Claude Payton Biography

A tall, often bearded supporting actor, Claude Payton had toured extensively with a stock company headed by his brother, Corse. By 1914, he was with the Thanhouser company of New Rochelle, NY, the beginning of a long screen career spent mainly playing Boss villains or lawmen in low-budget Westerns. Payton survived the transition to sound but from 1935 on was mainly seen in unbilled bit parts. He seems to have retired in the mid-'40s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi