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Edmund Gwenn

January 20, 2023

Edmund Gwenn (born Edmund John Kellaway; 26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film Mister 880 (1950). He is also remembered for his appearances in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Edmund Gwenn
Gwenn in 1953
Born
Edmund John Kellaway[1]

(1877-09-26)26 September 1877[1]
Wandsworth, London, England[1]
Died6 September 1959(1959-09-06) (aged 81)[1]
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Resting placeChapel of the Pines Crematory
EducationSt. Olave's School
Alma materKing's College London
OccupationActor
Years active1895–1959
Spouse(s)Minnie Terry
(m. 1901–c. 1916)
Family
AwardsAcademy Award, 2 Golden Globes

As a stage actor in the West End and on Broadway, he was associated with a wide range of works by modern playwrights, including Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and J. B. Priestley. After the Second World War, he lived in the United States, where he had a successful career in Hollywood and Broadway.

Life and career

Early years

Gwenn was born in Wandsworth, London to John and Catherine (née Oliver) Kellaway. His brother was the actor Arthur Chesney, and his cousin was the actor Cecil Kellaway. Gwenn was educated at St. Olave's School and later at King's College London.[1] He began his acting career in the theatre in 1895, and learned his craft as a member of Willie Edouin's company, playing brash comic roles.[1] In 1901 he married Minnie Terry, niece of Dame Ellen Terry. In the same year, he went to Australia and acted there for three years with the J. C. Williamson company.[1] His wife accompanied him, and when Gwenn was in a production of Ben Hur that was a disastrous failure, she restored the couple's fortunes by accepting an engagement from Williamson.[2] Later, the couple appeared on stage together in London in a farce called What the Butler Saw in 1905[3] and, in 1911, when Irene Vanbrugh made her debut in variety, she chose Terry and Gwenn to join her in a short play specially written by J. M. Barrie.[4]

When he returned to London, Gwenn appeared not in low comedy but in what The Times called "a notably intellectual and even sophisticated setting" at the Court Theatre under the management of J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker.[1] There, in 1905 to 1907, in the words of The Times, "he was invaluable in smaller parts [giving] every part he played its full worth", including Straker, the proletarian chauffeur to John Tanner in Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, and Drinkwater, the cockney gangster in Captain Brassbound's Conversion.[1] He also appeared in plays by Granville-Barker and John Galsworthy, in Elizabeth Robins's suffragette drama Votes for Women[5] and in works by other contemporaries. In Barrie's What Every Woman Knows (1908) in the role of the over-enthusiastic James Wylie he impressed the producer Charles Frohman, who engaged him for his repertory company at the Duke of York's Theatre.[1] In 1912, Gwenn went into management in partnership with Hilda Trevelyan.[1] His career was interrupted by his military service during the First World War, serving as an officer in the British Army.[1] During the war, Gwenn's marriage broke up and was dissolved. His ex-wife remarried but remained on affectionate terms with him.[6]

Leading roles on stage and screen

After peace returned, Gwenn's leading roles in the West End during the 1920s included Old Bill in Bruce Bairnsfather's Old Bill, M.P. (1922); Christian Veit in Lilac Time (1922–23); the title role in A. A. Milne's The Great Broxoff (1923); Leo Swinburne in Good Luck by Seymour Hicks and Ian Hay (1923); and Hippolyte Gallipot in Lehár's Frasquita (1925).[7] Looking back at Gwenn's career, The Times considered, "Out of scores of other parts which he played in England and in America, the best remembered are probably Hornblower in Galsworthy's The Skin Game, the Viennese paterfamilias in Lilac Time and Samuel Pepys in Fagan's And So to Bed in 1926."[1]

Gwenn began his film career in 1916, playing Macbeth in The Real Thing at Last, a satire of the American film industry written by Peter Pan playwright J. M. Barrie. A notable early role was a recreation of his stage character Hornblower in the 1921 Anglo-Dutch silent film of The Skin Game, which he reprised ten years later in Alfred Hitchcock's early sound version of The Skin Game. His debut in a talking picture was in an adaptation of Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband, made at Elstree in 1931.[1] Of Gwenn's many British film roles, The Times considered his best known to be Jess Oakroyd in The Good Companions with John Gielgud and Jessie Matthews (1933) and Radfern in Carol Reed's Laburnum Grove with Cedric Hardwicke (1936).[1] His final British film role, as a capitalist trying to take over a family brewery in Cheer Boys Cheer (1939) is credited with being the first authentic Ealing comedy.[8]

Gwenn appeared in more than eighty films, including Pride and Prejudice (1940), Cheers for Miss Bishop, Of Human Bondage and The Keys of the Kingdom. George Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett (1935) was his first appearance in a Hollywood film, as Katharine Hepburn's father. He settled in Hollywood in 1940 and became part of its British colony. He had a small role as a Cockney assassin in a Hitchcock film, Foreign Correspondent in 1940.[1] For his Santa Claus role in Miracle on 34th Street he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He received a second Oscar nomination for his role in Mister 880 (1950). Near the end of his career, he played one of the main roles in Them! (1954) and in Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955).[1]

On Broadway Gwenn starred in the acclaimed 1942 production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, starring Katharine Cornell (who was also the producer), Judith Anderson, and Ruth Gordon. Time proclaimed it, "a dream production by anybody's reckoning – the most glittering cast the theatre has seen, commercially, in this generation."[9]

Later years

Gwenn remained a British subject all his life. When he first moved to Hollywood, he lived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. His home in London had been reduced to rubble during the bombings by the German Luftwaffe in the Second World War. Only the fireplace survived. What Gwenn regretted most was the loss of the memorabilia he had collected of the actor Henry Irving. Eventually, Gwenn bought a house at 617 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, which he later shared with the former Olympic athlete Rodney Soher.[10] At the age of 78 he travelled from his home in California for a reunion with his ex-wife in London.[6] He told a reporter, "I never married again because I was very happy with my wife. I simply stayed faithful to the memory of that happiness."[6]

Gwenn died from pneumonia after suffering a stroke, in Woodland Hills, California, twenty days before his 82nd birthday. He was cremated, and his ashes were placed in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. Gwenn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street for his contribution to motion pictures.

Filmography

Radio appearances

Year Program Episode/source
1940 Forecast* The Lodger[11]
1943 Suspense The Fountain Plays
1944 Creeps by Night The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan
1949 Suspense Murder in Black and White
1951 Stars of Hollywood A Christmas Carol
1953 Stars over Hollywood A Christmas Carol[12]
  • Audition program for the Suspense radio program.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Mr Edmund Gwenn – Versatile Character Actor", The Times, 8 September 1959, p. 13
  2. ^ "Miss Minnie Terry", Table Talk, 9 October 1902, p. 10
  3. ^ "Wyndham's Theatre", The Times, 3 August 1905, p. 8
  4. ^ "The Theatres", The Times, 30 October 1911, p. 11
  5. ^ Hayman, Carole (1985). How the vote was won, and other suffragette plays. London New York: Methuen. p. 38. ISBN 0413583805.
  6. ^ a b c "Veteran Edmund Gwenn Keeps a Tryst", The Daily Mail, 12 July 1956, p. 3
  7. ^ Parker, pp. xxxvi–cxxii
  8. ^ "Screen Legends", The Observer Review, 20 December 2009
  9. ^ , Time, details of issue and page number needed.
  10. ^ "Rodney Soher" 3 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Sports Reference, retrieved 28 May 2014
  11. ^ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 38 (3): 32–39. Summer 2012.
  12. ^ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (4): 38. Autumn 2016.

References

  • Parker, John (1925). Who's Who in the Theatre (fifth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 10013159.

Further reading

  • Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Edmund Gwenn". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 115–118. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edmund Gwenn.
  • Edmund Gwenn at IMDb
  • Edmund Gwenn at the Internet Broadway Database  
  • (Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio)
  • (Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio)
  • Regarding Edmund Gwenn (TCM Movie Morlocks)

January 20, 2023
edmund, gwenn, born, edmund, john, kellaway, september, 1877, september, 1959, english, actor, film, best, remembered, role, kris, kringle, christmas, film, miracle, 34th, street, 1947, which, academy, award, best, supporting, actor, corresponding, golden, glo. Edmund Gwenn born Edmund John Kellaway 26 September 1877 6 September 1959 was an English actor On film he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street 1947 for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe Award He received a second Golden Globe and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film Mister 880 1950 He is also remembered for his appearances in four films directed by Alfred Hitchcock Edmund GwennGwenn in 1953BornEdmund John Kellaway 1 1877 09 26 26 September 1877 1 Wandsworth London England 1 Died6 September 1959 1959 09 06 aged 81 1 Woodland Hills California U S Resting placeChapel of the Pines CrematoryEducationSt Olave s SchoolAlma materKing s College LondonOccupationActorYears active1895 1959Spouse s Minnie Terry m 1901 c 1916 FamilyArthur Chesney brother Cecil Kellaway cousin AwardsAcademy Award 2 Golden GlobesAs a stage actor in the West End and on Broadway he was associated with a wide range of works by modern playwrights including Bernard Shaw John Galsworthy and J B Priestley After the Second World War he lived in the United States where he had a successful career in Hollywood and Broadway Contents 1 Life and career 1 1 Early years 1 2 Leading roles on stage and screen 2 Later years 3 Filmography 4 Radio appearances 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksLife and career EditEarly years Edit Gwenn was born in Wandsworth London to John and Catherine nee Oliver Kellaway His brother was the actor Arthur Chesney and his cousin was the actor Cecil Kellaway Gwenn was educated at St Olave s School and later at King s College London 1 He began his acting career in the theatre in 1895 and learned his craft as a member of Willie Edouin s company playing brash comic roles 1 In 1901 he married Minnie Terry niece of Dame Ellen Terry In the same year he went to Australia and acted there for three years with the J C Williamson company 1 His wife accompanied him and when Gwenn was in a production of Ben Hur that was a disastrous failure she restored the couple s fortunes by accepting an engagement from Williamson 2 Later the couple appeared on stage together in London in a farce called What the Butler Saw in 1905 3 and in 1911 when Irene Vanbrugh made her debut in variety she chose Terry and Gwenn to join her in a short play specially written by J M Barrie 4 When he returned to London Gwenn appeared not in low comedy but in what The Times called a notably intellectual and even sophisticated setting at the Court Theatre under the management of J E Vedrenne and Harley Granville Barker 1 There in 1905 to 1907 in the words of The Times he was invaluable in smaller parts giving every part he played its full worth including Straker the proletarian chauffeur to John Tanner in Bernard Shaw s Man and Superman and Drinkwater the cockney gangster in Captain Brassbound s Conversion 1 He also appeared in plays by Granville Barker and John Galsworthy in Elizabeth Robins s suffragette drama Votes for Women 5 and in works by other contemporaries In Barrie s What Every Woman Knows 1908 in the role of the over enthusiastic James Wylie he impressed the producer Charles Frohman who engaged him for his repertory company at the Duke of York s Theatre 1 In 1912 Gwenn went into management in partnership with Hilda Trevelyan 1 His career was interrupted by his military service during the First World War serving as an officer in the British Army 1 During the war Gwenn s marriage broke up and was dissolved His ex wife remarried but remained on affectionate terms with him 6 Leading roles on stage and screen Edit After peace returned Gwenn s leading roles in the West End during the 1920s included Old Bill in Bruce Bairnsfather s Old Bill M P 1922 Christian Veit in Lilac Time 1922 23 the title role in A A Milne s The Great Broxoff 1923 Leo Swinburne in Good Luck by Seymour Hicks and Ian Hay 1923 and Hippolyte Gallipot in Lehar s Frasquita 1925 7 Looking back at Gwenn s career The Times considered Out of scores of other parts which he played in England and in America the best remembered are probably Hornblower in Galsworthy s The Skin Game the Viennese paterfamilias in Lilac Time and Samuel Pepys in Fagan s And So to Bed in 1926 1 Gwenn began his film career in 1916 playing Macbeth in The Real Thing at Last a satire of the American film industry written by Peter Pan playwright J M Barrie A notable early role was a recreation of his stage character Hornblower in the 1921 Anglo Dutch silent film of The Skin Game which he reprised ten years later in Alfred Hitchcock s early sound version of The Skin Game His debut in a talking picture was in an adaptation of Shaw s How He Lied to Her Husband made at Elstree in 1931 1 Of Gwenn s many British film roles The Times considered his best known to be Jess Oakroyd in The Good Companions with John Gielgud and Jessie Matthews 1933 and Radfern in Carol Reed s Laburnum Grove with Cedric Hardwicke 1936 1 His final British film role as a capitalist trying to take over a family brewery in Cheer Boys Cheer 1939 is credited with being the first authentic Ealing comedy 8 Gwenn appeared in more than eighty films including Pride and Prejudice 1940 Cheers for Miss Bishop Of Human Bondage and The Keys of the Kingdom George Cukor s Sylvia Scarlett 1935 was his first appearance in a Hollywood film as Katharine Hepburn s father He settled in Hollywood in 1940 and became part of its British colony He had a small role as a Cockney assassin in a Hitchcock film Foreign Correspondent in 1940 1 For his Santa Claus role in Miracle on 34th Street he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor He received a second Oscar nomination for his role in Mister 880 1950 Near the end of his career he played one of the main roles in Them 1954 and in Hitchcock s The Trouble with Harry 1955 1 On Broadway Gwenn starred in the acclaimed 1942 production of Chekhov s Three Sisters starring Katharine Cornell who was also the producer Judith Anderson and Ruth Gordon Time proclaimed it a dream production by anybody s reckoning the most glittering cast the theatre has seen commercially in this generation 9 Later years EditGwenn remained a British subject all his life When he first moved to Hollywood he lived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills His home in London had been reduced to rubble during the bombings by the German Luftwaffe in the Second World War Only the fireplace survived What Gwenn regretted most was the loss of the memorabilia he had collected of the actor Henry Irving Eventually Gwenn bought a house at 617 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills which he later shared with the former Olympic athlete Rodney Soher 10 At the age of 78 he travelled from his home in California for a reunion with his ex wife in London 6 He told a reporter I never married again because I was very happy with my wife I simply stayed faithful to the memory of that happiness 6 Gwenn died from pneumonia after suffering a stroke in Woodland Hills California twenty days before his 82nd birthday He was cremated and his ashes were placed in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles Gwenn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street for his contribution to motion pictures Filmography EditThe Real Thing at Last 1916 as Rupert K Thunder Macbeth Unmarried 1920 as Simm Vandeleur The Skin Game 1921 as Hornblower How He Lied to Her Husband 1931 as Teddy Bompas The Skin Game 1931 as Mr Hornblower Hindle Wakes 1931 as Chris Hawthorne Frail Women 1932 as The Bookmaker Jim Willis Money for Nothing 1932 as Sir Henry Blossom Condemned to Death 1932 as Banting Love on Wheels 1932 as Philpotts Tell Me Tonight 1932 as Mayor Pategg The Good Companions 1933 as Jess Oakroyd Cash 1933 as Edmund Gilbert I Was a Spy 1933 as Burgomaster Smithy 1933 as John Smith Channel Crossing 1933 as Trotter Marooned 1933 as Tom Roberts Friday the Thirteenth 1933 as Mr Wakefield Early to Bed 1933 as Kruger Waltzes from Vienna 1934 as Johann Strauss the Elder Warn London 1934 as Dr Herman Krauss Passing Shadows 1934 as David Lawrence Java Head 1934 as Jeremy Ammidon The Admiral s Secret 1934 as Adm Fitzporter Father and Son 1934 as John Bolton Spring in the Air 1934 as Franz The Bishop Misbehaves 1935 as Bishop Sylvia Scarlett 1935 as Henry Scarlett The Walking Dead 1936 as Dr Beaumont Laburnum Grove 1936 as Mr Radfern Anthony Adverse 1936 as John Bonnyfeather All American Chump 1936 as Jeffrey Crane Mad Holiday 1936 as Williams Parnell 1937 as Campbell South Riding 1938 as Alfred Huggins A Yank at Oxford 1938 as Dean of Cardinal Penny Paradise 1938 as Joe Higgins Cheer Boys Cheer 1939 as Edward Ironside The Earl of Chicago 1940 as Munsey the Butler An Englishman s Home 1940 as Tom Brown The Doctor Takes a Wife 1940 as Dr Lionel Sterling Pride and Prejudice 1940 as Mr Bennet Foreign Correspondent 1940 as Rowley Cheers for Miss Bishop 1941 as President Corcoran Scotland Yard 1941 as Insp Cork The Devil and Miss Jones 1941 as Hooper One Night in Lisbon 1941 as Lord Fitzleigh Charley s Aunt 1941 as Stephen Spettigue A Yank at Eton 1942 as Headmaster Justin Forever and a Day 1943 as Stubbs The Meanest Man in the World 1943 as Frederick P Leggitt Lassie Come Home 1943 as Rowlie Between Two Worlds 1944 as Scrubby The Keys of the Kingdom 1944 as Father Hamish MacNabb Dangerous Partners 1945 as Albert Richard Kingby Bewitched 1945 as Dr Bergson She Went to the Races 1945 as Dr Homer Pecke Of Human Bondage 1946 as Athelny Undercurrent 1946 as Prof Dink Hamilton Miracle on 34th Street 1947 as Kris Kringle Life with Father 1947 as Rev Dr Lloyd Thunder in the Valley 1947 as Adam MacAdam Green Dolphin Street 1947 as Octavius Patourel Apartment for Peggy 1948 as Prof Henry Barnes Hills of Home 1948 as Dr William MacLure Challenge to Lassie 1949 as John Traill A Woman of Distinction 1950 as Mark J M Middlecott Louisa 1950 as Henry Hammond Pretty Baby 1950 as Cyrus Baxter Mister 880 1950 as William Skipper Miller For Heaven s Sake 1950 as Arthur Peking Express 1951 as Father Joseph Murray Sally and Saint Anne 1952 as Grandpa Pat Ryan Les Miserables 1952 as Bishop Courbet Bonzo Goes to College 1952 as Ted Pop Drew Something for the Birds 1952 as Admiral Johnnie Adams Mister Scoutmaster 1953 as Dr Stone The Bigamist 1953 as Mr Jordan The Student Prince 1954 as Prof Juttner Them 1954 as Dr Harold Medford The Trouble with Harry 1955 as Capt Albert Wiles It s a Dog s Life 1955 as Jeremiah Edward Emmett Augustus Nolan Calabuch 1956 U S title The Rocket from Calabuch as Prof Jorge Serra HamiltonRadio appearances EditYear Program Episode source1940 Forecast The Lodger 11 1943 Suspense The Fountain Plays1944 Creeps by Night The Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan1949 Suspense Murder in Black and White1951 Stars of Hollywood A Christmas Carol1953 Stars over Hollywood A Christmas Carol 12 Audition program for the Suspense radio program See also EditList of actors with Academy Award nominationsNotes Edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Mr Edmund Gwenn Versatile Character Actor The Times 8 September 1959 p 13 Miss Minnie Terry Table Talk 9 October 1902 p 10 Wyndham s Theatre The Times 3 August 1905 p 8 The Theatres The Times 30 October 1911 p 11 Hayman Carole 1985 How the vote was won and other suffragette plays London New York Methuen p 38 ISBN 0413583805 a b c Veteran Edmund Gwenn Keeps a Tryst The Daily Mail 12 July 1956 p 3 Parker pp xxxvi cxxii Screen Legends The Observer Review 20 December 2009 Review Time details of issue and page number needed Rodney Soher Archived 3 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine Sports Reference retrieved 28 May 2014 Those Were the Days Nostalgia Digest 38 3 32 39 Summer 2012 Those Were the Days Nostalgia Digest 41 4 38 Autumn 2016 References EditParker John 1925 Who s Who in the Theatre fifth ed London Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons OCLC 10013159 Further reading EditAlistair Rupert 2018 Edmund Gwenn The Name Below the Title 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood s Golden Age softcover First ed Great Britain Independently published pp 115 118 ISBN 978 1 7200 3837 5 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edmund Gwenn Biography portalEdmund Gwenn at IMDb Edmund Gwenn at the Internet Broadway Database Edmund Gwenn in Screen Director s Playhouse Miracle on 34th Street 1949 Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio Edmund Gwenn in Lux Radio Theater Miracle on 34th Street 1948 Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio Regarding Edmund Gwenn TCM Movie Morlocks Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Edmund Gwenn amp oldid 1129563162, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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