Douglas, Melvyn [né Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg] (1901–81), actor and director. The suave leading man, who developed into a fine character actor, was born in Macon, Georgia, and made his stage debut in Chicago. He next spent several seasons with Jessie Bonstelle before briefly operating his own company in Madison, Wisconsin. Douglas first appeared in New York as the gambler Ace Wilfong in A Free Soul (1928). His acting in plays landed him a Hollywood contract, but he returned to Broadway in 1934 to play the philandering husband Sheridan Warren in No More Ladies and to win acclaim for his direction of O'Casey's Within the Gates. His next appearances were in failures, and Douglas returned to Hollywood until he re‐emerged after World War II as co‐producer of the ex‐soldier revue Call Me Mister (1946). His post‐war performances of note include newspaperman Tommy Thurston in Two Blind Mice (1949), the callous nightclub owner Wally Williams in The Bird Cage (1950), the middle‐aged bachelor‐father Steve Whitney in Glad Tidings (1951), and the staid banker‐father Howard Carol in the frivolous farce, Time Out for Ginger (1952). Douglas played this part for three seasons, before replacing Paul Muni in 1956 as the Clarence Darrow‐like Henry Drummond in a retelling of the Scopes evolution trial, Inherit the Wind. Following several failures, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of William Russell, the idealistic presidential candidate, in The Best Man (1960). His last Broadway appearance was as a retired chicken farmer encroached on by suburbanites, the title role in Spofford (1967).
Melvyn Douglas
| American Theater Guide: Melvyn Douglas |
| Actor: Melvyn Douglas |
- Born: Apr 05, 1901 in Macon, Georgia
- Died: Aug 04, 1981 in New York City, New York
- Occupation: Actor
- Active: '30s-'40s, '60s-'70s
- Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
- Career Highlights: Hud, Being There, I Never Sang for My Father
- First Major Screen Credit: Tonight or Never (1931)
Biography
American actor Melvyn Douglas began his stage career shortly after being mustered out of World War I Army service. Douglas secured a position with the Owens Repertory Company, making his debut in a production of Merchant of Venice. He spent the first part of the 1920s touring with Owens Repertory and with the Jessie Bonstelle Company, reaching Broadway in the 1928 drama A Free Soul. Brought to Hollywood in the early talkie "gold rush" for stage-trained actors, Douglas made his film bow in 1931's Tonight or Never. With The Old Dark House (1932), the actor established his standard screen character: a charming, blase young socialite who could exhibit great courage and loyalty when those attributes were called upon. After a brief return to Broadway in 1933, Douglas returned to films in 1935, signing a joint contract with Columbia and MGM. Most often appearing in sophisticated comedies, Douglas was one of the busiest stars in Hollywood, playing in as many as eight films per year. One of the actor's better roles was a supporting one: as Cary Grant's beleaguered lawyer and business adviser in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1947), who spends most of the film trying to keep Grant from spending himself into bankruptcy. Douglas found movie roles scarce in the early 1950s thanks to the "Red Scare." The actor was married to Congresswoman Helen Gahagan, the woman labeled by Richard Nixon as the "pink lady" friendly to communism. The more rabid anti-communists in Washington went after Douglas himself, suggesting that because he was Jewish and had changed his name for professional reasons, he was automatically politically suspect. Douglas began recovering his career with a 1950s detective program, Hollywood Off-Beat - ironically playing a disbarred lawyer trying to regain his reputation. He headed back to Broadway, gaining high critical praise for his "emergence" as a topnotch character actor (his prior stage and film credits were virtually ignored). Some of Douglas' stage triumphs included Inherit the Wind (replacing Paul Muni in the Clarence Darrow part) and The Best Man (which had a character based on Richard Nixon) Douglas' long-overdue Academy Award was bestowed upon the actor for his role as Paul Newman's dying father in Hud (1963); other highlights of Douglas' final Hollywood days included I Never Sang for My Father (1971) and Being There (1979), the latter film winning the actor his second Oscar. Melvyn Douglas died at age 80, just before the release of his final film, Ghost Story (1981). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide| Filmography: Melvyn Douglas |
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| Wikipedia: Melvyn Douglas |
| Melvyn Douglas | |
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| Born | Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg April 5, 1901 Macon, Georgia, U.S. |
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| Died | August 4, 1981 (aged 80) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1930–1981 |
| Spouse(s) | Rosalind Hightower Helen Gahagan |
Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg (April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981), better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.
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Early life
Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford), a Protestant Tennessee-born Mayflower descendant, and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a Jewish concert pianist and composer from Riga, Latvia.[1][2] Though his father taught music at a succession of colleges in the U.S. and Canada, Douglas never graduated from high school. Douglas's stage surname was the surname of his maternal grandmother.
Career
Douglas developed his acting skills with stock companies in Sioux City, Iowa; Evansville, Indiana; Madison, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan. He had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930 Broadway role in Tonight or Never (opposite his future wife, Helen Gahagan) until just before his death. He was the hero in the 1932 horror film The Vampire Bat and the sophisticated leading man in 1935's She Married Her Boss. He played opposite Joan Crawford in several films, most notably A Woman's Face (1941), and with Greta Garbo in three films: As You Desire Me (1932), Ninotchka (1939) and Garbo's final film Two-Faced Woman (1941).
During World War II, Douglas served first as a director of the Arts Council in the Office of Civilian Defense, and then in the United States Army. He returned to play more mature roles in The Sea of Grass and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. In 1959 he made his musical debut playing Captain Boyle in the ill-fated Marc Blitzstein musical Juno, based on Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock.
In the summer of 1959, Douglas hosted eleven original episodes of a CBS Western anthology television series called Frontier Justice, a production of Dick Powell's Four Star Television.
In addition to his Academy Awards (see below), Douglas won a Tony for his Broadway lead role in the 1960 The Best Man by Gore Vidal, and an Emmy for his 1967 role in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. As Douglas grew older, he took on the older-man and father roles, in such movies as The Americanization of Emily, Hud, The Candidate and I Never Sang for My Father, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the 1979 dark comedy Being There.
Douglas' final screen appearance was in Ghost Story (1981). he never finished his role in the film The Hot Touch (1982) before his death. Douglas has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 6423 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 6601 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Douglas was married briefly to Rosalind Hightower and they had two sons: Gregory Hesselberg in 1920 and Melvyn Hesselberg Jr. in 1921. In 1931 Douglas married actress-turned-politician Helen Gahagan. As a three-term Congresswoman, she was Richard Nixon's opponent for the United States Senate seat from California in 1950.
Nixon accused Gahagan of being a Communist because of her opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon went so far as to call her "pink right down to her underwear". It was Gahagan who gave Nixon his epithet "Tricky Dick." Douglas and Gahagan had two children: Peter Gahagan Douglas (1933) and Mary Helen Douglas (1938). The couple remained married until Helen Gahagan Douglas' death in 1980 from cancer. Melvyn Douglas died a year later, in 1981, in New York City,
The film and television actress Illeana Douglas is Douglas's granddaughter by his son, Gregory Hesselberg.
Academy Awards and nominations
- 1980 - Won - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Being There
- 1971 - Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role - I Never Sang for My Father
- 1964 - Won - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Hud
Partial filmography
Further reading
- Douglas, Melvyn; Tom Arthur (1986). See You At The Movies : The Autobiography of Melvyn Douglas. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. ISBN 0819153907.
References
External links
- Melvyn Douglas at the Internet Movie Database
- Melvyn Douglas at the TCM Movie Database
- Melvyn Douglas at the Internet Broadway Database
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Murder or Mercy (1974 Drama Film) |
| Holiday Treasure (1973 Drama Film) |
| Arsene Lupin Returns (1938 Mystery Film) |
Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Melvyn Douglas". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Murder or Mercy (1974 Drama Film)
- Holiday Treasure (1973 Drama Film)
- Arsene Lupin Returns (1938 Mystery Film)
- I Met Him in Paris (1937 Comedy Film)
- John C. Becher (Actor, Comedy/Drama)
- Tell Me a Riddle (1980 Drama Film)
- And So They Were Married (1936 Comedy Film)
- Companions in Nightmare (1967 Crime Film)
- Heute Nacht Oder Nie (1972 Drama Film)
- The Journey of Lyndon Johnson (1974 History Film)
- Helen Gahagan (Actor, Fantasy/Adventure)
- Hard Frame (1970 Drama Film)
- Our Wife (1941 Drama Film)
- Advance to the Rear (1964 Comedy Film)
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