Richard Cromwell

Richard Cromwell was an American actor known for Emma (1932) and various other films of the 1930s. He is also known for his brief marriage to a then-19-year-old Angela Lansbury on September 27, 1945; the two separated within months and divorced within a year, which Lansbury later confirmed was due to Cromwell's homosexuality, though the two remained friends until his death. "He wanted to marry, he was fascinated with me, but only because of what he had seen on the screen, really," she told Radio Times decades later. "It didn't injure or damage me in any way." After his acting career stalled, Cromwell returned to his birth name, Roy Radabaugh, and became an established ceramicist admired for decorative tile work and sculpted masks of stars including Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford; his ceramic work is now held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library. His story illustrates the way Hollywood marriages were sometimes used by gay men during the studio era.