John Davis Lodge was the grandson of Massachusetts Senator Henry CabotLodge ) and the brother ofHenry Cabot Lodge Jr.

There was a saying in Boston, portraying the capital of the Bay Stateas "the land of the bean & the cod/Where the Lodges talk only to theCabots/And the Cabots talk only to God." John Lodge was both a CabotAND a Lodge, a thorough and thoroughly bred blue-blood to boot.However, before realizing that politics flowed through his veins, JohnLodge - who was born in Washington, D.C. - humored himself with acting,that other public speaking sport that ranks among the world's oldestprofessions, and it was as an actor that the general public first gotto know him.

John was born a year after his brother, debuting in the world onOctober 20, 1903. His father was the patrician playwright and poetGeorge Lodge and his mother was the former Matilda Frelinghuysen Davis.He grew up in Washington and in Paris before being educated at theEvans School in Mesa, Arizona and the Middlesex School in Concord,Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College (Class of 1925) and HarvardLaw School ('29), with a year of graduate study at Paris' Ecole deDroit in between. At Middlesex, he had indulged his interest in schooltheatricals, and he continued as an amateur thespian whilematriculating at Harvard, playing leads in Hasty Pudding Club shows andFrench Club productions.

It was in Cambridge, Massachusetts during his undergraduate days thathe met his future wife, the Italian-born Francesca Braggioti. While menplayed female roles in drag at Hasty Pudding Club shows, this was notso at the French Club theatricals (where the plays were presented inthe French tongue). Francesca, who was both a dancer and achoreographer, often appeared in the French Club plays when there waswont of a female. The couple were married in 1929.

The newlyweds settled in New York City, where Lodge obtained employmentas a law clerk in a prestigious Wall Street firm. In 1930, the couple'sdaughterLily Lodge, a future actress and drama coach, entered the worldwith a kick of her wee legs and a hearty scream. Lily's mama Francesca,ever the trouper, pursued her own dance career after recovering fromthe birth, branching out into acting on Broadway and at small theaterswhen she wasn't kicking up her own heels. While Lilly's papa Johndidn't join his wife for any professional tripping of the lightfantastic, he did indulge his own acting bones by joining Francesca inthe New York Amateur Comedy Club's production ofNoël Coward's "The YoungIdea." The Coward comedy (the credits for which claim "The Snarks" asproducer) played three performances on Broadway in March 1932.

It was the Great Depression, and despite John Lodge's patricianbackground, Francesca felt the need to generate some coin (gold speciewasn't outlawed until 1933 by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt - Groton '00; Harvard'03, though he claimed allegiance to the Class of '04 despite finishinghis undergraduate studies in three years - who most people of Lodge'sclass considered a class traitor) by hiring on to dubGreta Garbo's newlymade sound films into Italian. Garbo had been a silent-film superstarin Francesca's native Italy, and the task was an important one, as theproper presentation of a speaking Garbo was critical to her futuresuccess in Italy. The job necessitated that Francesca move to CulverCity, California for six months to perform the task at theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio.

Thus, fate intervened in John Lodge's life, separate from the accidentof his birth. In the late summer of 1932, he took a vacation toCalifornia to join Francesca. In Santa Monica, while playing in acelebrity tennis tournament, he was spotted by talent agent AdSchulberg. Lodge agreed to a screen-test, which was scripted by hisprep school buddyJohn Lee Mahin, a successful screenwriter. The screen-testled to an offer of a six-month contract from Paramount Pictures at $75a week.

Lodge's patrician family was aghast that he would even think of such asthing as leaving his law career for the then-disreputable "profession"of movie-making. Forsix weeks, Lodge dithered over accepting the offer. Paramount, anxiousto sign the tall and handsome blue-blood, upped its offer to $275 aweek (approximately $3,300/week in 2005 dollars), which at the time wasa considerably greater sum than most New York City lawyers earned.Lodge signed the contact. While he did understand his family's dismayover his uprooting himself from a respectable avocation in the uprightand proper Establishment East for a Prodigal Son-like journey to theBabylon on the sun-kissed and faintly wicked Left Coast to live thelife of a Hollywood player, what he didn't count on wasMae West. Hisfamily was concerned over his new career route, while - if gossip wascorrect - Miss West was sure to be concerned over another rootentirely.

As soon as the Paramount publicity department began ballyhooing thesigning of their latest discovery, Mae West - who was not onlyParamount's biggest star but had single-handedly taken the studio outof bankruptcy - decided she wanted the handsome young Lodge to play themale lead in her new movie, "She Done Him Wrong," an adaptation of hernotorious stage hit "Diamond Lil." Lodge heard about West's interest,and as he was in no desire himself to further humiliate his family byassociating with the notorious Mae West (West had been arrested andjailed for obscenity in New York in 1928 over her play "Sex"), hedecided to nix the role. Lodge informed Paramount that he would notaccept West's offer to co-star in her new picture and that he wouldprefer to learn the movie-acting craft by being cast initially insmaller parts.

No unknown had ever turned down such a big role before, but Paramountacquiesced. Lodge would later express regrets over his refusal of thepart in "She Done Him Wrong," which became one of the top box officehits of 1933 and made the man whom Mae West chose to replace him in therole -Cary Grant - a star. Her first film at Paramount, "Night AfterNight," had introducedGeorge Raft to Hollywood. No, John Lodge neverbecame a star, but he did become the governor of Connecticut. Politicsturned out to be his fate, after all. But before that milestone, therewere movies to make, and a war to be fought.

After making three minor pictures at Paramount, the studio lent him outto R.K.O, where he madeGeorge Cukor's classic "Little Women" (1933). Theapogee of his career came in 1934-35, when he appeared in two moreclassics:Josef von Sternberg's "The Scarlet Empress" (1934) in support of thelegendaryMarlene Dietrich at Paramount, and "The Little Colonel' at 20thCentury-Fox, where he portrayed the father of another futureactor-turned-politician (and yet another screen legend),Shirley Temple. Thatwas about it. He made one more movie for Paramount, the mystery"Menace" (1934), and then became a freelance. In all, he appeared in 21movies altogether between 1932 and 1940, including several that wereshot in Europe, such asMaurice Tourneur's "Königsmark" (1935), which was madein France, and "Bulldog Drummond at Bay" (1937) and "Queer Cargo"(1938), which were shot in Great Britain. (John Lodge thus becomes ananswer to a trivia question: name the actors who have played BulldogDrummond.)

In January 1941, Lodge returned to Broadway after his less thanauspicious 1932 interlude to appear as "The Young Man" in the musical"Night of Love." The musical, produced by the Schuberts, lasted twiceas long as Lodge's previous engagement, closing after sevenperformances. He had better luck in his next play,Lillian Hellman'santi-fascist drama "Watch on the Rhine," in which he played DavidFarrelly. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on April 1, 1941and closed eleven months later, on February 21, 1942, bowing out aftera total of 378 performances. John Lodge was ending his acting careerwith a hit.

World War II came to the United States during the run of his last play,and Lodge became a naval officer in August 1942. Capitalizing on hislanguage skills and his molarity with Europe, the U.S. Navy made Lodgea liaison officer between the French and U.S. Fleets. In hisover-three-years of service, Lodge reached the rank of LieutenantCommander and was decorated with the rank of Chevalier in the FrenchLegion of Honor and with the Croix de Guerre with Palm by GeneralCharles de Gaulle. (He would later make the rank of Captain in the U.S NavalReserve.) After he was demobilized, in January 1946, Lodge made hishome in of Westport, Connecticut and joined the family business:politics.

In November 1946, he became the second movie actor ever elected to highoffice, winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as aRepublican. (The Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas had become the firstwhen she was elected from California's 14th District in 1944.) He won asecond term in 1948, but resigned his seat in 1950 to run for governor.He was elected, and took office as Connecticut's 50th governor inJanuary 1951. His wife, Francesca, proved to be the most active FirstLady in Connecticut history, opening the governor's mansion to thepublic. She served as a patron of the arts, promoting concerts andtheater and serving as a founding member of the American ShakespeareFestival in Stratford, Connecticut.

After his bid for a second gubernatorial term ended in defeat in 1954,President Eisenhower appointed Lodge U.S. Ambassador to Spain, where heserved from 1955 to 1961. While the Republicans were out of power inWashington during the 1960s, Lodge was the National President of JuniorAchievement, Inc. from 1963-64, served as a Delegate and Floor Leaderat the 1965 Connecticut Constitutional Convention, and was the Chairmanof the Committee on Foreign Policy Research Institute at the Universityof Pennsylvania from 1964-69. After Nixon was elected President in1968, he appointed Lodge as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, where heserved from 1969 to 1974. Later, for the most successfulactor-cum-politician in history, President Ronald Reagan, he served asthe U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland from 1983-85 and as a member of theU.S delegation to the United Nations. (Lodge's tours as the ambassadorto Spain and Switzerland were fitting, as he was a bigger star inEurope than he had ever been in the United States.)

John Davis Lodge died in New York City on October 29, 1985, nine daysafter his 83rd birthday, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.The Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate-95) was named the Governor JohnDavis Lodge Turnpike in his honor. His widow, Francesca Lodge, died onFebruary 25, 1998 at her home in Marbella, Spain. She was 95 yearsold.