parts and more money That’s when I elected to go to New York.

“Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were both consummate pros and a pleasure and a delight to work with. “I enjoyed that movie, even though the part was minimal,” he said. They were to have two children – their daughter, born in 1947, is Anne Archer, who won an Oscar nomination for her role in Fatal Attraction.Archer and Lord appeared together in Sherlock Holmes In Washington (1943). Maybe he was a shy man, I don’t know – I have nothing derogatory to say about the guy except that he was a loner.”In 1941 Archer had married Marjorie Lord, his co-star in a stage production of The Male Animal. They’d shoot a whole picture in a week.”In Bowery at Midnight he played the student victim of a university professor (secretly a master criminal) played by Bela Lugosi, and Archer later said of the legendary horror star, “He wasn’t around much till you got on the set.

He’s a smooth looker, of clean-cut face and build, and with a bit of grooming has a chance to be heard from. With Miss Eden, it’s another thing.”Though RKO did not keep him under contract, Archer had a spell of steady work in B movies, including City of Missing Girls (1941), The People vs Dr Kildare (1941) and two horror films, King of the Zombies (1941) and Bowery At Midnight (1942), both made at the “Poverty Row” studio, Monogram. “I enjoyed Monogram,” said Archer, “They were fast B pictures, but the people were all good. The techniques were the same as the larger studios, except that they would shoot a lot faster with less rehearsal.