Louis Calhern
Actor
Born February 18, 1895 in Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA
Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. For portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film The Magnificent Yankee (1950), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s; the most notable being The Blot in 1921. A 1921 newspaper article commented, "The new arrival in stardom is Louis Calhern, who, until Miss Weber engaged him to enact the leading male role in What's Worth While?, had been playing leads in the Morosco Stock company of Los Angeles." In 1923 Calhern left the movies, but would return to the screen eight years later after the advent of sound pictures. He was primarily cast as a character actor in films while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. He reached his peak in the 1950s as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Among his many memorable screen roles were Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup (1933) and three that he appeared in at MGM in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's film noir The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated performance as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his role from the Broadway stage). He was also praised for his portrayal of the title role in the John Houseman production of Julius Caesar (adapted from the Shakespeare play) in 1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Calhern also played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation in the 1954 production of Executive Suite.
Filmography
Becoming Marilyn
(archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
High Society
Uncle Willie
Forever, Darling
Charles Y. Bewell
The Prodigal
Nahreeb
Blackboard Jungle
Jim Murdock
Athena
Grandpa Mulvain
Betrayed
Gen. Ten Eyck
The Student Prince
King of Karlsberg
Men of the Fighting Lady
James A. Michener
Executive Suite
George Nyle Caswell
Rhapsody
Nicholas Durant
Main Street to Broadway
Self
Latin Lovers
Grandfather Eduardo Santos
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Remains to Be Seen
Benjamin Goodman
Confidentially Connie
Opie Bedloe
The Bad and the Beautiful
Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)
The Prisoner of Zenda
Col. Zapt
We're Not Married!
Freddie Melrose
Washington Story
Charles W. Birch
Invitation
Simon Bowker
The Man with a Cloak
Charles Theverner
It's a Big Country
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
The Magnificent Yankee
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Two Weeks with Love
Horatio Robinson
A Life of Her Own
Jim Leversoe
Devil's Doorway
Verne Coolan
Annie Get Your Gun
Col. Buffalo Bill Cody
The Asphalt Jungle
Alonzo D. Emmerich
Nancy Goes to Rio
Gregory Elliott
The Red Danube
Colonel Piniev
The Red Pony
Grandfather
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self
Arch of Triumph
Boris Morosov
Notorious
Paul Prescott
Up in Arms
Colonel Ashley
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Don Andre - The Viceroy
Nobody's Darling
Curtis Farnsworth
Heaven Can Wait
Randolph Van Cleve
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
Dr. Brockdorf
I Take This Woman
Dr. Martin Sumner Duveen
Charlie McCarthy, Detective
Arthur Aldrich
Fifth Avenue Girl
Dr. Kessler
Juarez
LeMarc
Fast Company
Elias Z. Bannerman
The Life of Emile Zola
Major Dort
Her Husband Lies
Joe Sorrell
The Gorgeous Hussy
Leroy Sunderland
The Last Days of Pompeii
Prefect Allus Martius
Woman Wanted
Smiley
The Arizonian
Sheriff Jake Mannen
Sweet Adeline
Major Jim Day
The Count of Monte Cristo
De Villefort Jr.
The Affairs of Cellini
Ottaviano
The Man with Two Faces
Stanley Vance
Duck Soup
Ambassador Trentino
Diplomaniacs
Winkelreid
The World Gone Mad
Christopher Bruno
Strictly Personal
Jack Magruder
The Woman Accused
Leo Young
Frisco Jenny
Steve Dutton
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
Joe Finn
Afraid to Talk
Asst. District Attorney John Wade
They Call It Sin
Ford Humphries
Night After Night
Dick Bolton
Okay, America!
Mileaway Russell
Blonde Crazy
'Dapper Dan' Barker
The Road to Singapore
Dr. George March
Stolen Heaven
Steve Perry
The Last Moment
Harry Gaines
The Blot
Phil West
Too Wise Wives
David Graham
What's Worth While?
'Squire' Elton