
Louis Calhern
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1895-02-18
Day of Death
1956-05-12 (61 years old)
Place of Birth
Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA
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.
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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)
Blackboard Jungle
as Jim Murdock
(1955)
The Prodigal
as Nahreeb
(1954)
Athena
as Grandpa Ulysses Mulvain
(1954)
Betrayed
as Gen. Ten Eyck
(1954)
Executive Suite
as George Nyle Caswell
(1954)
The Student Prince
as King of Karlsberg
(1954)
Rhapsody
as Nicholas Durant
(1954)
Men of the Fighting Lady
as James A. Michener
(1953)
Julius Caesar
as Julius Caesar
(1953)
Main Street to Broadway
as Self
(1953)
Remains to Be Seen
as Benjamin Goodman
(1953)
Confidentially Connie
as Opie Bedloe
(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)
A Life of Her Own
as Jim Leversoe
(1950)
Devil's Doorway
as Verne Coolan
(1950)
The Magnificent Yankee
as Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1950)
Nancy Goes to Rio
as Gregory Elliott
(1950)
Two Weeks with Love
as Horatio Robinson
(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)
The Last Days of Pompeii
as Prefect Allus Martius
(1935)
Woman Wanted
as Smiley
(1935)
The Arizonian
as Sheriff Jake Mannen
(1934)
The Count of Monte Cristo
as De Villefort Jr.
(1934)
The Man with Two Faces
as Stanley Vance
(1934)
Sweet Adeline
as Major Jim Day
(1934)
The Affairs of Cellini
as Ottaviano
(1933)
Duck Soup
as Ambassador Trentino
(1933)
Frisco Jenny
as Steve Dutton
(1933)
The World Gone Mad
as Christopher Bruno
(1933)
Diplomaniacs
as Winkelreid
(1933)
The Woman Accused
as Leo Young
(1933)
Strictly Personal
as Jack Magruder
(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)
Stolen Heaven
as Steve Perry
(1931)
The Road to Singapore
as Dr. George March
(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