{{Short description|American actor (1914–1943)}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2018}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = David Bacon | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Gaspar Griswold Bacon Jr. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1914|03|24|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Barnstable, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1943|09|12|1914|03|24|mf=yes}} | death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S. | death_cause = Homicide | resting_place = Woods Hole Village Cemetery (Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S.) | education = Deerfield Academy | alma_mater = Harvard University | occupation = Actor | spouse = {{marriage|Greta Keller|1942}} | parents = Gaspar G. Bacon<br>Priscilla Tolland | relatives = Robert Bacon (grandfather)<br>Robert L. Bacon (uncle) }} '''David Bacon''' (born '''Gaspar Griswold Bacon Jr.''', March 24, 1914 – September 12, 1943) was an American stage and film actor.
== Early life and education== Bacon was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, and his family was one of the prominent, politically active Boston Brahmin families. His father, Gaspar G. Bacon, was on the board of Harvard University, and later, in the 1930s, served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.<ref name="ew">{{cite magazine |last1=Grossman Kantor |first1=Wendy |title=Who Killed The Masked Marvel? |url=https://ew.com/celebrity/2019/06/27/who-killed-the-masked-marvel-true-crime/amp/ |magazine= Entertainment Weekly |access-date=July 15, 2019 |date=June 27, 2019}}</ref>
Born to a life of privilege and wealth, David Bacon attended Deerfield Academy and graduated from Harvard in 1937.<ref name="ew"/><ref name="newengland">{{cite web |title=LEISURE The Mysterious Death of Cape Cod's David Bacon |url=http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/mysterious-death-cape-cods-david-bacon/ |publisher = New England Historical Society |date=February 12, 2018 |access-date=July 15, 2019}}</ref>
He summered with his family at Woods Hole on Cape Cod, where he became involved during the early 1930s with the "University Players", at West Falmouth.{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}} There he met the then-unknown performers James Stewart and Henry Fonda, with whom he later shared accommodations while he struggled to establish himself.<ref name="newengland"/>
== Career == Bacon's acting career failed to progress, and he drifted for several years. He moved to New York City, where he was sponsored by a wealthy British patron, and although he once again failed to secure employment, he began to wear expensive clothes and jewelry, leading to speculation that he was acting as a gigolo.<ref name="newengland"/>
He moved to Los Angeles, where he met and married Austrian singer and actress Greta Keller, eleven years his senior, in 1942.<ref name="Porter">{{cite book |last1=Porter |first1=Darwin |title=Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel |date=2005 |publisher= Blood Moon |isbn=0-9748118-1-5 |page=515}}</ref> In her later years, Keller disclosed that both she and Bacon were bisexuals and that their lavender marriage partly served as what she referred to as a "beard", allowing both of them to maintain the requisite façade in Hollywood, where they were both attempting to establish film careers.<ref name="mank">{{cite book |last1=Mank |first1=Gregory William |title=Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy |date=2018 |publisher= McFarland |isbn=978-1-476-62844-8 |page=28}}</ref>
In 1942, Howard Hughes met Bacon, and signed him to an exclusive contract, with the intention of casting him in ''The Outlaw'' (1943) as Billy the Kid.<ref name="mank" /> Bacon screen tested for the role and was found unsuitable. Though Hughes later decided not to use Bacon in ''The Outlaw'', replacing him with actor Jack Beutel, he kept Bacon to the terms of his contract, casting him in several smaller roles, usually as college boys.<ref name="mank" /> Keller alleged that there was a homosexual relationship between Hughes and Bacon, and she blamed the alleged relationship for Bacon's being replaced.<ref name="mank" /> Hughes, however, was widely known as a womanizer and was often the target of unscrupulous claims to cash in on his money. Later, Hughes did lend Bacon for a role in the Republic Pictures serial ''The Masked Marvel'' (1943).<ref>{{cite news |title='Masked Marvel' Believed to Have Had Premonition of Tragedy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/09/17/archives/will-adds-puzzle-to-bacon-slaying-masked-marvel-believed-to-have.html |quote=David Gaspar G. Bacon, "Masked Marvel" of the movies, wrote a penciled will three months before he was stabbed to death, his attorney said today |agency = United Press |newspaper = The New York Times |date=September 17, 1943 |access-date=March 11, 2011 |url-access = subscription }}</ref> {{citation needed span|date=March 2026|text=The serial was produced with a low budget, and marked a low point in Bacon's career, with Keller recalling that he was completely humiliated. Today, it remains his best remembered work.}}
== Death and burial == On September 12, 1943, Bacon was seen driving a car erratically in Santa Monica, California, before running off the road and into the curb. Several witnesses saw him climb out of the car and stagger briefly before collapsing.<ref>{{cite news |title=D.G. Bacon Is Slain as in Movie Roles. Identity of the Killer, Reported with Him in Car, and Motive Mystify Los Angeles Police |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/09/14/archives/dg-bacon-is-slain-as-in-movie-roles-identity-of-the-killer-reported.html |newspaper= The New York Times |date=September 14, 1943 }}</ref> As they approached, he asked them to help him, but he died before he could say anything more. A small puncture wound was found in his back; the weapon had punctured his lung and caused his death. A weapon was never found, though the wound was suggested to be from a stiletto.
Keller, who was then five months pregnant, collapsed when she heard of her husband's death.<ref name="mank" /> She was inconsolable and was given sedatives by Bacon's brother, a doctor. On September 20, eight days after Bacon's death, Keller went into labor and delivered a stillborn.<ref>{{cite news |title=Baby of Slain Actor Bacon Born Dead|work= Oakland Tribune |date=September 24, 1943 |location=Oakland, California |page=6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6569063/greta_keller_bacons_child_stillborn/|via= Newspapers.com}}</ref>
{{Citation needed span |date=March 2026|text=When he died, Bacon was wearing only a swimsuit, and a wallet and camera were found in his car. Also in his car was a small sweater not belonging to Bacon. Allegedly, the film from the camera was developed and found to contain only one image, that of Bacon, nude and smiling on a beach. The case attracted publicity for a time and remains unsolved.}}
David Bacon was cremated at Cunningham & O'Connor Mortuary in Santa Monica. His cremains were shipped to Massachusetts, where they were interred at Woods Hole Village Cemetery (also known as Church of the Messiah Memorial Garden) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.<ref name="mank" />
==See also== {{Portal|Biography|Crime|Film|Los Angeles|Massachusetts|New York City|Theatre}} * List of American actors * List of Deerfield Academy alumni * List of Harvard University people * List of people from Los Angeles * List of people from Massachusetts * List of people from New York City * List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) {{Clear}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * ''Howard Hughes, The Untold Story''. p. 100, Brown and Broske, DaCapo Press 1996{{ISBN missing|date=March 2026}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0045771|name=David Bacon}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050407185149/http://capecodconfidential.com/ccc5-12.shtml ''Cape Cod Confidential'' – The Death of David Bacon] * [http://www.tomchristopher.com/miscellaneous2/who-killed-the-masked-marvel/ Who Killed ''The Masked Marvel'']
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, David}} Category:1914 births Category:1943 deaths Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people Category:20th-century American male actors Category:20th-century people from California Category:20th-century people from Massachusetts Category:20th-century people from New York (state) Category:American bisexual male actors Category:American male film actors Category:American male stage actors Category:American murder victims Category:Deaths by stabbing in California Category:Deerfield Academy alumni Category:Harvard College alumni Category:LGBTQ people from California Category:LGBTQ people from Massachusetts Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state) Category:Male actors from Los Angeles Category:Male actors from Massachusetts Category:Male actors from New York City Category:Murdered actors Category:People from Barnstable, Massachusetts Category:People from Falmouth, Massachusetts Category:People murdered in 1943 Category:People murdered in California Category:Road incident deaths in California Category:Unsolved murders in California