Biography
Leon Beaumon—also known as Leon Beauman, Beaumont, and Leon Duval—was a minor stage and film actor during the 1920s and 1930s. Born Herman Bauman in 1898 on a farm near Youngstown, Ohio, to German immigrant parents, he worked in steel mills as a youth and studied with his two brothers near Chicago to become a Catholic priest. However, after a disagreement with a seminary superior in 1920, Herman headed to California to pursue a movie career, persuading his younger brother Marty to join him. During their journey west amid Prohibition, they worked in a still and ran illegal liquor in Denver. Upon arriving in Hollywood, they changed their surname to Beaumon, and Herman adopted the name Leon. Leon and Marty lived in a Hollywood boarding house alongside Clark Gable and John Wayne before the latter two achieved fame. They were so poor and similar in size that the four men shared one suit of clothes, coordinating their auditions so each could wear it.
Leon’s filmography remains somewhat mysterious due to time and his efforts to conceal his true age, offering few details of his Hollywood career to his children. From a scrapbook, archival records, and information from his lifelong friend and fellow actor, the late Bob St. Angelo, it is known that he had credited roles in *A Fight to the Finish* (1925), *Clancy of the Mounted* (1933), *Pioneer Trail* (1938), and *The Law Comes to Texas* (1939). He appeared uncredited in *Cleopatra* (1934), *Folies Bergère de Paris* (1935), *Fugitive at Large* (1939), *Les Misérables* (1935), *The Call of the Wild* (1935), *The Freshman* (1925), *The Mighty Barnum* (1934), *The Sea Wolf* (1930), *The Wizard of Oz* (1939), *The Vagabond King* (1930), and *Western Frontier* (1935). He frequently portrayed villains in Ken Maynard’s westerns. During his acting career, Leon also operated an ice cream shop in Hollywood. Additionally, he was an inventor, credited with creating one of the first wireless radios, the record changer for record players, and various other devices.
During World War II, Leon served in the Army Air Corps, remaining stateside. After the war, he became a real estate broker and later an industrial landlord. Leon stayed single until 1961, when he married Theresa (Hermine Gruber). They settled in a Los Angeles suburb and had three children: Florence, Anthony, and Monique. He never fully retired, even installing a roof on a building in his seventies. His beloved wife passed away in 1978. Leon died of cancer in 1981 at age 83. His nephew and his wife, Jim and Marj Smerber, generously cared for him during his illness and helped raise his young children.
