Houston's Broadway credits included ''The O'Flynn
(1934), Caviar
(1934), Shooting Star
(1933), Melody
(1933), A Modern Virgin
(1931), The Venetian Glass Nephew
(1931), Fioretta
(1929), and Chee-Chee'' (1928). After doing some stage acting on
Broadway, Houston was enticed to try his acting skills in
Hollywood by the early 1930s, hoping to win parts in singing films. He received small bit parts in six different films, but no roles that cast him in a starring role. After his sixth, he found himself unemployed. On September 8, 1933, in
New York City, Houston married
Leone Sousa, a model and
Ziegfeld girl. They later moved to
Los Angeles,
California. In 1936, Houston and Sousa performed together in the play
Everyman, produced by the California Festival Association at the
Hollywood Bowl and directed by
Max Reinhardt. Houston was cast as Mephisto in another lavish Max Reinhardt production of Faust at the Pilgrimage Theatre in Hollywood in 1938. In 1935, Houston was noticed by small production company
Grand National Pictures, who hired him to play the lead role in a series of musical westerns including the 1936 film
Captain Calamity and the 1938 film
Frontier Scout. The 1938 film was successful and brought Houston to the notice of other production companies. That same year he would play a small role in
Blockade with
Henry Fonda and
Madeleine Carroll, in which he was billed as
"George Byron". In
MGM's movie
The Great Waltz, also released in 1938, he played the opera singer Fritz Schiller. By 1940, following several failed film endeavors,
Grand National Pictures was in trouble, and they went out of business soon after. Houston had been billed prior to this time by a new company,
Producers Releasing Corporation, as the future character of
Billy the Kid in an eight film series for that company. However, when it came time to film the series,
Bob Steele was cast in the role for six episodes, and was replaced by
Buster Crabbe following Steele's departure to
Republic Pictures. Despite his not being cast in the "Billy the Kid" role, PRC gave Houston his own series of films. He would make eleven films as "The Lone Rider", beginning with the 1941 film
The Lone Rider Rides On, in which he sang the theme song in an equally rousing bass-baritone voice at the beginning and end.
Al "Fuzzy" St. John played his
sidekick in all eleven films. However, by the end of 1942, Houston was replaced by veteran actor
Bob Livingston as the "Lone Rider." St. John and actor
Dennis Moore would remain with the series. ==Death==