Louis Calhern
Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. For portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film The Magnificent Yankee (1950), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s; the most notable being The Blot in 1921. A 1921 newspaper article commented, "The new arrival in stardom is Louis Calhern, who, until Miss Weber engaged him to enact the leading male role in What's Worth While?, had been playing leads in the Morosco Stock company of Los Angeles." In 1923 Calhern left the movies, but would return to the screen eight years later after the advent of sound pictures. He was primarily cast as a character actor in films while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. He reached his peak in the 1950s as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Among his many memorable screen roles were Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup (1933) and three that he appeared in at MGM in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's film noir The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated performance as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his role from the Broadway stage). He was also praised for his portrayal of the title role in the John Houseman production of Julius Caesar (adapted from the Shakespeare play) in 1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Calhern also played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation in the 1954 production of Executive Suite. Calhern's other film roles included the grandfather in The Red Pony (1949), adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck and starring Robert Mitchum, and the spy boss of Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic Notorious (1946). A performance as Uncle Willie in High Society (1956), a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, turned out to be his final film. Description above from the Wikipedia article Louis Calhern, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
- 1986 · Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend as Self (from The Asphalt Jungle [1950]) (archive footage)
- 1976 · That's Entertainment, Part II as (archive footage)
- 1956 · High Society as Uncle Willie
- 1956 · Forever, Darling as Charles Y. Bewell
- 1955 · The Prodigal as Nahreeb
- 1955 · Blackboard Jungle as Jim Murdock
- 1954 · Athena as Grandpa Ulysses Mulvain
- 1954 · Betrayed as Gen. Ten Eyck
- 1954 · The Student Prince as King of Karlsberg
- 1954 · Men of the Fighting Lady as James A. Michener
- 1954 · Executive Suite as George Nyle Caswell
- 1954 · Rhapsody as Nicholas Durant
- 1953 · Main Street to Broadway as Self
- 1953 · Latin Lovers as Grandfather Eduardo Santos
- 1953 · Julius Caesar as Jules César
- 1953 · Remains to Be Seen as Benjamin Goodman
- 1953 · Confidentially Connie as Opie Bedloe
- 1952 · The Bad and the Beautiful as Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)
- 1952 · The Prisoner of Zenda as Col. Zapt
- 1952 · We're Not Married! as Freddie Melrose
- 1952 · Washington Story as Charles W. Birch
- 1952 · Invitation as Simon Bowker
- 1951 · The Man with a Cloak as Charles Theverner
- 1951 · It's a Big Country as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
- 1950 · The Magnificent Yankee as Oliver Wendell Holmes
- 1950 · Two Weeks with Love as Horatio Robinson
- 1950 · Devil's Doorway as Verne Coolan
- 1950 · A Life of Her Own as Jim Leversoe
- 1950 · Annie Get Your Gun as Col. Buffalo Bill Cody
- 1950 · The Asphalt Jungle as Alonzo D. Emmerich
- 1950 · Nancy Goes to Rio as Gregory Elliott
- 1949 · The Red Danube as Colonel Piniev
- 1949 · The Red Pony as Grandfather
- 1948 · The Ed Sullivan Show as Self
- 1948 · Arch of Triumph as Boris Morosov
- 1946 · Notorious as Captain Paul Prescott
- 1944 · Up in Arms as Colonel Ashley
- 1944 · The Bridge of San Luis Rey as Don Andre - The Viceroy
- 1943 · Nobody's Darling as Curtis Farnsworth
- 1943 · Heaven Can Wait as Randolph Van Cleve
- 1940 · Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet as Dr. Brockdorf
- 1940 · I Take This Woman as Dr. Martin Sumner Duveen
- 1939 · Charlie McCarthy, Detective as Arthur Aldrich
- 1939 · 5th Ave Girl as Dr. Kessler
- 1939 · Juarez as LeMarc
- 1938 · Fast Company as Elias Z. 'Eli' Bannerman
- 1937 · The Life of Emile Zola as Major Dort
- 1937 · Her Husband Lies as Joe Sorrell
- 1936 · The Gorgeous Hussy as Leroy Sunderland
- 1935 · The Last Days of Pompeii as Prefect Allus Martius
- 1935 · Woman Wanted as Smiley
- 1935 · The Arizonian as Sheriff Jake Mannen
- 1934 · Sweet Adeline as Major Jim Day
- 1934 · The Count of Monte Cristo as De Villefort Jr.
- 1934 · The Affairs of Cellini as Ottaviano
- 1934 · The Man with Two Faces as Stanley Vance
- 1933 · Duck Soup as Ambassador Trentino
- 1933 · Diplomaniacs as Winkelreid
- 1933 · The World Gone Mad as Christopher Bruno
- 1933 · Strictly Personal as Jack Magruder
- 1933 · The Woman Accused as Leo Young
- 1933 · Frisco Jenny as Steve Dutton
- 1932 · 20,000 Years in Sing Sing as Joe Finn
- 1932 · Afraid to Talk as Asst. District Attorney John Wade
- 1932 · They Call It Sin as Ford Humphries
- 1932 · Night After Night as Dick Bolton
- 1932 · Okay, America! as Mileaway Russell
- 1931 · Blonde Crazy as 'Dapper Dan' Barker
- 1931 · The Road to Singapore as Dr. George March
- 1931 · Stolen Heaven as Steve Perry
- 1923 · The Last Moment as Harry Gaines
- 1921 · The Blot as Phil West
- 1921 · Too Wise Wives as David Graham
- 1921 · What's Worth While? as 'Squire' Elton