Career Highlights: The Valiant, The Mystery Man, Wet Paint
First Major Screen Credit: A Man's Country (1919)
Biography
Heavy-set, heavy-eyebrowed, heavily-mustached and icily forbidding, actor Henry Kolker was a reliable screen menace for over 30 years. After nearly a quarter century on stage, Kolker made his first film, The Bigger Man, in 1915. He harrumphed and glowered his way through dozens of talkies, most often as unpleasant corporate types; sometimes, as in his portrayal of Friar Laurence in MGM's Romeo and Juliet, he could rechannel his negative authoritativeness into a more positive vein. One of Henry Kolker's largest and most representative roles was Edward Seton, the "old money" father of Katharine Hepburn, in Holiday (1938). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Henry Kolker (November 13, 1870 [some sources have 1874], Quincy, Illinois – July 15, 1947, Los Angeles) was an American stage and film actor and director. Kolker like fellow actors Richard Bennett and Robert Warwick had a substantial stage career behind him before entering silent films. On stage he appeared opposite such leading ladies as Edith Wynn Matthison, Bertha Kalich and a young Ruth Chatterton. Kolker is best remembered for his motion picture appearances and for appearing with Barbara Stanwyck in Baby Face(1933) as the elderly CEO of the company whom she seduces. Kolker entered films as an actor in 1915 and eventually ended up trying his hand at directing. Kolker's best known directorial effort is Disraeli(1921 version) starring George Arliss which is now a lost film with only one reel remaining. Kolker in his theatrical career looked a lot like John Drew Jr, especially after he adopted wearing a thick mustache.