The character of the Falcom was created by Michael Arlen in a 1940 story, Gay Falcon, which, almost immediately, became an RKO film and, subsequently, a movie series. The early Falcon films followed the Arlen story to this extent: the hero, played by George Sanders, was then named Gay Lawrence, using his Falcom identity in his dealings with the underworld. Sanders tired of the film role and, in The Falcon's Brother (RKO, 1942), the character was killed onscreen, leaving the Falcon's brother, Tom Conway, to carry on._{John Dunning}