Melvyn Douglas | |
|---|---|
 Publicity photoc. 1940 | |
| Born | Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg (1901-04-05)April 5, 1901 Macon, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | August 4, 1981(1981-08-04) (aged 80) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1926–1981 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Illeana Douglas (granddaughter) |
| Military career | |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Rank |  Major |
| Conflicts | World War I World War II |
Melvyn Douglas (bornMelvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor, whose stage and screen careers spanned from the late 1920s until the early 1980s. He was one of 24 performers to win theTriple Crown of Acting - winning twoAcademy Awards (both in theBest Supporting Actor category), aPrimetime Emmy Award, and aTony Award.
He came to prominence in 1929 as a suaveleading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedyNinotchka (1939) withGreta Garbo, and appeared in many films during theGolden Age of Hollywood. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Oscar-winning performances inHud (1963) andBeing There (1979) and his Oscar–nominated performance inI Never Sang for My Father (1970). He won a Tony Award forBest Actor in a Play forGore Vidal's playThe Best Man (1960).
Douglas was born inMacon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford) andEdouard Gregory Hesselberg, aconcert pianist andcomposer. His father was a Jewishemigrant fromRiga, Latvia, then part of theRussian Empire. His mother, a native ofTennessee, was Protestant and aMayflower descendant.[1][2]
Douglas, in hisautobiography,See You at the Movies (1987), wrote that he was unaware of his Jewish background until later in his youth: "I did not learn about the non-Christian part of my heritage until my early teens." His parents preferred to hide his Jewish heritage. His aunts, on his father's side, told him "the truth" when he was 14. He wrote that he "admired them unstintingly"; they in turn, treated him like a son.[1]
Though his father, a prominent concert pianist, taught music at a succession of colleges in the U.S. and Canada, Douglas never graduated from high school. He took the surname of his maternal grandmother and became known as Melvyn Douglas.[citation needed]
Douglas developed his acting skills inShakespearean repertory while in his teens and withstock companies inSioux City, Iowa,Evansville, Indiana,Madison, Wisconsin andDetroit, Michigan. He served in theUnited States Army inWorld War I. He established an outdoor theatre in Chicago. He had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930Broadway role inTonight or Never (opposite his future wife,Helen Gahagan) until just before his death. Douglas sharedtop billing withBoris Karloff andCharles Laughton inJames Whale's sardonichorror classicThe Old Dark House in 1932.[citation needed]
Douglas appeared as the hero in the 1932 horror filmThe Vampire Bat and the sophisticated leading man inShe Married Her Boss (1935). He appeared withJoan Crawford in several films, most notablyA Woman's Face (1941), and starred oppositeGreta Garbo in three films:As You Desire Me (1932),Ninotchka (1939) and Garbo's final filmTwo-Faced Woman (1941). One of his most sympathetic roles was as the belatedly attentive father inCaptains Courageous (1937).
DuringWorld War II, Douglas served first as a director of the Arts Council in theOffice of Civilian Defense, and he then again served in theUnited States Army rising to the rank of major in theSpecial Services Entertainment Production Unit.[3] According to his granddaughterIlleana Douglas, Melvyn Douglas first metPeter Sellers, his futureBeing There co-star while inBurma, when Sellers was serving in theRoyal Air Force during the war.[4] After the war, Douglas returned to films and more mature roles inThe Sea of Grass (1947) andMr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948).
From 1952 to 1961, Douglas made no film appearances, concentrating instead on stage and television work. During November 1952 to January 1953, Douglas starred in theDuMont detective showSteve Randall (Hollywood Off Beat) which then moved toCBS. In the summer of 1953, he briefly hosted the DuMontgame showBlind Date. In the summer of 1959, Douglas hosted eleven original episodes of a CBSWesternanthologytelevision series calledFrontier Justice, a production ofDick Powell'sFour Star Television.
Douglas returned to films in the 1960s. As he aged, he took on older-man and fatherly roles in movies such asHud (1963), for which he won his firstAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor,The Americanization of Emily (1964), theAmerican Civil War comedyAdvance to the Rear (1964), an episode ofThe Fugitive (1966),I Never Sang for My Father (1970), for which he was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Actor andThe Candidate (1972). He won his secondAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor for thecomedy-dramaBeing There (1979). However, Douglas confirmed in one of his final interviews that he refused to attend the52nd Academy Awards ceremony because he could not bear having to compete against child actorJustin Henry forKramer vs. Kramer.[5]
In addition to his Academy Awards, Douglas won aTony Award for his Broadway lead role in the 1960The Best Man byGore Vidal and an Emmy for his 1967 role inDo Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.[citation needed]
Douglas' final complete screen appearance was in the 1981 horror filmGhost Story. He died before completing all of his scenes for the filmThe Hot Touch (1982); the film had to be edited to compensate for Douglas' incomplete role.[citation needed]
Douglas has two stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame; one for movies located at 6423 Hollywood Boulevard and another for television at 6601 Hollywood Boulevard.[6]
Douglas, as Hesselberg,[7] was married briefly to artist Rosalind Hightower, and they had one child, (Melvyn) Gregory Hesselberg,[8] in 1926.[7] Hesselberg, an artist, is the father of actressIlleana Douglas.[8]
In 1931, Douglas married actress-turned-politicianHelen Gahagan. They traveled to Europe that same year, and "were horrified by French and German anti-Semitism". As a result, they became outspokenanti-fascists.[9] Douglas was also an activeNew Deal Democrat, serving on theState Central Committee of the California Democratic Party in the 1930s and 40s.[10]
Gahagan Douglas (she began using her husband's name when she entered politics), as a three-termcongresswoman, wasRichard M. Nixon's unsuccessful opponent for theUnited States Senate seat fromCalifornia in1950.[1] Nixon accused Gahagan Douglas of being soft on Communism because of her opposition to theHouse Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon went so far as to infamously call her "pink right down to her underwear". It was Gahagan Douglas who popularized Nixon's epithet nickname "Tricky Dick".[11]
Douglas was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group, during the 1970s.[12]
The Douglases hired architectRoland Coate to design a home for them in 1938 on a 3-acre (1.2 ha) lot they owned inOutpost Estates, Los Angeles. The result was a one-story, 6,748-square-foot (626.9 m2) home.[13]
The Douglases had two children: Peter Gahagan Douglas (1933) and Mary Helen Douglas (1938).
The couple remained married until Helen Gahagan Douglas's death in 1980 from cancer. Melvyn Douglas died a year later, in 1981, aged 80, frompneumonia and cardiac complications inNew York City at Sloan Kettering Hospital.[14]
Sources:Internet Broadway Database[15] andPlaybill[16]
Douglas also stagedMoor Born (1934),Mother Lode (1934) andWithin the Gates (1934-1935) and producedCall Me Mister (1946-1948).
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse | Richard Gordon | Episodes: "The Five Lives of Richard Gordon" and "The Strange Christmas Dinner" |
| 1950 | Lux Video Theatre | James Strickland | Episode: "To Thine Own Self" |
| Pulitzer Prize Playhouse | Eugene Morgan Martin Luther Cooper | Episode: "The Magnificent Ambersons" Episode: "Mrs. January and Mr. Ex" | |
| 1952 | Celanese Theatre | Archduke Rudolph von Habsburg | Episode: "Reunion in Vienna" |
| Steve Randall | Steve Randall | 12 episodes | |
| 1955 | The Ford Television Theatre | George Manners | Episode: "Letters Marked Personal" |
| 1955–1956 | The Alcoa Hour | Charles Turner Jim Conway | Episode: "Man on a Tiger" Episode: "Thunder in Washington" |
| 1957–1958 | The United States Steel Hour | Census Taker Dr. Victor Payson/Narrator | Episode: "Second Chance" Episode: "The Hill Wife" |
| 1957–1959 | Playhouse 90 | General Parker Ansel Gibbs Stalin Howard Hoagland | Episode: "Judgment at Nuremberg" Episode: "The Return of Ansel Gibbs" Episode: "The Plot to Kill Stalin" Episode: "The Greer Case" |
| 1959 | Frontier Justice | Host | 11 episodes |
| 1960 | Sunday Showcase | Mark Twain | Episode: "Our American Heritage: Shadow of a Soldier" |
| 1963 | Ben Casey | Burton Strang | Episode: "Rage Against the Dying Light" |
| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | Pat Konke | Episode: "A Killing at Sundial" | |
| 1964 | A Very Close Family | Father | TV movie |
| 1965 | Inherit the Wind | Henry Drummond | Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama |
| 1966 | The Fugitive | Mark Ryder | Episode: "The 2130" |
| Lamp at Midnight | Galileo Galilei | TV movie | |
| 1967 | CBS Playhouse | Peter Schermann | Episode: "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama |
| The Crucible | Governor Danforth | TV movie | |
| 1968 | Companions in Nightmare | Dr. Lawrence Strelson | TV movie |
| 1970 | The Choice | TV movie | |
| Hunters Are for Killing | Keller Floran | TV movie | |
| 1971 | Death Takes a Holiday | Judge Earl Chapman | TV movie |
| 1972 | Circle of Fear | Grandpa | Episode: "House of Evil" |
| 1973 | The Going Up of David Lev | Grandfather | TV movie |
| 1974 | The Death Squad | Police Captain Earl Kreski | TV movie |
| Murder or Mercy | Dr. Paul Harelson | TV movie | |
| 1975 | Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin | Miniseries |
| 1977 | ABC Weekend Special | Grandpa Doc | Episode: "Portrait of Grandpa Doc" |
Source: Internet Movie Database[17]
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Philip Morris Playhouse | No Time for Comedy[18] |
| Take a Letter, Darling[19] |
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