Edmund Gwenn

Edmund Gwenn
from the trailer for the film Pride and Prejudice (1940).
Born	Edmund John Kellaway 26 September 1877(1877-09-26) Wandsworth, London, England
Died	6 September 1959(1959-09-06) (aged 81) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Resting place	Chapel of the Pines Crematory
Residence	Woodland Hills, California
Nationality	British
Education	St. Olave's School
Alma mater	King's College London
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1910-1956
Known for	Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street
Home town	London, England
Spouse	Minnie Terry (m. 1901–1901) «start: (1901)–end+1: (1902)»"Marriage: Minnie Terry to Edmund Gwenn" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Gwenn) (several hours later)
Awards	Academy Award, 2 Golden Globes

Edmund Gwenn (26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English theatre and film actor.

Background

Born Edmund John Kellaway in Wandsworth, London and educated at St. Olave's School and later at King's College London, Gwenn began his acting career in the theatre in 1895. Playwright George Bernard Shaw was impressed with his acting, casting him in the first production of Man and Superman, and subsequently in five more of his plays. Gwenn's career was interrupted by his military service during World War I; however, after the war, he began appearing in films in London. (Cecil Kellaway was his cousin and Arthur Chesney was his brother.)

Career

Gwenn appeared in more than eighty films during his career, including the Greer Garson/Laurence Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice (1940), Cheers for Miss Bishop, Of Human Bondage, and The Keys of the Kingdom. George Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett (1935) marked his first appearance in a Hollywood film, as Katharine Hepburn's father; - his final British film, as a capitalist trying to take over a family brewery in Cheer Boys Cheer (1939) is credited with being the first authentic Ealing comedy. He settled in Hollywood in 1940 and became part of its British colony. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Upon receiving his Oscar, he said "Now I know there is a Santa Claus!" According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) he is the only person to win an acting Academy Award for playing the role of Santa Claus. He received a second nomination for his role in Mister 880 (1950). Near the end of his career he played one of the main roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955). He has a small but hugely memorable role as a Cockney assassin in another Hitchcock film, Foreign Correspondent (1940)

In theatre, he starred in a 1942 production on Broadway of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, which also starred Judith Anderson and Ruth Gordon. It was produced by and starred Katherine Cornell. Time magazine proclaimed it "a dream production by anybody's reckoning — the most glittering cast the theatre has seen, commercially, in this generation."[1]

In 1954, Gwenn played Dr. Harold Medford in the classic science fiction film Them! with James Arness and James Whitmore.

Death

Edmund Gwenn died from pneumonia after suffering a stroke, in Woodland Hills, California, twenty days before his 82nd birthday. According to several sources, his last words, when a friend at his bedside remarked that "It is hard to die," were: "But it is harder to do comedy." However, a very similar deathbed saying was earlier attributed to a similarly named 19th century English actor, Edmund Kean, so the association of the words with Gwenn may be erroneous.^{[citation needed]} Gwenn was cremated and his ashes are stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California. Edmund Gwenn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street for his contribution to motion pictures.

Selected filmography

• The Real Thing at Last (1916)
• Unmarried (1920)
• The Skin Game (1921)
• How He Lied to Her Husband (1931)
• Hindle Wakes (1931)
• The Skin Game (1931)
• Love on Wheels (1932)
• Friday the Thirteenth (1933)
• The Good Companions (1933)
• I Was a Spy (1933)
• Channel Crossing (1933)
• Warn London (1934)
• Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
• The Walking Dead (1936)
• Anthony Adverse (1936)
• South Riding (1938)
• A Yank at Oxford (1938)
• Penny Paradise (1938)
• Pride and Prejudice (1940)
• The Earl of Chicago (1940)
• Foreign Correspondent (1940)
• Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941)
• Scotland Yard (1941)
• The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

• A Yank at Eton (1942)
• Lassie Come Home (1943)
• Between Two Worlds (1944)
• The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
• She Went to the Races (1945)
• Of Human Bondage (1946)
• Undercurrent (1946)
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
• Life with Father (1947)
• Green Dolphin Street (1947)
• Apartment for Peggy (1948)
• Hills of Home (1948)
• Challenge to Lassie (1949)
• Louisa (1950)
• Pretty Baby (1950)
• Mister 880 (1950)
• For Heaven's Sake (1950)
• Peking Express (1951)
• Bonzo Goes to College (1952)
• Les Misérables (1952)
• The Bigamist (1953)
• [[The Scoutmaster (1953 film)|The Scoutmaster] (1953)
• The Student Prince (1954)
• Them! (1954)
• The Trouble with Harry (1955)
• Calabuch (1956) U.S. title The Rocket from Calabuch

External links

• Edmund Gwenn at the Internet Movie Database
• Edmund Gwenn at the Internet Broadway Database
• Edmund Gwenn in Screen Director's Playhouse: Miracle on 34th Street (1949) (Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio)
• Edmund Gwenn in Lux Radio Theater: Miracle on 34th Street (1948) (Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio)
• Edmund Gwenn at Find a Grave
• Regarding Edmund Gwenn (TCM Movie Morlocks)