 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ian Wolfe" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ian Wolfe | |
|---|---|
.png) Wolfe inDressed to Kill (1946) | |
| Born | Ian Marcus Wolfe (1896-11-04)November 4, 1896 Canton, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | January 23, 1992(1992-01-23) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Ien Wulf, Ian Macwolfe, Ian Wolf |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1934–1990 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Ian Marcus Wolfe (November 4, 1896 – January 23, 1992)[1] was an Americancharacter actor with around 400 film and television credits. Until 1934, he worked in the theatre. That year, he appeared in his first film role and later television, as a character actor. His career lasted seven decades and included many films and TV series; his last screen credit was in 1990.
Born inCanton, Illinois, Wolfe studied at theAmerican Academy of Dramatic Arts.[1]
Wolfe's stage debut came inThe Claw (1919).[1] His Broadway credits includeThe Deputy (1964),Winesburg, Ohio (1958),Lone Valley (1933),Devil in the Mind (1931),The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931),Lysistrata (1930),The Seagull (1930),At the Bottom (1930),Skyrocket (1929),Gods of the Lightning (1928), andThe Claw (1921).[2]
Wolfe made his film debut inThe Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934).[3] He appeared in many films, includingMutiny on the Bounty (1935),Alfred Hitchcock'sSaboteur (1942),Julius Caesar (1953),James Dean'sRebel Without a Cause (1955) andGeorge Lucas'sTHX 1138[4] (1971). Although he was American by birth, his experience in the theatre gave him precise diction, and he was often cast as Englishmen on screen, including a fictional commissioner ofScotland Yard in the final film in the1939–1946 Sherlock Holmes film series,Dressed to Kill (1946). He also appeared in three other films in the series, as an American antiques dealer inSherlock Holmes in Washington (1943), as a butler inThe Scarlet Claw (1944), and as an art dealer inThe Pearl of Death (1944). He played Carter, Sir Wilfrid Robarts's clerk and office manager inWitness for the Prosecution (1957).
Wolfe played a crooked small-town doctor in "Six Gun's Legacy", an episode from the first (1949) season ofThe Lone Ranger. Wolfe appeared in the 1966Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Midnight Howler" as Abel Jackson. In 1966, he portrayed the new Rev. Leighton onThe Andy Griffith Show ("Aunt Bee's Crowning Glory", broadcast October 10, 1966). He also appeared in two episodes of the originalStar Trek television series: "Bread and Circuses" (1968) as Septimus, and "All Our Yesterdays" (1969) as Mr. Atoz. He guest-starred in a 1977 episode of the ABC crime dramaThe Feather and Father Gang,[5] and portrayed the wizard Traquill in the seriesWizards and Warriors (1983).[6] In 1982, Wolfe had a small recurring role on the TV seriesWKRP in Cincinnati as Hirsch, the sarcastic, irreverent butler to WKRP owner Lillian Carlson.
Central to Wolfe's appeal as a character actor was that, until he reached actual old age, he always looked considerably older than he actually was. In the filmMad Love (1935), he playedColin Clive's stepfather, yet he was only four years older than Clive. In the filmHoudini (1953), he warned the magician to avoid occult matters, telling him to "take the advice of an old man". He appeared in movies for another 37 years; his last film credit was forDick Tracy (1990).
DuringWorld War I, Wolfe served in the United States Army as a volunteer medical specialist.[1][7] He became a sergeant.[3]
Wolfe wrote and self-published two books of poetry,Forty-Four Scribbles and a Prayer: Lyrics and Ballads andSixty Ballads and Lyrics in Search of Music.
He was married to Elizabeth Schroder for 68 years, from 1924 until his death; the couple had two daughters. Wolfe died on January 23, 1992, aged 95.[1]
