Book Review: John Hodiak: The Life and Career on Film, Stage, Radio

Classic Hollywood has many actors who were not icons at the level of Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, James Stewart, or Joan Crawford. There are far more solid, competent performers whose stardom may not have been at that level, but whose talents and accomplishments certainly are.

Author David Tucker’s new book for McFarland studies the life and career of John Hodiak, a proud American actor of Polish descent who kept his ethnic last name for the screen.  Rising to noted stardom after his dark, striking performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944), Hodiak turned in a series of similarly fine performances in a number of films before his passing at the age of only 41.

Culling from several pointed interview subjects, including Hodiak’s daughter, author Tucker once again presents a throughgoing biography of his subject, allowing us to know Hodiak as a man as well as an actor.  His journeyman years in radio, where he created the role of Li’l Abner from the famous comic strip, led to small parts in musicals featuring the likes of Red Skelton and Ann Sothern, before landing the role in Lifeboat.  Tucker covers this early part of Hodiak's career, his perspective, his choices, and his approach to his roles, with intelligence and insight.  This is followed by a complete film-by-film assessment of Hodiak’s movies, which include roles in such noted productions as The Harvey Girls, Command Decision, Desert Fury, A Bell for Adano, and Across the Wide Missouri, up to his last, On The Threshold of Space, which was released posthumously.

The author follows this with information on Hodiak’s radio years, along with his appearances on the Broadway stage. There is more info in this book on Hodiak's career than can be found in any other study.

David Tucker’s book on John Hodiak’s life and work fills a real need in cinema scholarship.  It is another fine work by one of our best film historians and authors. 

The book can be purchased at this link: HODIAK