Louis Calhern
Acting
Born: February 18, 1895 · Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA
Died: May 12, 1956 (aged 61)
Highest Rated
Biography
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
Notorious
1946
Duck Soup
1933
The Asphalt Jungle
1950
The Bad and the Beautiful
1952
High Society
1956
Heaven Can Wait
1943
Julius Caesar
1953
Blackboard Jungle
1955
The Life of Emile Zola
1937
Annie Get Your Gun
1950
Executive Suite
1954
The Count of Monte Cristo
1934
Photos (3)
Movies (72)
High Society
Uncle Willie
Notorious
Paul Prescott
The Asphalt Jungle
Alonzo D. Emmerich
The Bad and the Beautiful
Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Annie Get Your Gun
Col. Buffalo Bill Cody
Heaven Can Wait
Randolph Van Cleve
Duck Soup
Ambassador Trentino
We're Not Married!
Freddie Melrose
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
The Magnificent Yankee
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Blackboard Jungle
Jim Murdock
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
Joe Finn
The Prisoner of Zenda
Col. Zapt
Juarez
LeMarc
The Count of Monte Cristo
De Villefort Jr.
Executive Suite
George Nyle Caswell
Confidentially Connie
Opie Bedloe
Athena
Grandpa Mulvain
The Life of Emile Zola
Major Dort
Men of the Fighting Lady
James A. Michener
Arch of Triumph
Boris Morosov
Remains to Be Seen
Benjamin Goodman
It's a Big Country
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
A Life of Her Own
Jim Leversoe
Two Weeks with Love
Horatio Robinson
I Take This Woman
Dr. Martin Sumner Duveen
Fifth Avenue Girl
Dr. Kessler
Betrayed
Gen. Ten Eyck
The Red Danube
Colonel Piniev
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
Dr. Brockdorf
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Don Andre - The Viceroy
The Last Days of Pompeii
Prefect Allus Martius
Devil's Doorway
Verne Coolan
The Prodigal
Nahreeb
The Red Pony
Grandfather
The Affairs of Cellini
Ottaviano
Nancy Goes to Rio
Gregory Elliott
The Man with a Cloak
Charles Theverner
The World Gone Mad
Christopher Bruno
Rhapsody
Nicholas Durant
They Call It Sin
Ford Humphries
Forever, Darling
Charles Bewell
The Road to Singapore
Dr. George March
The Man with Two Faces
Stanley Vance
Up in Arms
Colonel Ashley
Blonde Crazy
'Dapper Dan' Barker
Becoming Marilyn
(archive footage)
Woman Wanted
Smiley
Her Husband Lies
Joe Sorrell
Fast Company
Elias Z. Bannerman
The Woman Accused
Leo Young
The Student Prince
King of Karlsberg
The Gorgeous Hussy
Leroy Sunderland
Afraid to Talk
Asst. District Attorney John Wade
Latin Lovers
Grandfather Eduardo Santos
Night After Night
Dick Bolton
Invitation
Simon Bowker
Washington Story
Charles W. Birch
Okay, America!
Mileaway Russell
Diplomaniacs
Winkelreid
Nobody's Darling
Curtis Farnsworth
The Arizonian
Sheriff Jake Mannen
The Blot
Phil West
Charlie McCarthy, Detective
Arthur Aldrich
Frisco Jenny
Steve Dutton
What's Worth While?
'Squire' Elton
Strictly Personal
Jack Magruder
Sweet Adeline
Major Jim Day
Too Wise Wives
David Graham
The Last Moment
Harry Gaines
Stolen Heaven
Steve Perry
