Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern
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
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
74
Gender
Male
Birthday
1895-02-18 (130 years old)
Place of Birth
Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA
Acting

1986

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend as Self (from The Asphalt Jungle [1950]) (archive footage)

1976

That's Entertainment, Part II as (archive footage)

1956

High Society as Uncle Willie

1956

Forever, Darling as Charles Y. Bewell

1955

The Prodigal as Nahreeb

1955

Blackboard Jungle as Jim Murdock

1954

Executive Suite as George Nyle Caswell

1954

Betrayed as Gen. Ten Eyck

1954

Athena as Grandpa Ulysses Mulvain

1954

Rhapsody as Nicholas Durant

1954

The Student Prince as King of Karlsberg

1954

Men of the Fighting Lady as James A. Michener

1953

Julius Caesar as Julius Caesar

1953

Confidentially Connie as Opie Bedloe

1953

Remains to Be Seen as Benjamin Goodman

1953

Latin Lovers as Grandfather Eduardo Santos

1952

The Bad and the Beautiful as Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)

1952

The Prisoner of Zenda as Col. Zapt

1952

We're Not Married! as Freddie Melrose

1952

Invitation as Simon Bowker

1952

Washington Story as Charles W. Birch

1951

The Man with a Cloak as Charles Theverner

1951

It's a Big Country as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

1950

The Asphalt Jungle as Alonzo D. Emmerich

1950

Annie Get Your Gun as Col. Buffalo Bill Cody

1950

Devil's Doorway as Verne Coolan

1950

Two Weeks with Love as Horatio Robinson

1950

A Life of Her Own as Jim Leversoe

1950

Nancy Goes to Rio as Gregory Elliott

1950

The Magnificent Yankee as Oliver Wendell Holmes

1949

The Red Pony as Grandfather

1949

The Red Danube as Colonel Piniev

1948

Arch of Triumph as Boris Morosov

1946

Notorious as Captain Paul Prescott

1944

Up in Arms as Colonel Ashley

1944

The Bridge of San Luis Rey as Don Andre - The Viceroy

1943

Heaven Can Wait as Randolph Van Cleve

1943

Nobody's Darling as Curtis Farnsworth

1940

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet as Dr. Brockdorf

1940

I Take This Woman as Dr. Martin Sumner Duveen

1939

Juarez as LeMarc

1939

Fifth Avenue Girl as Dr. Kessler

1939

Charlie McCarthy, Detective as Arthur Aldrich

1938

Fast Company as Elias Z. Bannerman

1937

The Life of Emile Zola as Major Dort

1937

Her Husband Lies as Joe Sorrell

1936

The Gorgeous Hussy as Leroy Sunderland

1935

Woman Wanted as Smiley

1935

The Last Days of Pompeii as Prefect Allus Martius

1935

The Arizonian as Sheriff Jake Mannen

1934

The Count of Monte Cristo as De Villefort Jr.

1934

Sweet Adeline as Major Jim Day

1934

The Affairs of Cellini as Ottaviano

1934

The Man with Two Faces as Stanley Vance

1933

Duck Soup as Ambassador Trentino

1933

Frisco Jenny as Steve Dutton

1933

Strictly Personal as Jack Magruder

1933

The World Gone Mad as Christopher Bruno

1933

The Woman Accused as Leo Young

1933

Diplomaniacs as Winkelreid

1932

20,000 Years in Sing Sing as Joe Finn

1932

Night After Night as Dick Bolton

1932

Afraid to Talk as Asst. District Attorney John Wade

1932

Okay, America! as Mileaway Russell

1932

They Call It Sin as Ford Humphries

1931

Blonde Crazy as 'Dapper Dan' Barker

1931

The Road to Singapore as Dr. George March

1931

Stolen Heaven as Steve Perry

1923

The Last Moment as Harry Gaines

1921

The Blot as Phil West

1921

Too Wise Wives as David Graham

1921

What's Worth While? as 'Squire' Elton