Portrait of John Dehner

Birthday profile

John Dehner

John Dehner, American actor (died 1992)

Born
November 23, 1915
Died
February 4, 1992
Zodiac sign
Sagittarius
Birth year
1915

About John Dehner

John Dehner Forkum (November 23, 1915 – February 4, 1992) was an American actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performance credits, often in roles as sophisticated con men, shady authority figures, and other smooth-talking villains. His credits just in feature films, televised series, and in made-for-TV movies number almost 300 productions. Dehner worked extensively as a radio actor during the latter half of that medium's "golden age," accumulating hundreds of additional credits on nationally broadcast series. His most notable starring role was as Paladin on the radio version of the television Western Have Gun – Will Travel, which aired for 106 episodes on CBS from 1958 to 1960. He continued to work as a voice actor in film, such as narrating the film The Hallelujah Trail. Earlier in his career, Dehner also worked briefly for Walt Disney Studios, serving as an assistant animator from 1940 to March 1941 at the company's facilities in Burbank, California. He appeared in Columbo episodes "Swan Song" (1974) with Johnny Cash, and as Commodore Otis Swanson in "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976). He appeared in a two-part episode of Mission: Impossible.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when John Dehner was born

John Dehner was born in 1915. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1915

  • Top movieThe Birth of a Nation
  • Best-selling book"The Turmoil" – Booth Tarkington

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJess Willard defeats Jack Johnson for heavyweight title in Havana
  • Top headlineLusitania sunk by German submarine — 1,198 die
  • Technology milestoneFirst transcontinental telephone call (Bell to Watson)
  • World population~1.75B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population98.4M

1915 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in John Dehner's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19152026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Movie ticket$0.10$11.95
Population98.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.