Grant Mitchell (actor)
Grant Mitchell | |
---|---|
Born | John Grant Mitchell, Jr. June 17, 1874 Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | May 1, 1957 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 82)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1902–1948 |
Grant Mitchell (June 17, 1874 – May 1, 1957) was an American stage actor on Broadway and character actor in many Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared on Broadway from 1902 to 1939 and appeared in more than 125 films between 1930 and 1948.
Biography
Mitchell was born John Grant Mitchell, Jr. in Columbus, Ohio, the only son of American Civil War general John G. Mitchell. His paternal grandmother, Fanny Arabella Hayes, was the sister of President Rutherford B. Hayes. He attended Yale University, where he served as feature editor of campus humor magazine The Yale Record.[1] Like his father, he became an attorney, graduating from the Harvard Law School. However, by his mid-to-late 20s, he tired of his legal practice and turned a long term dream into a reality by becoming an actor on Broadway. He played lead roles in plays such as It Pays to Advertise, The Whole Town's Talking, The Champion, and The Baby Cyclone.
Grant Mitchell was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter).
In film, he initially made an appearance in 1916 and one or two other silents amidst his extensive theatre work, but Mitchell's screen career really took off with the advent of sound. Most of his appearances were in B films of the 1930s and 1940s, but he made many notable appearances in high-profile films such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
He died a bachelor on May 1, 1957.
Partial filmography
- The Star Witness (1931)
- Big City Blues (1932)
- A Successful Calamity (1932)
- No Man of Her Own (1932)
- Central Airport (1933)
- Lilly Turner (1933)
- Dancing Lady (1933) as Jasper Bradley, Sr.
- Heroes for Sale (1933)
- Our Betters (1933)
- Dinner at Eight (1933)
- Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
- King for a Night (1933)
- One Exciting Adventure (1934)
- We're Rich Again (1934)
- Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934)
- The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)
- 365 Nights in Hollywood (1934)
- The Secret Bride (1934)
- The Cat's-Paw (1934)
- One More Spring (1935)
- Straight from the Heart (1935)
- Gridiron Flash (1935)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
- Broadway Gondolier (1935)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) as Egeus
- The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)
- The Devil Is a Sissy (1936)
- The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
- First Lady (1937)
- Youth Takes a Fling (1938)
- 6,000 Enemies (1939)
- Hell's Kitchen (1939)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) as Senator MacPherson
- My Love Came Back(1940)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- It All Came True (1940) as Mr. Rene Salmon
- Edison, the Man (1940)
- Tobacco Road (1941)
- Footsteps in the Dark (1941)
- The Great Lie (1941)
- Nothing But the Truth (1941)
- Skylark (1941)
- The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) as Ernest W. Stanley
- Larceny, Inc. (1942)
- The Gay Sisters (1942)
- Orchestra Wives (1942)
- My Sister Eileen (1942)
- The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943)
- Dixie (1943)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) as Reverend Harper
- Step Lively (1944)
- Crime, Inc. (1945)
- Wonder Man (1945)
- A Medal for Benny (1945)
- Conflict (1945) as Dr. Grant
- Guest Wife (1945)
- It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
References
- ^ Yale Banner and Pot Pourri. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1923. p. 192.