Handsome, hairy-chested Ralph Byrd had an 18 year career in Hollywood both as a leading man and as a character actor, though he is best remembered for his role as Chester Gould's comic strip detective, Dick Tracy, in several movie serials and on television (first for ABC and then in a syndicated series). During his film career he was a contract player for RKO and 20th- Fox. A serious auto accident slowed down his film career in the late 1940s, but he returned to the role of Tracy and worked steadily until his untimely death of a heart attack. His survivors were his widow, the actress Virginia Carroll, and his daughter, Carol, 13 at the time of his death.