John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created.

He wrote to Belmont's student body in the 1938 edition of its yearbook, Campanile, "You who showed me the magnificent warmth of friendship which I know, and you know, I will carry with me forever.

During World War II, Webb enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, but he "washed out" of flight training.

[3] By 1949, Webb had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in Pat Novak, for Hire, a radio show originating from KFRC about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective.

Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated the hardboiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler, with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke.

Early in 1949, Webb served as the main antagonist of Alan Ladd's protagonist character Dan Holliday in "The Better Man" episode of the radio series Box 13, which aired on January 2, 1949.

Webb's radio shows included Johnny Madero, Pier 23; Jeff Regan, Investigator; Murder and Mr. Malone; Pete Kelly's Blues; and One Out of Seven.

In Sunset Boulevard, he is the fiancé of William Holden's love interest Nancy Olson (his performance is very animated and jovial, unlike his later deadpan style).

[10] Webb had a featured role as a crime-lab technician in the 1948 film He Walked by Night, based on the real-life murder of California Highway Patrolman Loren Cornwell Roosevelt, by Erwin Walker.

[11] The film was produced in semidocumentary style with technical assistance provided by Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn of the Los Angeles Police Department.

He Walked By Night's thinly veiled fictionalized recounting of the 1946 Walker crime spree gave Webb the idea for Dragnet: a recurring series based on real cases from LAPD police files, featuring authentic depictions of the modern police detective, including methods, mannerisms, and technical language.

Webb was also impressed by the long hours, the low pay, and the high injury rate among police investigators of the day, particularly in the LAPD, which had by then acquired a notorious reputation for jettisoning officers who had become ill or injured in the line of duty; in Webb's book, The Badge, one of Erwin Walker's victims, LAPD detective Lt. Colin Forbes, was among those whose experiences were so noted.

Dragnet moved away from earlier portrayals of the police in shows such as Jeff Regan and Pat Novak, which had often shown them as brutal and even corrupt.

I was at headquarters, working narcotics ..." At the end of each show, Fenneman repeated his opening narration, revised to read: "The story you have just seen is true.

During Dragnet's early days, Webb continued to appear in movies, notably as Artie Green, the best friend of William Holden's character in the 1950 Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard.

In Dark City, Webb played a vicious card sharp and Harry Morgan a punch-drunk ex-fighter, in contrast to the pair's straight-arrow image in the later Dragnet.

In 1951, Webb introduced a short-lived radio series, Pete Kelly's Blues, in an attempt to bring the music he loved to a broader audience.

The character of Pete Kelly was a cornet player who supplemented his income from playing in a nightclub band by working as a private investigator.

[17] In February 1963, Webb succeeded William T. Orr as executive in charge of Warner Bros. Television, with Orr moving to the motion picture part of Warner Bros.[18] Webb brought about wholesale changes to the ABC/Warner Bros. detective series 77 Sunset Strip retaining only Efrem Zimbalist Jr., in the role of private detective Stuart Bailey.

[21] Shortly after leaving his position at Warner Bros., he first attempted to produce an adaptation of the Selena Mead books by Patricia McGerr for CBS,[22] then Webb teamed with Universal Television to begin work on a new Dragnet series.

[23] A pilot television film, based on the Harvey Glatman serial killings, was produced in 1966 for NBC, with Webb's Sgt.

Other Webb-affiliated actors featured in the revived series many times in different roles were Virginia Gregg, Peggy Webber, Clark Howat, Olan Soule, Bobby Troup, Tim Donnelly, and Marco Lopez.

A spinoff of Dragnet, Adam-12 starred Martin Milner and Kent McCord as a pair of LAPD officers, and followed their escapades while on patrol.

The sketch's dialogue consisted of Webb and Carson discussing the situation in deadpan style and using alliteration and tongue twisters to describe the incident, each word having either a "c" or "cl" sound at the beginning.

[24] In 1970, Webb decided to bring an end to Dragnet and cease acting to focus on expanding Mark VII Limited's production profile.

[25] Webb cast his ex-wife, Julie London, as well as her second husband and Dragnet ensemble player Bobby Troup, as head nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Joe Early, respectively, with Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe playing paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto and Robert Fuller playing Dr. Kelly Brackett, Rampart's Chief of Emergency Medicine.

[citation needed] Webb's company and Universal also contracted with animator Fred Calvert to produce a spin-off Saturday-morning cartoon show for NBC titled Emergency +4, which ran for three seasons (the last in reruns) and featured the paramedics Gage and DeSoto assisted by four youngsters and their three pets.

Of the remaining series his company produced, the only two that lasted longer than one season were Hec Ramsey, a two-season component of the NBC Mystery Movie wheel series that featured former Have Gun – Will Travel star Richard Boone as a pioneering forensic scientist in the Old West,[citation needed] and Project UFO, an anthology based on the investigations into UFOs as compiled by Project Bluebook that also ran for two seasons beginning in 1978.

In 1987, Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks starred in a movie parody (and homage) to Webb, titled Dragnet, along with Harry Morgan, who reprised his role from the television series as Bill Gannon, who had by now become a captain of detectives.

[29] His lifelong interest in the cornet allowed him to move easily in the jazz culture, where he met singer and actress Julie London.