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Monty Woolley

May 11, 2023

Edgar Montilion "Monty" Woolley[1] (August 17, 1888 – May 6, 1963) was an American film and theater actor.[2] At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his role in the 1939 stage play The Man Who Came to Dinner and its 1942 film adaptation. His distinctive white beard was his trademark and he was affectionately known as "The Beard."[3]

Monty Woolley
Wooley as Sheridan Whiteside, 1942
Born
Edgar Montillion Woolley

(1888-08-17)August 17, 1888
New York City, U.S.
DiedMay 6, 1963(1963-05-06) (aged 74)
Albany, New York, U.S.
Resting placeGreenridge Cemetery, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, New York
Occupation(s)Actor, director
Years active1929?–1955
Known forThe Man Who Came to Dinner

Early life

Woolley was born in New York City's Manhattan to William Edgar Woolley (1845-1927) and Jessie née Arms (1857-1927) and grew up in the highest social circles. Woolley received a bachelor's degree at Yale University, where Cole Porter was an intimate friend and classmate,[citation needed] and master's degrees from Yale and Harvard Universities.[4] He eventually became an assistant professor of English and drama coach at Yale.[5] Thornton Wilder and Stephen Vincent Benét were among his students. He served in World War I in the United States Army as a first lieutenant assigned to the general staff in Paris.[4][6]

Acting career

 
Hollywood Walk of Fame, 6542 Hollywood Blvd.

Woolley began directing on Broadway in 1929 with Fifty Million Frenchmen,[7] and began acting there in 1936 after leaving his academic career. In 1939 he starred in the Kaufman and Hart comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner for 783 performances. It was for this well-reviewed role he was typecast as the wasp-tongued, supercilious sophisticate.[8][9]

Woolley signed with 20th Century Fox in the 1940s and appeared in many films through the mid-1950s. His most famous film role, a reprise of his Broadway role, was in 1942's The Man Who Came To Dinner in which he plays a cranky radio wag restricted to a wheelchair because of a seemingly injured hip, a caricature of the legendary pundit Alexander Woollcott. The film received a good review from the New York Times.[9] He played himself [10] in Warner Bros.' fictionalized film biography of Cole Porter, Night and Day (1946), and the role of Professor Wutheridge in The Bishop's Wife (1947). In the comedy As Young as You Feel (1951) he played a printer who, fired routinely from his job at 65 years old, poses as an executive to get his job back.

He was also a frequent radio guest performer, first appearing in the medium as a foil to Al Jolson.[11] Woolley became a familiar guest on such shows as The Fred Allen Show, Duffy's Tavern, The Big Show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and others. In 1950, Woolley landed the starring role in the NBC series The Magnificent Montague. He played a former Shakespearean actor whose long fall onto hard times forced him to swallow his pride and take a role on daily network radio, becoming an unlikely star while sparring with his wife, Lily (Anne Seymour), and his wise-cracking maid, Agnes (Pert Kelton). The show lasted from November 1950 through September 1951.[12]

 
Hand and beard print at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Woolley first appeared on television in cameos, then in his own dramatic play series On Stage with Monty Woolley.[5] He starred in a CBS TV adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1954,[13] which he and some reviewers lambasted,[14][15] and appeared in other televised dramas in the series Best of Broadway.[8][13][16]

After completing his last film, Kismet (1955), he returned to radio for about a year, after which he was forced to retire due to ill health.

Woolley was nominated twice for an Academy Award, as Best Actor in 1943 for The Pied Piper and as Best Supporting Actor in 1945 for Since You Went Away. He won a Best Actor award from the National Board of Review in 1942 for his role in The Pied Piper.

His hands and beard were impressed in the pavement of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1943.[17][18] Woolley received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, officially listed in the "Motion Picture" category,[19] though his star bears the television emblem.[20] The error of the television emblem was evident, considering his only TV efforts were his classic role as 'Sheridan Whiteside' in a 1954 TV adaptation of "The Man Who Came to Dinner", and another cast in a small role in an episode of a short-lived series called "Five Fingers" in 1959.

Personal life

Woolley and Cole Porter enjoyed many adventures together in New York and on foreign travels, although Porter reportedly disapproved of Woolley taking a black man as his lover.[21] Woolley has been described in scholarly and other works as gay and closeted.[22][23][24]

Starting in 1939, Woolley was living with a gay companion, Cary Abbott, who had also graduated from Yale in 1911. Abbott was discreetly identified publicly as Woolley's "courier-secretary-traveling companion." In 1942, Woolley and Abbott moved into a house in Saratoga Springs, where they lived together until Abbott's death, at age 58, from lung cancer, in 1948.[25]

According to Bennett Cerf in his 1944 book Try and Stop Me, Woolley was at a dinner party and suddenly belched. A woman sitting nearby glared at him; he glared back and said, "And what did you expect, my good woman? Chimes?" Cerf wrote, "Woolley was so pleased with this line that he insisted it be written into his next role in Hollywood."[17][26]

In 1943, Alfred Hitchcock wrote a mystery story for Look titled "The Murder of Monty Woolley."[27]

Death

On April 6, 1963, Woolley was taken to the Saratoga Springs Hospital with heart problems, and two days later transferred to the Albany Hospital.[28] He died of complications from kidney and heart ailments on May 6, 1963, in Albany, New York, aged 74.[3] He is interred at the Greenridge Cemetery, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, New York.

Stage

Complete filmography

Radio appearances

Year Program Episode/source
1942 Philip Morris Playhouse The Man Who Came to Dinner[32]
1943 Duffy's Tavern Christmas show 12/21/43

References

Notes

  1. ^ Truitt, Evelyn Mack. Who Was Who Onscreen New York: Bowker (1977)
  2. ^ Obituary Variety, May 8, 1963, page 223.
  3. ^ a b "Actor Monty Woolley Dies in Hospital at 74"[permanent dead link]. Miami News. May 6, 1963.
  4. ^ a b "Heart, Kidneys give out, Monte Woolley dies at 74". The Evening Independent. May 4, 1963. p. 3A.
  5. ^ a b "Monty Woolley to Appear in a Series of Television Films". Schenectady Gazette', NY, July 11, 1953. p. 8. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  6. ^ Harbin, Billy J.; Marra, Kim; Schanke, Robert A., eds. (2005). The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era (Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance). University of Michigan Press. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-472-09858-3.
  7. ^ Green, Stanley (1976). Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. Da Capo Press. p. 323. ISBN 9780786746842.
  8. ^ a b "Monty Woolley Dies In Albany". St. Petersburg Times, May 7, 1963. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  9. ^ a b Crowther, Bosley (January 2, 1942) "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Review. New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
  10. ^ "Played himself" is something of a stretch. In the movie he played himself "as a relentless 'skirt chaser' despite the fact that in real life Woolley, himself gay, chased pants (particularly if they encased a sailor) and not skirts." George F. Curten, "Where Is the Life that Late He Led? Hollywood's Construction of Sexuality in the Life of Cole Porter", in Larry Gross & James D. Woods, eds., The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics (1999, NYC, Columbia Univ. Press) page 320.
  11. ^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: the Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 423. ISBN 0-19-507678-8.
  12. ^ Everitt, David (2000). King of the half hour: Nat Hiken and the golden age of TV comedy. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0676-5. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  13. ^ a b Hawes, William (2001). Filmed television drama, 1952-1958. McFarland & Company. pp. 23, 29. ISBN 978-0-7864-1132-0.
  14. ^ Thomas, Bob (AP) (June 27, 1955). "Monte Woolley Snorts At Liberace, Bore Bars". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  15. ^ Gould, Jack. (October 15, 1954). "Television in Review; Bite Taken Out of Man Who Came to Dinner". New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  16. ^ . Time Magazine. October 11, 1954. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  17. ^ a b Cerf, Bennett (1944). Try and stop me: a collection of anecdotes and stories, mostly humorous. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 57–59. ASIN B0007EW7W8. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
  18. ^ 1940s 2011-03-02 at the Wayback Machine. Grauman's Chinese Theatre
  19. ^ "Monty Woolley". hollywoodchamber.net. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. October 25, 2019. Note: Official category is Motion Pictures but his star bears the television emblem.
  20. ^ "Hollywood Star Walk—Monty Woolley". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  21. ^ Schwartz, Charles (1979). Cole Porter: A Biography. Da Capo Press. pp. 38, 49, 111 & etc. ISBN 0-306-80097-7. woolley.
  22. ^ Harbin, Billy J.; Marra, Kim; Schanke, Robert A., eds. (2005). The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era (Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance). University of Michigan Press. pp. 11, 321, 393. ISBN 978-0-472-09858-3.
  23. ^ Hadleigh, Boze (2001). The Lavender Screen: The Gay and Lesbian Films--Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics. Citadel Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8065-2199-2.
  24. ^ Gross, Larry; Woods, James D., eds. (1999). The Columbia Reader on Lesbians & Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics. Columbia University Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-231-10447-0.
  25. ^ Harbin, Billy J.; Marra, Kim; Schanke, Robert A., eds. (2005). The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era (Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance). University of Michigan Press. pp. 393–394. ISBN 978-0-472-09858-3.
  26. ^ Cerf, p. 57. (remainder of quote).
  27. ^ Brunsdale, Mitzi M. (2010). Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes. Vol. 2. Greenwood. p. 440. ISBN 978-0313345302.
  28. ^ Harbin, Billy J.; Marra, Kim; Schanke, Robert A., eds. (2005). The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era (Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance). University of Michigan Press. p. 395. ISBN 978-0-472-09858-3.
  29. ^ "Monty Woolley". Internet Broadway Database.
  30. ^ Green, p. 455.
  31. ^ "Ladies In Love". TV Guide.
  32. ^ "Johnny Presents". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. July 10, 1942. p. 11. Retrieved August 6, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.  

External links


May 11, 2023
monty, woolley, edgar, montilion, monty, woolley, august, 1888, 1963, american, film, theater, actor, achieved, measure, stardom, role, 1939, stage, play, came, dinner, 1942, film, adaptation, distinctive, white, beard, trademark, affectionately, known, beard,. Edgar Montilion Monty Woolley 1 August 17 1888 May 6 1963 was an American film and theater actor 2 At the age of 50 he achieved a measure of stardom for his role in the 1939 stage play The Man Who Came to Dinner and its 1942 film adaptation His distinctive white beard was his trademark and he was affectionately known as The Beard 3 Monty WoolleyWooley as Sheridan Whiteside 1942BornEdgar Montillion Woolley 1888 08 17 August 17 1888New York City U S DiedMay 6 1963 1963 05 06 aged 74 Albany New York U S Resting placeGreenridge Cemetery Saratoga Springs Saratoga County New YorkOccupation s Actor directorYears active1929 1955Known forThe Man Who Came to Dinner Contents 1 Early life 2 Acting career 3 Personal life 4 Death 5 Stage 6 Complete filmography 7 Radio appearances 8 References 9 External linksEarly life EditWoolley was born in New York City s Manhattan to William Edgar Woolley 1845 1927 and Jessie nee Arms 1857 1927 and grew up in the highest social circles Woolley received a bachelor s degree at Yale University where Cole Porter was an intimate friend and classmate citation needed and master s degrees from Yale and Harvard Universities 4 He eventually became an assistant professor of English and drama coach at Yale 5 Thornton Wilder and Stephen Vincent Benet were among his students He served in World War I in the United States Army as a first lieutenant assigned to the general staff in Paris 4 6 Acting career Edit Hollywood Walk of Fame 6542 Hollywood Blvd Woolley began directing on Broadway in 1929 with Fifty Million Frenchmen 7 and began acting there in 1936 after leaving his academic career In 1939 he starred in the Kaufman and Hart comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner for 783 performances It was for this well reviewed role he was typecast as the wasp tongued supercilious sophisticate 8 9 Woolley signed with 20th Century Fox in the 1940s and appeared in many films through the mid 1950s His most famous film role a reprise of his Broadway role was in 1942 s The Man Who Came To Dinner in which he plays a cranky radio wag restricted to a wheelchair because of a seemingly injured hip a caricature of the legendary pundit Alexander Woollcott The film received a good review from the New York Times 9 He played himself 10 in Warner Bros fictionalized film biography of Cole Porter Night and Day 1946 and the role of Professor Wutheridge in The Bishop s Wife 1947 In the comedy As Young as You Feel 1951 he played a printer who fired routinely from his job at 65 years old poses as an executive to get his job back He was also a frequent radio guest performer first appearing in the medium as a foil to Al Jolson 11 Woolley became a familiar guest on such shows as The Fred Allen Show Duffy s Tavern The Big Show The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and others In 1950 Woolley landed the starring role in the NBC series The Magnificent Montague He played a former Shakespearean actor whose long fall onto hard times forced him to swallow his pride and take a role on daily network radio becoming an unlikely star while sparring with his wife Lily Anne Seymour and his wise cracking maid Agnes Pert Kelton The show lasted from November 1950 through September 1951 12 Hand and beard print at Grauman s Chinese Theatre Woolley first appeared on television in cameos then in his own dramatic play series On Stage with Monty Woolley 5 He starred in a CBS TV adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1954 13 which he and some reviewers lambasted 14 15 and appeared in other televised dramas in the series Best of Broadway 8 13 16 After completing his last film Kismet 1955 he returned to radio for about a year after which he was forced to retire due to ill health Woolley was nominated twice for an Academy Award as Best Actor in 1943 for The Pied Piper and as Best Supporting Actor in 1945 for Since You Went Away He won a Best Actor award from the National Board of Review in 1942 for his role in The Pied Piper His hands and beard were impressed in the pavement of Grauman s Chinese Theatre in 1943 17 18 Woolley received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 officially listed in the Motion Picture category 19 though his star bears the television emblem 20 The error of the television emblem was evident considering his only TV efforts were his classic role as Sheridan Whiteside in a 1954 TV adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner and another cast in a small role in an episode of a short lived series called Five Fingers in 1959 Personal life EditWoolley and Cole Porter enjoyed many adventures together in New York and on foreign travels although Porter reportedly disapproved of Woolley taking a black man as his lover 21 Woolley has been described in scholarly and other works as gay and closeted 22 23 24 Starting in 1939 Woolley was living with a gay companion Cary Abbott who had also graduated from Yale in 1911 Abbott was discreetly identified publicly as Woolley s courier secretary traveling companion In 1942 Woolley and Abbott moved into a house in Saratoga Springs where they lived together until Abbott s death at age 58 from lung cancer in 1948 25 According to Bennett Cerf in his 1944 book Try and Stop Me Woolley was at a dinner party and suddenly belched A woman sitting nearby glared at him he glared back and said And what did you expect my good woman Chimes Cerf wrote Woolley was so pleased with this line that he insisted it be written into his next role in Hollywood 17 26 In 1943 Alfred Hitchcock wrote a mystery story for Look titled The Murder of Monty Woolley 27 Death EditOn April 6 1963 Woolley was taken to the Saratoga Springs Hospital with heart problems and two days later transferred to the Albany Hospital 28 He died of complications from kidney and heart ailments on May 6 1963 in Albany New York aged 74 3 He is interred at the Greenridge Cemetery Saratoga Springs Saratoga County New York Stage EditFifty Million Frenchmen 1929 Director The Second Little Show 1930 Director The New Yorkers 1930 Director America s Sweetheart 1931 Director Walk a Little Faster 1933 Book director Champagne Sec 1933 Director Jubilee 1935 Dialogue director On Your Toes 1936 Sergei Alexandrovitch Knights of Song 1938 His Royal Highness Albert Edward The Man Who Came to Dinner 1939 Sheridan Whiteside 29 30 Complete filmography EditLadies in Love 1936 31 uncredited and unconfirmed Live Love and Learn 1937 Mr Bawltitude Nothing Sacred 1937 Dr Oswald Vunch uncredited Everybody Sing 1938 John Fleming Arsene Lupin Returns 1938 Georges Bouchet The Girl of the Golden West 1938 Governor The Forgotten Step 1938 short The Art Collector Three Comrades 1938 Dr Jaffe Lord Jeff 1938 Jeweler Vacation from Love 1938 Wedding Guest in Car uncredited Young Dr Kildare 1938 Dr Lane Porteus Artists and Models Abroad 1938 Gantvoort Zaza 1939 Fouget Midnight 1939 The Judge Never Say Die 1939 Dr Schmidt Man About Town 1939 Henri Dubois Honeymoon in Bali 1939 Parker Smitty s Publisher uncredited Dancing Co Ed 1939 Professor Lange See Your Doctor 1939 short Doctor uncredited The Man Who Came to Dinner 1942 Sheridan Whiteside The Pied Piper 1942 John Sidney Howard Life Begins at Eight Thirty 1942 Madden Thomas Holy Matrimony 1943 Priam Farll Since You Went Away 1944 Col William G Smollett Irish Eyes Are Smiling 1944 Edgar Brawley Molly and Me 1945 John Graham Night and Day 1946 himself Paris 1900 1947 documentary Narrator US version The Bishop s Wife 1947 Professor Wutheridge Miss Tatlock s Millions 1948 Miles Tatlock As Young as You Feel 1951 John R Hodges Kismet 1955 OmarRadio appearances EditYear Program Episode source1942 Philip Morris Playhouse The Man Who Came to Dinner 32 1943 Duffy s Tavern Christmas show 12 21 43References EditNotes Truitt Evelyn Mack Who Was Who Onscreen New York Bowker 1977 Obituary Variety May 8 1963 page 223 a b Actor Monty Woolley Dies in Hospital at 74 permanent dead link Miami News May 6 1963 a b Heart Kidneys give out Monte Woolley dies at 74 The Evening Independent May 4 1963 p 3A a b Monty Woolley to Appear in a Series of Television Films Schenectady Gazette NY July 11 1953 p 8 Retrieved August 9 2010 Harbin Billy J Marra Kim Schanke Robert A eds 2005 The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre Stonewall Era Triangulations Lesbian Gay Queer Theater Drama Performance University of Michigan Press p 392 ISBN 978 0 472 09858 3 Green Stanley 1976 Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre Da Capo Press p 323 ISBN 9780786746842 a b Monty Woolley Dies In Albany St Petersburg Times May 7 1963 Retrieved August 9 2010 a b Crowther Bosley January 2 1942 The Man Who Came to Dinner Review New York Times Retrieved 9 August 2010 Played himself is something of a stretch In the movie he played himself as a relentless skirt chaser despite the fact that in real life Woolley himself gay chased pants particularly if they encased a sailor and not skirts George F Curten Where Is the Life that Late He Led Hollywood s Construction of Sexuality in the Life of Cole Porter in Larry Gross amp James D Woods eds The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media Society and Politics 1999 NYC Columbia Univ Press page 320 Dunning John 1998 On the Air the Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio Oxford University Press p 423 ISBN 0 19 507678 8 Everitt David 2000 King of the half hour Nat Hiken and the golden age of TV comedy Syracuse University Press ISBN 978 0 8156 0676 5 Retrieved August 9 2010 a b Hawes William 2001 Filmed television drama 1952 1958 McFarland amp Company pp 23 29 ISBN 978 0 7864 1132 0 Thomas Bob AP June 27 1955 Monte Woolley Snorts At Liberace Bore Bars Ottawa Citizen Retrieved August 9 2010 Gould Jack October 15 1954 Television in Review Bite Taken Out of Man Who Came to Dinner New York Times Retrieved August 9 2010 Television Program Preview Oct 11 1954 Time Magazine October 11 1954 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved August 9 2010 a b Cerf Bennett 1944 Try and stop me a collection of anecdotes and stories mostly humorous New York Simon amp Schuster pp 57 59 ASIN B0007EW7W8 Retrieved March 19 2011 1940s Archived 2011 03 02 at the Wayback Machine Grauman s Chinese Theatre Monty Woolley hollywoodchamber net Hollywood Chamber of Commerce October 25 2019 Note Official category isMotion Picturesbut his star bears the television emblem Hollywood Star Walk Monty Woolley Los Angeles Times Retrieved 2010 07 25 Schwartz Charles 1979 Cole Porter A Biography Da Capo Press pp 38 49 111 amp etc ISBN 0 306 80097 7 woolley Harbin Billy J Marra Kim Schanke Robert A eds 2005 The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre Stonewall Era Triangulations Lesbian Gay Queer Theater Drama Performance University of Michigan Press pp 11 321 393 ISBN 978 0 472 09858 3 Hadleigh Boze 2001 The Lavender Screen The Gay and Lesbian Films Their Stars Makers Characters and Critics Citadel Press p 213 ISBN 978 0 8065 2199 2 Gross Larry Woods James D eds 1999 The Columbia Reader on Lesbians amp Gay Men in Media Society and Politics Columbia University Press p 310 ISBN 978 0 231 10447 0 Harbin Billy J Marra Kim Schanke Robert A eds 2005 The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre Stonewall Era Triangulations Lesbian Gay Queer Theater Drama Performance University of Michigan Press pp 393 394 ISBN 978 0 472 09858 3 Cerf p 57 remainder of quote Brunsdale Mitzi M 2010 Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection From Sleuths to Superheroes Vol 2 Greenwood p 440 ISBN 978 0313345302 Harbin Billy J Marra Kim Schanke Robert A eds 2005 The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre Stonewall Era Triangulations Lesbian Gay Queer Theater Drama Performance University of Michigan Press p 395 ISBN 978 0 472 09858 3 Monty Woolley Internet Broadway Database Green p 455 Ladies In Love TV Guide Johnny Presents Harrisburg Telegraph Harrisburg Telegraph July 10 1942 p 11 Retrieved August 6 2015 via Newspapers com External links EditMonty Woolley at IMDb Monty Woolley at the Internet Broadway Database Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Monty Woolley amp oldid 1145118363, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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