Walter Pidgeon | |
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Born | Walter Davis Pidgeon September 23, 1897 Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada |
Died | September 25, 1984 Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
(aged 87)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1926–78 |
Spouse |
Edna (Muriel) Pickles (m. 1919–1921) (Her Death)- 1 Child |
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs. Miniver, The Bad and the Beautiful, Forbidden Planet, Advise & Consent, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Funny Girl and Harry in Your Pocket.
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Early life
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Pidgeon was the son of Hannah (née Sanborn), a homemaker, and Caleb Burpee Pidgeon, a merchant who owned a men's clothing store.[1] Pidgeon attended local schools, followed by the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His university education was interrupted by World War I, and he enlisted in the 65th Battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery. Pidgeon never saw combat, however, as he was severely injured in an accident. He was crushed between two gun carriages and spent 17 months in a military hospital. Following the war, he moved to Boston, where he worked as a bank runner, at the same time studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music.[2] He was a classically trained baritone.
Career
Discontented with banking, Pidgeon moved to New York City, where he walked into the office of E. E. Clive, announced that he could act and sing, and said was ready to prove it. After acting on stage for several years, he made his Broadway debut in 1925.
Pidgeon made a number of silent movies in the 1920s. However, he became a huge star with the arrival of talkies, thanks to his singing voice. He starred in extravagant early Technicolor musicals, including The Bride of the Regiment (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Viennese Nights (1930) and Kiss Me Again (1931). He became associated with musicals; however, when the public grew weary of them, his career began to falter. He was relegated to playing secondary roles in films like Saratoga and The Girl of the Golden West. One of his better known roles was in The Dark Command, where he portrayed the villain (loosely based on American Civil War guerrilla William C. Quantrill) opposite John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and a young Roy Rogers.
It was not until he starred in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture How Green Was My Valley (1941) that his popularity rebounded. He then starred opposite Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver (1942) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) and its sequel, The Miniver Story in 1950. He was also nominated in 1944 for Madame Curie, again opposite Garson. His partnership with her continued throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s with Mrs. Parkington, Julia Bisbehaves, That Forsythe Woman and concluding with Scandal at Scourie in 1953. He also starred as Chip Collyer in the comedy Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) and later as Colonel Michael S. 'Hooky' Nicobar, who is given the difficult task of repatriating Russians in Post-World War Two Vienna in the drama film The Red Danube (1949).
Although he continued to make films, including The Bad and the Beautiful and Forbidden Planet ( the latter based on Shakespeare's The Tempest), Pidgeon returned to work on Broadway in the mid-1950s after a twenty-year absence, and was featured in Take Me Along with Jackie Gleason.
He continued making films, playing Admiral Harriman Nelson in 1961's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, James Haggin in Walt Disney's Big Red (1962), and as the Senate Majority Leader in Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent. His role as Florenz Ziegfeld in Funny Girl (1968) was well received. Later, he played Casey, James Coburn's sidekick in Harry in Your Pocket (1973).
In addition, Pidgeon guest-starred in many television programs, including Breaking Point, The F.B.I., and Marcus Welby, M.D.. In 1963 he guest starred as corporate attorney Sherman Hatfield in the fourth of four special episodes of Perry Mason while Raymond Burr was recovering from surgery.
Pidgeon was active in the Screen Actors Guild, and served as president from 1952 to 1957. As such, he tried to stop the production of Salt of the Earth, which was made by a team blacklisted during the Red Scare. He retired from acting in 1978.
Walter Davis Pidgeon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6414 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Pidgeon married twice. In 1919, he wed Edna (Muriel) Pickles, who died during the birth of their daughter, also named Edna, in 1921.[3][4] In 1931, he married his secretary, Ruth Walker, to whom he remained married until his death at age 87 in Santa Monica, California, 25 September 1984 following a series of strokes.
Partial filmography
See also
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Foster, Charles. "The Gentleman from Saint John". www.new-brunswick.net. http://www.new-brunswick.net/Saint_John/fame/pidgeon.html. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
- ^ "Walter Pidgeon". northernstars.ca (The Canadian Movie Database). http://www.northernstars.ca/actorspqr/pidgeon_walter_bio.html. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ^ Berger, Joseph (September 26, 1984). "Walter Pidgeon, Actor, Dies at 87". The New York Times (via Reel Classics site). http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Pidgeon/pidgeon-article.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
External links
- Walter Pidgeon at the Internet Movie Database
- Walter Pidgeon at the Internet Broadway Database
- New York Times obituary
- Walter Pidgeon TCM biography
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