Wikipedia: Born
Barbara Lee Redfield, in
Cloquet, Minnesota, she was the daughter of restaurateurs, and raised in
Odessa, Texas. In 1945, at age seventeen, she headed for Hollywood in search of a career in movies and was eventually placed under contract by
Universal Studios where she began appearing in bit parts. After being discovered by
James Cagney and his producer brother William, Payton starred in Cagney’s
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in 1950. She signed a contract with Cagney’s production company.
From 1955 to 1963, there were several skirmishes with the law - passing bad checks, public drunkenness, mental illness, drug abuse, and, ultimately,
prostitution.
[1] She was paid $1,000 for the ghost-written autobiography
I Am Not Ashamed in 1963. Payton admitted to being forced to sleep on bus benches and was often beaten as a prostitute.
In 1951, while engaged to movie actor
Franchot Tone, Payton proposed marriage to
b-movie actor
Tom Neal. She went back and forth publicly from being engaged to Neal to being engaged to Tone. Eventually, Neal, a former college boxer, fought with Tone, giving him a smashed cheekbone, a broken nose and a
concussion, and leaving him in a
coma in hospital for 18 hours. After being married to Tone for 53 days, she walked out on him and returned to Neal. Their relationship lasted for four years. During that time, the couple capitalized on the press coverage of their steamy affair by touring in plays, such as "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
In addition to numerous love affairs (including ones with Texas oilman Bob Neal and actor
Guy Madison, and, reportedly,
James Cagney and
Bob Hope),
[2][
page # needed], she was married four times:
- William Hodge (m. 1943, annulled)
- John Lee Payton, an Air Force pilot (m. 10-Feb-1945, div. 1950, one child, John Lee Payton Jr., born 1947)
- Franchot Tone, actor (m. 1951, div. 1952)
- George A. Provas (a.k.a. Tony Provas, m. 1957, div. Aug. 1958)
In 1967, after failed efforts to curb her drinking, she moved in with her parents in
San Diego in an attempt to dry out. On
May 8,
1967, the 39-year-old died at her parents' home; the cause of death was
heart and
liver failure.
[3]
Payton was cremated and is interred in a niche at Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory in
San Diego,
California.
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