Stars on Suspense (Old Time Radio)

This week, we'll hear Robert Mitchum - one of Hollywood's best tough guys and antiheroes - as a man plotting a murder in "Suspense." We'll also hear him as Washington Irving in a biographical drama from "The Cavalcade of America."

This week, we'll hear William Conrad - one of the greatest voices of the radio era - in two starring roles on "Suspense," including a terrifying one-man show set in a wax museum after midnight.

This week, we'll hear Cornel Wilde - Oscar-nominated leading man turned director - in two stories of "Suspense." He plays a shopkeeper with an arson plan and a gentlemanly southern lawyer on an adventure in the Big Apple.

This week, we'll hear James Cagney in his second and final "Suspense" appearance - a cautionary tale of the dangers of distracted driving. Plus, he stars in a radio adaptation of the big screen thriller "Night Must Fall."

This week, we'll hear Claire Trevor - the queen of film noir - in two tales well calculated to keep you in "Suspense," including a story from the master of pulp noir Cornell Woolrich.

This week, we'll hear Roddy McDowall - long before his trip to the Planet of the Apes - in an old time radio thriller plus an adaptation of a classic Mark Twain story.

This week, we''ll hear Ava Gardner in her one and only Suspense appearance - "Lady in Distress" (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1947). Then we'll hear her as she makes a visit to Edwards Air Force Base with Bob Hope in an episode from the comedian's radio show from March 6, 1951.

The "First Lady of Suspense" is back! Agnes Moorehead stars in a pair of eerie thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat: "Uncle Henry's Rosebush" (originally aired on CBS on June 23, 1943) and an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (originally aired on CBS on July 29, 1948).

Hail to the Chief! Before he sat in the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan made a pair of visits to the Suspense microphone. Tune in and “hear one for the Gipper.” Better yet, hear two as Reagan stars in “One and One’s a Lonesome” (originally aired on CBS on March 23, 1950) and “Circumstantial Terror” (originally aired on CBS on March 8, 1954).

“Stars On Suspense” salutes the master of suspense – Alfred Hitchcock. We’re celebrating the anniversary of the legendary director’s birth with an old time radio adaptation of one of his big screen classics. Tallulah Bankhead recreates her role in Hitch’s wartime drama set on the high seas – Lifeboat. Jeff Chandler and Sheldon Leonard join her aboard this production from the Screen Directors’ Playhouse, originally aired on NBC on November 16, 1950.

We're back with more legends of Hollywood in tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense. This week, our star is John Lund, the boyishly good looking leading man who made thirteen visits to the program. He plays a man conspiring to bump off his wife's lover in "A Plane Case of Murder" (originally aired on CBS on October 10, 1946). Then, Lund is first mate on a ship with a killer among the crew in "Murder Aboard the Alphabet" (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1947).

Father may have known best, but when Robert Young starred on Suspense he played characters miles away from beloved radio and TV dad Jim Anderson. We'll hear Young co-star with Geraldine Fitzgerald in "A Friend to Alexander" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1943). Then, Young plays a patient in an insane asylum fighting to regain his memory in "The High Wall" (originally aired on CBS on June 6, 1946).

With his good looks and affable demeanor, Van Johnson was a matinee idol to the bobbysoxer crowd during the war years. He went on to success on the big and small screens in a career that stretched into the 1980s. We'll hear Johnson on Suspense in "The Singing Walls" (an AFRS rebroadcast of a show from November 2, 1944) and "The Defense Rests" (originally aired on CBS on October 6, 1949).

Best known as the mother of The Bad Seed, Nancy Kelly made eight visits to Suspense during her long Broadway and Hollywood career. We'll hear her as a wife fighting for her husband's life in "Eve" (an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast) and as a carhop who gets a ride from the wrong stranger in "Drive-In" (originally aired on CBS on January 11, 1945).

Emmy winner Hume Cronyn was no stranger to thrills and chills. A frequent collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock, Cronyn played the scene stealing true crime buff in Shadow of a Doubt and helped with the story for Rope. He played many roles over his award-winning career, but his background with the master certainly must have helped prepare him for his work on Suspense. We'll hear him in "Too Many Smiths" (originally aired on CBS on June 13, 1946) and "Blue Eyes" (originally aired on CBS on August 29, 1946).