Louis Calhern

Known for ActingBorn 1895-02-18Died 1956-05-12Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA

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.Read more

Movies & web series

What's Worth While?

Becoming Marilyn

Nobody's Darling

Charlie McCarthy, Detective

The Arizonian

Notorious

The Asphalt Jungle

Main Street to Broadway

Diplomaniacs

Strictly Personal

The Bad and the Beautiful

That's Entertainment, Part II

Forever, Darling

Duck Soup

Executive Suite

Julius Caesar

Washington Story

Blackboard Jungle

The Prisoner of Zenda

Fifth Avenue Girl

Her Husband Lies

High Society

Devil's Doorway

The Man with a Cloak

The Ed Sullivan Show

Heaven Can Wait

Blonde Crazy

Stolen Heaven

Invitation

The Last Moment

Annie Get Your Gun

The Red Danube

The Count of Monte Cristo

Rhapsody

Woman Wanted

Sweet Adeline

The Life of Emile Zola

Men of the Fighting Lady

Frisco Jenny

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet

Two Weeks with Love

Juarez

The Student Prince

Afraid to Talk

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Man with Two Faces

20,000 Years in Sing Sing

Night After Night