A New Sybil's "WHO'Z DAT?"… WALTER HUSTON (April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called "SYBIL'S WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public worships. (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???). And speaking of “character” actors, Mummy is going to introduce everyone to the concept of a “character LEAD”!! These actors may not have been lyrically handsome or beautiful, but they often played the leading roles in the most interesting and classic films out of Hollywood. Technically, Bette Davis was one!... almost from the very start of her career. And by her OWN choice! Spencer Tracy was another. Well, my next guest here is not only a classic example, but his range of both comedy and drama, heroes and villains, insure him a seat at the Olympus of character leads! And he started one of the great Hollywood dynasties as well! Walter Huston! (April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950)

You’ve seen him everywhere, but he’s so chameleon that many folks don’t realize it’s actually HIM in some of the great classic pictures. Born in Toronto, Canada into a farming family and originally trained as an engineer, Huston turned to his other passion acting in 1902, appearing in Vaudeville and stage plays. In 1904, he married Rhea Gore (1882-1938) and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada and Missouri. By 1909, his marriage floundering, he began appearing in vaudeville with an older actress called Bayonne Whipple (1865 - 1937) (born Mina Rose). They were billed as "Whipple and Huston" and in 1915 they married. Vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s. In 1924 he starred in the premiere production of Eugene O’Neill’s DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS at the Provincetown Playhouse Theatre in Greenwich Village, which then moved to Broadway. To the end of his life, O'Neill (the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize for Literature) maintained that Huston’s performance was the greatest by any actor in any of his works. For the next few years, Huston appeared on Broadway and then moved to Hollywood as the “talkies” first began to appear. He immediately began starring opposite some of the great film actors of the early 30’s; Gary Cooper in THE VIRGINIAN (1929), Jean Harlow in BEAST OF THE CITY (1932), and Joan Crawford in RAIN (1932). His range ran from heroic icons like the title role in ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930) to corrupt judges in NIGHT COURT (1932).

Huston received the first of his four Academy Award nominations for the eponymous DODSWORTH (1936), the role he had originated on Broadway in 1934. Huston continued to return to the stage over the years, alternating work between New York and Hollywood. He scored on of his greatest stage successes in KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY (1944) as Peter Stuyvesant singing the immortal Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson classic “September Song”. Huston once said, “I was certainly a better actor after my years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.”. Huston received his second Best Actor nomination playing Mr. Scratch in the film adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet’s THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) and his third Oscar nod (for Best Supporting Actor) playing the father of George M. Cohan’s (James Cagney) in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) the following year. Just before playing Lucifer, he had made a brief cameo appearance as the dying sea captain (uncredited) who delivers THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) to the office of Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart). That film represented the directorial debut of his son John Huston, who had established himself in Hollywood as a screenwriter in the 1930s. John Huston, as a practical joke, had his father enter the scene and die over 10 different takes.

Walter would go on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1948 for his role as the old miner in his writer-director son John' s THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948), co-starring with Bogart. Accepting his Academy Award, the elder Huston said, "Many years ago.... Many, MANY years ago, I brought up a boy, and I said to him, 'Son, if you ever become a writer, try to write a good part for your old man sometime.' Well, by cracky, that's what he did!". Walter Huston died the following year in Beverly Hills from an aortic aneurysm, two days after his 67th birthday. The legacy he leaves is not only his own beautifully crafted work, but also the Huston dynasty; his brilliant actor/director son John, and grandchildren Angelica, Danny, and Tony.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Hollywood's Hysterical History"...

THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932)... starring an intimate cast (by 1930s Hollywood standards!) of Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey, and the always fascinating Ernest ("Gods and Monsters!") Thesiger!...and directed by James Whale… (as flamboyant as ever!)

The title just about says it all, doesn't it? A weird and weirdly funny movie from the pre-code era, that sets a black & white horror mood rather brilliantly. Merrily macabre in so many ways, I often wonder how many takes some scenes took just because the cast broke out laughing especially with the extraordinary James Whale larking about behind the camera with Thesiger flouncing around in front of it! A Must-See, if you haven’t already!! Enjoy!!...

 …oh!... and did I ever tell you about the sequel? YES!! James asked me to star in it along with the reassembled Dark House cast! It was to be called QUEERISH CASTLE (1933 or so). James was getting more and more defiant of Hollywood’s closeted attitude about LGBTQ issues, so he decided to rub the big studios’ noses in it! No longer satisfied with only calling the lead character “Horace Femm”, the residents of Queerish Castle were to be Humpmey Bogart, Beulah Bondage, Finger Rogers, Poosile Ball, Orson Smells, Spencer Lacey, Lesbie Ann Warren, Julie Man-Drews, Clit Walker, Vulvian Vance, and Peener Youstinoff. The castle, though terrifying and full of dead bodies, trap doors, and secret passages, was also to be a fabulous dance hall/speak-easy with Vaudeville acts, including drag performance-knife throwers, transvestite-trapeze artists, contortionist-fortune tellers of indeterminate gender, and dog-and-cat ventriloquism! I was going to play “The Insatiable & Inscrewtable Vaj-eena”, a gypsy fortune teller who uses tea leaves and oblong vegetables to determine the unsuspecting guests’ futures… Misfortune and Merriment ensues!... or so we hoped. The Hays Committee shut us down for “Gross Indecency!... and oblong vegetables!” JEEEESH!!!!

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A New Sybil's "WHO'Z DAT?"... HARRY DAVENPORT (January 19, 1866 – August 9, 1949)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT??"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place"... well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships"... I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???... well, if ever, ever there was an actor who was loved, truly loved more than this one, I’ve never heard of him… it’s Harry Davenport (January 19, 1866 – August 9, 1949), everybody’s favorite “grandpa”.

Harold George Bryant Davenport, he was an American film and stage actor who worked in show business from the age of six until his death. Born just one year after the end of the Civil War in Canton, Pennsylvania, where his family lived during the holidays. He also grew up in Philadelphia. Harry came from a long line of stage actors; his father was thespian Edward Loomis Davenport, and his mother, Fanny Vining Davenport, was an English actress and a descendant of the renowned 18th-century Irish stage actor Jack Johnson. His sister was actress Fanny Davenport. In fact all nine of the Davenport children shared their parents’ love for the arts, and several, including Harry, dedicated their lives to performing. Harry himself made his stage debut at the age of five at the Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia in a play written by Richard Edwards, DAMON AND PYTHIAS. Written in a tribute dedicated to Davenport in the “Canton Sunday Telegraph” in 1949 is a notation about the fact that Harry never spent his earnings from that debut.  The story doesn’t refer to his being frugal, but rather endearing and sentimental –  “His pay was $1.95 in coins of every denomination then current and all dated 1871.  A five-dollar gold piece was added as a ‘bonus.'” Davenport kept the old coins in a safe deposit box and often said that a million dollars couldn’t make him get rid of them. And it remained so even during the leanest of times.  

By his teen years Harry Davenport was a veteran stage actor playing Shakespearian stock companies. Working regionally for years, Davenport made his Broadway debut in THE VOYAGE OF SUZETTE (1894) at the age of 28 and appeared there in numerous plays for decades. While still working exclusively on the stage, Davenport also co-founded the Actor’s Equity Association (then called “The White Rats”) with stage legend, Eddie Foy. The union was formed to address theater owners’ exploitation of actors.  Within the first year “The White Rats” had an enthusiastic membership who would cause a close-out of theaters in protest.  It was that difficult situation (for the most part) that prompted Harry to join Vitagraph Studios in NYC at the age of 47, debuting in the 1913 silent short film KENTON'S HEIR, followed the next year by Sidney Drew’s, TOO MANY HUSBANDS, and FOGG'S MILLIONS, and a series of film shorts co-starring another veteran of the stage, Rose Tapley. These included eighteen comedy shorts that made up what is referred to as the “Jarr Family” series.  In it, Davenport played Mr. Jarr, the patriarch of a middle-class family whose misadventures the series revolved around. Aside from playing the head of the Jarr family, Harry was also given directing duties in the stories, which were based on newspaper dailies written by humorist, Roy McCardell starting in 1907. All eighteen of the Jarr family productions at Vitagraph were produced and released in 1915.

In addition, he also directed some silent features and many shorts between 1915 and 1917. Davenport continued to work in film steadily throughout the 1910s, but returned to the stage full-time for the rest of the 1920s after a small, uncredited part in Fred Newmeyer’s, AMONG THOSE PRESENT in 1921. Full-time that is if stage work was available.  Just like many other Americans at the time, Harry and his second wife Phyllis Rankin (a successful actor in her own right) were living through tough financial times.  When not on the stage the couple would make ends meet by teaching acting and theater arts on the side and/or by picking wild strawberries which Phyllis made into preserves. They sold the preserves in New York and were successful enough at it to be able to “hire” local boys to help pick the strawberries. The boys’ pay was the promise of a bicycle to the best picker – a promise that was always kept. 

Harry Davenport made a few films in the early 1930s, but it wasn’t until Phyllis’ untimely death in 1934 that his film career took off after he decided to travel to California to give Hollywood an earnest effort.  Driving cross-country in his jalopy, Harry took his time, stopping in different cities along the way to act in a play or two to earn extra money. Could he ever have imagined that a brand-new career awaited him playing grandfathers, judges, doctors, and ministers. He came to Hollywood at 69 years of age during the height of the Great Depression and became one of the most beloved, admired and prolific actors in film history and one of the best-known and busiest "old men" in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s. 

Settling comfortably in a life in Hollywood, Harry Davenport took on as many movie roles as he could handle. He had a gift for both comedy and drama and specialized in playing earnest, authoritative, wise, and sometimes wise-cracking characters, most often men who others turned to for guidance. He appeared in only one scene for a few minutes as a wise and wryly observant judge in Frank Capra’s YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938), but his performance is unforgettable right to the final shot of him smiling and shaking his head at the pandemonium in his courtroom!

Harry Davenport played Dr. Meade in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), a role that was both comical and poignant and extremely important to the central story as it unfolded. He completely commands the screen opposite Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Olivia de Havilland, During his “twilight” years, when most others would be settling down into retirement, Harry Davenport worked continuously. To put it in perspective, he made thirteen films in what is considered by many to be the greatest year in film, 1939. Thirteen!! Aside from GONE WITH THE WIND, these included John Cromwell’s, MADE FOR EACH OTHER (as Dr. Healy), Irving Cummings’, THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (as Judge Rider), William Dieterle’s, JUAREZ starring Paul Muni and Bette Davis, and Gus Meins’, MONEY TO BURN (as Grandpa). And from a productive standpoint that year was only so-so for Harry. He’d appeared in nineteen films in 1937!! 

Some of his other film roles are as the aged King Louis XI of France in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) with film greats Charles Laughton, Thomas Mitchell, Edmond O’Brien, George Zucco, Maureen O'Hara, and Cedric Hardwicke. He played the lone resident in a ghost town in THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. (1942), filmed on location in Death Valley, He also had supporting roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), William A. Wellman’s western THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943) and in KINGS ROW (1943) with Ronald Reagan. Davenport also played the iconic grandfather of Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli's classic MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) and the great-uncle of Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple in THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER (1947).

A lesser film Harry Davenport appeared in, but one we have to mention is the fifth entry in The Thin Man series, Richard Thorpe’s, THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1945). Harry Davenport plays Dr. Charles, the father of one of the most popular detectives in filmdom, Nick Charles of Nick and Nora fame. A perfect choice!  This particular story shows Nick and Nora returning to Nick’s parents’ house for vacation.  Nick’s father, Dr. Charles, always dreamed of his son becoming a doctor as well and collaborating with him on a project for a new hospital.  Not familiar with his son’s natural talents for investigation, the Doctor views Nick as little more than a beat cop. Meanwhile, Nick longs for his father’s approval so Nora sets out to involve Nick in a murder mystery in his hometown so the old Doctor can be duly impressed. In the end the Doctor is quite impressed with the son’s skills and when he tells the younger Charles, Nick’s vest buttons bust with pride (literally). The super-talented William Powell and Myrna Loy are joined not only by Harry Davenport, but also by the great, Lucille Watson.

Harry Davenport continued to appear in films up until his sudden death of a heart attack on August 9, 1949 at age eighty-three… one hour after he asked his agent Walter Herzbrun about a new film role! His last film was Frank Capra’s musical-comedy, RIDING HIGH (1950), which was released the year after his death. Bette Davis once called Davenport "without a doubt, the greatest character actor of all time.” Bette Davis!... can you imagine?!

Through his marriage to Phyllis, he was the brother-in-law of Lionel Barrymore who was married at the time to Phyllis' sister Doris. His entire family, including in-laws and eventually, all five of Harry Davenport’s own children would become actors or involved in production as well, as would a couple of his grandchildren. He was buried in Kensico Cemetery, Westchester County, New York. In the obituary, a newspaper called him the "white-haired character actor" with "the longest acting career in American history". Harry Davenport appeared in over 160 films. Asked why he made so many films at his age, he replied: “I hate to see men of my age sit down as if their lives were ended and accept a dole. An old man must show that he knows his job and is no loafer. If he can do that, they can take their pension money and buy daisies with it.”

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Famously Infamous Moments In History"... Holiday On Ice?????

Ah, yes.. the famous but short-lived "Mixed Pairs With Offspring Ice-Rhumba Competition"... held in the Lake Placid Olympics - 1932... Tragically, during the finals, the Kronovskys (seen here) doing a triple toe-loop hurled their newborn Ishmael into a passing Zamboni...

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A New Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... GENE LOCKHART (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)...

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called "SYBIL'S WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships". (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???). Here's our next guest!! … EUGENE “GENE” LOCKHART! (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)

Lockhart was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs. Born in London, Ontario, his father had studied singing, and young Gene displayed an early interest in drama and music. Shortly after the 7-year-old danced a Highland fling in a concert given by the 48th Highlanders' Regimental Band, his father joined the band as a Scottish tenor. The Lockhart family accompanied the band to England. While his father toured, Gene studied at the Brompton Oratory School in London. At the age of 15, he was appearing in sketches with actress Beatrice Lillie. Lockhart was educated in various Canadian schools and at the Brompton Oratory School in London, England. He also played football for the Toronto Argonauts. Lockhart had a long stage career; he also wrote professionally and taught acting and stage technique at the Juilliard School in New York City. He had also written theatrical sketches, radio shows, special stage material, song lyrics and articles for stage and radio magazines.

He made his Broadway debut in 1916, in the musical THE RIVIERA GIRL. He was a member of the travelling play THE PIERROT PLAYERS (for which he wrote the book and lyrics). This play introduced the song, “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” for which Lockhart wrote the lyrics along with Canadian composer Ernest Seitz.. (The song was subsequently made popular by Les Paul and Mary Ford in the 1950s.) HEIGH-HO (1920) followed, a musical fantasy with score by Deems Taylor and book and lyrics by Lockhart. It had a short run (again, with him in the cast). Lockhart's first real break as a dramatic actor came in the supporting role of Bud, a mountaineer moonshiner, in SUN UP (1923). This was an American folk play, first presented by The Players, a theatrical club, in a Greenwich Village little theater, and, after great notices, it moved to a larger house for a two-year run. During this engagement, in 1924 at the age of 33, Lockhart married Kathleen Lockhart (nee Kathleen Arthur), an English actress and musician. He also wrote and directed the Broadway musical revue BUNK OF 1926. He sang in DIE FLEDERMAUS for the San Francisco Opera Association.

On Broadway, Lockhart originated the role of Uncle Sid in Eugene O'Neill’s only comedy, AH! WILDERNESS! His performance was so compelling that O'Neill wrote to Lockhart: "Every time your Sid has come in for dinner I've wanted to burst into song, and every time you've come down from that nap I've felt the cold gray ghost of an old heebie-jeebie." The acclaim for his acting in AH, WILDERNESS allowed Lockhart to proceed to Hollywood and remain there almost without interruption. Although he made his film debut in the silent in the 1922 version of SMILIN’ THROUGH as the Rector, his big break came after his triumph in AH! WILDERNESS when he returned to Hollywood in the talkie BY YOUR LEAVE (1934) where he played the playboy Skeets. Lockhart subsequently appeared in more than 300 motion pictures. He often played villains, including a role as the treacherous informant Regis in ALGIERS, the American remake of PEPE LE MOKO, which gained him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared in the movie THE SEA WOLF (1941), adapted from the novel by Jack London, as the tragic ship's doctor opposite the great Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, and John Garfield. He played the suspicious Georges de la Trémouille, the Dauphin's chief counselor, in the famous 1948 film, JOAN OF ARC, starring Ingrid Bergman. But it was a tribute to his amazing versatility that he had his most memorable successes as lovable, "good guy" supporting roles including Bob Cratchit in A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) which also starred his own very accomplished actress/wife Kathleen as Mrs. Cratchit and his daughter June as one of the children. He is very well remembered as the flustered judge in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947) with John Payne, Maureen O’Hara, and Edmund Gwynne, and as the Starkeeper in the 1956 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL with Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae.

His great sense of comedy is shown playing the bumbling city sheriff in HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) opposite Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Lockhart’s down-to-Earth style also got him cast in a number of Hollywood’s prestigious bio-pics including THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (1939) with Don Ameche and Henry Fonda, EDISON THE MAN (1940) with Spencer Tracy, and ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940) with Raymond Massey. He did return to Broadway to take over from Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, during the original run of DEATH OF A SALESMAN in 1949. His last film role was that of the Equity Board President in the 1957 film biopic JEANNE EAGELS.

Late on Saturday, March 30, 1957, Lockhart suffered a heart attack while sleeping in his apartment at 10439 Ashton Avenue in West Los Angeles. He was taken to St. John's Hospital and died on Sunday afternoon, March 31. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. Although he was married to Kathleen for 33 years, June Lockhart was his only child. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard, one for motion pictures and one for television.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "A Whole Month Of Thanksgiving!"... Abundance??

Abundance, even in a time of want! Friends, did you know that during the Great Depression of the 1930s so many American families were facing insecurity, and even hunger and homelessness? All across the wide country, fathers tried to hold on to their jobs while mothers struggled to stretch a dollar as far as it would go... even to maintaining a staff of servants who could keep the house clean, the gardens tended, the laundry washed and ironed, and the meals cooked and presented properly! If there was any corner to be cut, it might be in substituting different dietary choices for traditional ones. It wasn't spoken of widely, but, instead of an expensive turkey from the trusty butcher for Thanksgiving, Mother might substitute a family pet. And you know, it wasn't always so stressful or heartbreaking either... especially if it was a neighbor’s dog from down the street.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "THANKSGIVING Headlines From Yesteryear!"...

... Here is an actual photograph of the moment in the Macy's Parade when a gigantic creature broke free from its handlers and began eating the crowd. Despite the privations of the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression, Macy's succumbed to public pressure and replaced living beasts like this one with more reliable balloon facsimiles....although the element of excitement and potential danger was sorely missed by parade-purists... especially children who seemed to like the idea of seeing their fellow classmates torn to pieces by huge monstrous cartoon characters. The use of hydrogen DID create some possibilities for mishaps especially with cigar-smoking pixies and Santa’s elves lurking about in doorways and public restrooms, but within a few years, helium had eliminated that as well, and the parade slumped off to a forlorn ritual of honking brass bands, drunken and vomiting clowns, and prancing muffins... that might try to pinch your bottom…

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“Sybil Bruncheon's My Merry Memoirs”… page 336… A Woman’s Home Is Her Castle… sort of.

Back in the Winter of 1920, I (secretly) lived in the Belvedere Castle in Central Park during a really tough time financially… um… involving some unwise investments in asparagus futures and… oh… whatever. Anyway, after the asparagus market crashed, the alternative was to sleep in doorways and on park-benches (if the weather was nice enough) or in old wooden packing crates down by the loading docks when it wasn’t!). But that particular Winter, a packing crate wasn’t going to be quite enough… so I managed to sneak into beautiful Belvedere Castle when the lock on the front gate broke and no one got around to replacing it… (alright, I’ll admit; I had gotten pretty handy with a brick on a particularly frigid night!).

Anyway, during the day when strollers would wander by, I pretended to be a glamorous meteo-, a meteo-, a lady-weather-iatrix and to be taking "measurements". I’d purse my lips and shake my head worriedly over clipboards full of all sorts of maps and nonsense doodles... sort of like a cross between Jean Harlow and Jim Cantore. Most folks had never seen a woman weather-scientist back then, and I would point at the sky and say things like “bariatric pressure”, “thermos-dynamics”, “atmospheric conviction”, and “accumulo-nimble”, etc., etc. and they would ah and oooh, and ask for my autograph. I attracted larger and larger crowds of well-wishers, admirers, and gentleman-callers for all of January and February. Of course the park rangers got suspicious when I accidentally sat on my anemometer while eating a box of expensive chocolates and three-day-old celery from a vegetable stand. One of the cops wrote me up in his report saying I had an “anal-mometer” sticking out of my bloomers… JEEESH!

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A New Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... THOMAS MITCHELL (July 11, 1892 – December 17, 1962)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. And feel free to share them with your friends! Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships". (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???)… Well, this actor qualifies absolutely as an icon of the "Character STAR" set.... bumbling, wise, a smart aleck, a doddering fool, comedies, dramas, even tragedies! His face, and voice are unforgettable and irreplaceable.... he's one of the folks that I hope is waiting to sit and have coffee ‘n’ croissants with me in a Heaven-For-Actors cafe.... He’s Thomas Mitchell (July 11, 1892 – December 17, 1962). In addition to being an actor, he was also a director, playwright, and screenwriter.

         Born Thomas John Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the youngest of seven children. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters, and his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of Labor. The younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter after graduating from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth. However, Mitchell soon found that he enjoyed writing comic theatrical skits much more than chasing late-breaking scoops. He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with the Charles Coburn Shakespeare Company. Coburn provided young Mitchell with some much-needed experience in the works of William Shakespeare. In late 1916 Mitchell debuted on Broadway in the original play UNDER SENTENCE and would be a fixture on the Great White Way steadily from then to 1935, working on a total of 29 plays. Even while playing leading roles on Broadway into the 1920s Mitchell would continue to write. One of the plays he co-authored, LITTLE ACCIDENT, was eventually made into a film (three times) by Hollywood, and with CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS (1931).

          Although, Mitchell's first credited screen role was in the 1923 silent film SIX CYLINDER LOVE, his first breakthrough role was as the embezzler in Frank Capra’s film LOST HORIZON (1937). Over the next few years, Mitchell appeared in many significant films. Known for his amazing range in both comedy and drama, and even in tragedy, Thomas Mitchell was respected by directors Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, and John Ford as one of the great American character actors, whose credits read like a list of the greatest films of the 20th century. Forty-three of the fifty-nine films in which he acted, were made in the 10-year period from 1936-1946. In 1939 alone he had key roles in STAGECOACH, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON with James Stewart, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS with Cary Grant, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME with Charles Laughton, and GONE WITH THE WIND with Vivien Leigh. He has the distinction of having performed in three of the Oscar nominated films of that year….an unbroken record. Having been nominated for an Oscar for his complex and very sympathetic Dr. Kersaint in THE HURRICANE (1938), and probably better remembered as Scarlett O'Hara's loving but doomed father in GONE WITH THE WIND, it was for his performance as the drunken Doc Boone in STAGECOACH, co-starring John Wayne (in Wayne's breakthrough role), that Mitchell won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. In his acceptance speech, he quipped, "I didn't know I was that good". Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Mitchell acted in a wide variety of roles in productions such as 1940's SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, 1942's MOONTIDE, 1944's THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM, (as an atheist doctor) and HIGH NOON (1952) as the town mayor. He is probably best known to audiences today for his role as sad sack Uncle Billy in Capra's Christmas classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) again with James Stewart.

         From the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Mitchell worked primarily in television, appearing in a variety of roles in some of the most well-regarded early series of the era, including PLAYHOUSE 90, DICK POWELL'S ZANE GREY THEATER (in a pilot episode that became the CBS series JOHNNY RINGO), and HALLMARK HALL OF FAME productions. In 1954, he starred in the television version of the radio program, MAYOR OF THE TOWN. And in 1955, he played Kris Kringle in THE 20TH CENTURY-FOX HOUR version of THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET opposite Teresa Wright and MacDonald Carey. In 1959, he starred in thirty-nine episodes of the syndicated television series, GLENCANNON, which had aired two years earlier in the United Kingdom. In the early 1960s, Mitchell originated the stage role "Columbo", later made famous on NBC and ABC television by Peter Falk. Columbo was Mitchell's last stage role. His last film role was in POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES (1961) with Bette Davis and again directed by Frank Capra.

          In 1953, Mitchell became the first man to win the "triple crown" of acting awards (Oscar, Emmy, Tony); the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1939's STAGECOACH, an Emmy 1952 for Best Actor for TV’s THE DOCTOR, and the following year a Tony Award for best performance by an actor, for the musical HAZEL FLAGG, based on the Carole Lombard film NOTHING SACRED (1937).

          Mitchell died at age 70 from peritoneal mesothelioma in Beverly Hills, California. He had been married twice; Rachel Hartzell (1937 to 1939) and Ann Stuart Breswer, first from 1915 to 1935, and remarried to her 1941 to 1962, by whom he had one daughter, Anne. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for his work in television at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard, and a second star for his work in motion pictures at 1651 Vine Street.

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A New Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... FRIEDA INESCORT (June 29, 1901 - February 26, 1976)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. And feel free to share them with your friends! Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships". (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???)… Our Birthday girl tonight has one of those faces you never forget!... and one of those voices you never, ever, ever forget!!

Frieda Inescort (June 29, 1901 - February 26, 1976) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland as Frieda Wrightman. She was the daughter of Scots-born journalist John "Jock" Wrightman and actress Elaine Inescort, who was of German and Polish descent. Her parents initially met when he came to review a play she was appearing in. They married in 1899 but eventually parted ways while Frieda was still young. Her impulsive mother, who had strong designs on a theater career and placed it high on her priority list, sent young Frieda off to live with other families and in boarding schools in England and Wales while she avidly pursued her dreams. Although her father divorced Elaine in 1911 charging his wife with abandonment and adultery, Frieda ended up moving to America with her mother. Again, when Elaine found occasional roles in touring shows, Frieda wound up being carted off to convents or boarding schools.

Mother and daughter eventually returned to London following World War I and the young girl, now solely on her own, managed to find employment as a personal secretary to British Member of Parliament Waldorf Astor (2nd Viscount Astor), who was then Parliamentary Secretary to British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George. She also assisted the American-born Lady (Nancy) Astor. While accompanying Lady Astor on a trip to the United States in July 1919, Frieda decided to stay in the States and terminated her position with the Astors. In New York she continued finding secretarial work that supported both her and her unemployed actress-mother. She worked at one point with the British consulate in New York.

Noticing a number of American actors cast in British parts on Broadway, Frieda was encouraged in the early 1920s to test the waters as British actresses were in short supply. By chance, she was introduced to producer/director Winthrop Ames, who gave the unseasoned hopeful a small but showy role in his Broadway comedy THE TRUTH ABOUT BLAYDS (1922) at the Booth Theatre. The play turned out to be a hit. Playwright Philip Barry caught her stage performance and offered her a starring role in his upcoming comedy production YOU AND I (1923). The show proved to be another winner and Frieda, a star on the horizon, finally saw the end of her days as part of a secretarial pool.

With her classic bone-structure and deep mellifluous voice and demeanor, Frieda was most often cast as very sophisticated, wealthy, and even arrogant society doyennes.

Other Broadway credits followed quickly in succession with THE WOMAN ON THE JURY (1923), WINDOWS (1923), THE FAKE (1924), ARIADNE (1925), HAY FEVER (1925), LOVE IN A MIST (1926), MOZART (1926), TRELAWNY OF THE "WELLS" (1927), and ESCAPE (1927-1928). While working in the late 1920s as an assistant for Putnam's Publishing Company in New York, Frieda met assistant editor Ben Ray Redman. They married in 1926 and Redman later became a literary critic for the New York Herald Tribune. Frieda, in the meantime, continued to resonate on the New York and touring stage with such plays as NAPI (1931), COMPANY'S COMING (1931), SPRINGTIME FOR HENRY (1931-1932), WHEN LADIES MEET (1933), FALSE DREAMS, FAREWELL (1934), and LADY JANE (1934). Frieda's happenstance into acting and her sudden surge of success triggered deep envy and jealousy within her mother, who was unemployed. This led to a bitter and long-term estrangement between the two that never managed to heal itself.

For over a decade, Frieda had resisted the cinema, having turned down several offers in silent and early talking films. When her husband was offered a job with Universal Studios as a literary adviser and author, however, and the couple had to relocate to Hollywood, she decided to take a difference stance.

Frieda Wrightman adopted her mother's surname as her professional name. Discovered by a talent scout while performing in a Los Angeles play, Frieda was signed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company and made her debut supporting Fredric March and Merle Oberon in the dewy-eyed drama THE DARK ANGEL (1935) in which she received attractive notices and rare sympathy as blind author March's secretary. She did not stay long at Goldwyn, however, and went on to freelance for various other studios. During the course of her movie career, Frieda could be quite charming on the screen playing a wronged woman (as she did in GIVE ME YOUR HEART (1936)), but she specialized in haughtier roles and played them older and colder than she really was off-camera. She soon gained a classy reputation for both her benign and haughty sophisticates. Some of her other films include MARY OF SCOTLAND (1936) starring Katharine Hepburn and Frederick March. After Warner Bros. signed her up, she showed promise in ANOTHER DAWN (1937) with Errol Flynn, a leading role in CALL IT A DAY (1937) with Olivia de Havilland and Bonita Granville, and THE GREAT O’MALLEY (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, three films in one year. Surprisingly after such an impressive start, however, Warner Bros. lost interest in her career and loaned her out more and more to other studios. When she would be given leading roles, they were mostly in “B” pictures. But her character work continued to excel, especially in THE LETTER (1940) starring an Oscar nominated Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall,) YOU’LL NEVER GET RICH (1941), a Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth hit musical, and the iconic A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951) as Elizabeth Taylor’s mother with Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters. One of her most famous roles was the conniving Caroline Bingley in the 1940 film version of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. Although she continued to work in off and on in Hollywood, Inescort returned to Broadway a few more times with A SOLDIER'S WIFE (1944-1945), THE MERMAIDS SINGING (1945-1946), AND YOU NEVER CAN TELL (1948). Her last appearances in film included a few low-budget clunkers and the two horror-camp-classics THE SHE CREATURE (1956) and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959) with Lon Chaney, Jr.

 She appeared on television in at least one episode of PERRY MASON as Hope Quentin in "The Case of the Jealous Journalist" (season 5, 1961).  Inescort was one of those distinguished actresses who was valued greatly by her directors and costars and had the distinction of being surrounded by Oscar nominated and winning coworkers though never nominated herself.

On August 2nd, 1961, she and her husband since 1926, Ben Ray Redman, dined out. Redman had been despondent for some time. Returning home, he went upstairs to bed. He then called Frieda, informing her that he was depressed over the state of the world and had taken 12 sedative pills. By the time the paramedics arrived, he had died, a suicide at the age of 65. He had been working as a writer for the Saturday Review Magazine and was also involved in the translation of European classic literature into English.

Inescort herself had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1930s and had suffered periodically as the years went by. Her disease accelerated after her husband's death, and she was using a wheelchair by the mid 1960s. On July 7th, 1964, her estranged mother, British actress Elaine Inescourt, died in Brighton, England, aged 87. Though unable to work in either film or onstage, Frieda Inescort worked as much as possible for the multiple sclerosis association. Often seen in the Hollywood area seated in her wheelchair, she collected donations outside supermarkets and in malls for several years. Inescort died on February 26th, 1976 at the Motion Picture Country Home at Woodland Hills, California from the disease she had battled since 1932. She was 74.

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