Oct. 2, 1962 - Frank Lovejoy, the stage, screen, and television actor, was found dead in bed this morning at New York’s Warwick Hotel. Mr. Lovejoy’s wife, the actress Joan Banks, summoned a physician, who said the 50-year-old actor had apparently died of a heart attack. The couple, both of whom had been appearing in “The Best Man” at the Playhouse on the Mall in Paramus, N.J., were staying in the city. The theater is regularly closed on Monday nights. Mrs. Lovejoy said they had watched the Dodgers-Giants baseball game on television and that Mr. Lovejoy had then retired, complaining of fatigue. In addition to his theater work, Mr. Lovejoy was one of the best-known actors on radio. In 1950, he said that he had performed in more than 4,000 network programs, among them “Gangbusters,” “Mr. District Attorney,” and “This Is Your F.B.I.” In the movies, Mr. Lovejoy played many Army and police roles. In “In a Lonely Place,” he was a G.I.-turned-detective. In “Retreat, Hell!” Mr. Lovejoy played an iron-jawed colonel in the Korean War. He was a major on the front in “Force of Arms” and he dramatized undercover sleuths in “I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.”
