Thomas Mitchell (actor)
| Thomas Mitchell | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for High Barbaree (1947) |
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| Born | July 11, 1892 Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | December 17, 1962 (aged 70) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, playwright, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1916–62 |
| Spouse | Rachel Hartzell (1938) Ann Stuart Breswer |
Thomas Mitchell (July 11, 1892 – December 17, 1962) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life. Mitchell was the first person to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award. Nominated twice for an Oscar, first for The Hurricane (1938), he won the Best Supporting Actor award for Stagecoach (1939); later, he would be nominated three times for an Emmy. He was nominated twice, in 1952 and 1953, for his role in the medical drama The Doctor, winning the Lead Actor Drama award in 1953. Nominated again in 1955, for an appearance on a weekly anthology series, he did not win. Mitchell won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, in 1953, for his role as Dr Downer in the musical comedy Hazel Flagg, based on the 1937 Paramount comedy film Nothing Sacred, rounding out the Triple Crown of acting awards.
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[edit] Early life
Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters (his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of Labor).[1] Like them, the younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter right after graduating from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth. Soon, however, Mitchell found he enjoyed writing comic theatrical skits much more than chasing late-breaking scoops.
[edit] Acting career
He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with Charles Coburn's Shakespeare Company. Even while playing leading roles on Broadway into the 1920s Mitchell would continue to write. One of the plays he co-authored, Little Accident, was eventually made into a film (three times) by Hollywood. Mitchell's first credited screen role was in the 1923 film Six Cylinder Love.
Mitchell's breakthrough role was as the embezzler in Frank Capra's 1937 film Lost Horizon.
Following this performance, he was much in demand in Hollywood.[2] That same year, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance The Hurricane, directed by John Ford.
Over the next few years, Mitchell appeared in many of the greatest films of the 20th century. In 1939 alone he had key roles in Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gone with the Wind. While probably better remembered as Scarlett O'Hara's loving but doomed father in Gone with the Wind, it was for his performance as the drunken Doc Boone in Stagecoach, co-starring John Wayne (in Wayne's breakthrough role), that Mitchell won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. In his acceptance speech, he quipped, "I didn't know I was that good". Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Mitchell acted in a wide variety of roles in productions such as 1942's Moontide, 1944's The Keys of the Kingdom (as an atheist doctor) and 1952's High Noon (as the town mayor). He is probably best known to audiences today for his role as sad sack Uncle Billy in Capra's 1946 Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life opposite James Stewart. This film, while not well received when released, has become a classic that is shown each year on broadcast television. It ranks regularly as one of the most beloved films of all time.
From the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Mitchell worked primarily in television, appearing in a variety of roles in some of the most well-regarded early series of the era, including Playhouse 90, Zane Gray Theatre, and Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. In 1954, he starred in the TV series Mayor of the Town, in 1959 starred in 39 episodes of the TV series "Glencannon" and in the early 1960s originated the stage role "Columbo", later made famous on television by Peter Falk (Bert Freed played the part on live television before Mitchell portrayed Columbo on stage); Columbo was Mitchell's last role.
[edit] Death
Mitchell died at age 70, in 1962 from bone cancer in Beverly Hills, California. He was cremated and his ashes stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.
[edit] Awards and honors
In 1953, Mitchell became the first person to win the "triple crown" of acting awards (Oscar, Emmy, Tony). He remains one of only a handful of individuals to have won each of these awards. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1939's Stagecoach. In 1952, he won the Best Actor Emmy (Comedy Actor category), and the following year a Tony Award for best performance by an actor, for the musical Hazel Flagg (based on the Carole Lombard film Nothing Sacred). He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for his work in motion pictures at 1651 Vine Street and one for his work in television at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] As actor
- By Love Possessed (1961)
[edit] As writer
- Little Accident (1930 - play, Little Accident)
- Papa Sans le Savoir (1932 - play, Little Accident)
- All of Me (1934; screenplay)
- Life Begins with Love (1937; screenplay)
- Little Accident (1939 - play, Little Accident)
- Casanova Brown (1944)
[edit] References
- ^ Life. October 19, 1953. "Labor gets a new secretary". p. 56.
- ^ Monush, Barry. Hal Leonard Corporation. (2003). ISBN 1-55783-551-9. p. The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965. p. 509.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Thomas Mitchell at the Internet Movie Database
- Thomas Mitchell at the Internet Broadway Database
- Thomas Mitchell at Find a Grave
- 1892 births
- 1962 deaths
- American film actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
- Burials at Chapel of the Pines Crematory
- Emmy Award winners
- American people of Irish descent
- Actors from New Jersey
- People from Elizabeth, New Jersey
- Tony Award winners
- Cancer deaths in California
- Deaths from bone cancer
