Edmund Gwenn as Dr. Harold Medford
There are very few character actors from the 1930s, '40s or '50s who rose to the rank of stardom. Only a rare man or woman reached the level of renown and admiration, and had enough audience appeal, to be the first name in a cast's billing, a name that got marquee posting. However, one who made it was Edmund Gwenn.
Gwenn was born Edmund Kellaway in Wandsworth, London, on September 26, 1877. He developed a strong inclination to the stage, partly because of his admiration for the great English actor, Henry Irving.
In 1895, at the age of eighteen, he made his first appearance on the English stage with a group of amateurs just turned professional, playing two roles, Dodo Twinkle and Damper, in "Rogue and Vagabond." He went to Australia and acted there for three years, not returning to London until 1904.
There he took a small part in "In the Hospital," which led to his receiving a postcard from George Bernard Shaw, offering him a leading role as Straker, the Cockney chauffeur, in "Man and Superman." Gwenn accepted and the play was a success. Shaw became a sort of professional godfather for him.
His first appearance on screen was in a British short, The Real Thing at Last (1916) in 1916, while he was still in the army. His next film roles were in Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband (1931) and J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions (1933).
He was also in Unmarried (1920) in 1920 and a silent version of "The Skin Game" (The Skin Game (1921)) as Hornblower, a role he would reprise in 1931 for a talking version (The Skin Game (1931)) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. From then on Gwenn was to work steadily until the end of his life.
He appeared in English stage plays and films, eventually doing more and more on Broadway and in Hollywood. For example, he played the amiable counterfeiter in "Laburnum Grove" in 1933 (later to become the film Laburnum Grove (1936) in which he would star) and then with the entire British company brought it to New York.
He was also a huge success in "The Wookey" in 1942, playing a Cockney tugboat captain. That same year he appeared as Chebutykin in Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters", with Katharine Cornell, Ruth Gordon and Judith Anderson. In such illustrious company Gwenn was hailed by critics as "magnificent" and "superlatively good."
In 1935 RKO summoned him to Hollywood to portray Katharine Hepburn's father in Sylvia Scarlett (1935). From then on he was much in demand, appearing in Anthony Adverse (1936), All American Chump (1936), Parnell (1937), and A Yank at Oxford (1938).
In 1940 he was the delightful Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1940), then made a 180-degree turn by playing a folksy assassin in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). The year 1941 brought Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941), One Night in Lisbon (1941), The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and Scotland Yard (1941).
Then came Charley's Aunt (1941) in which he romanced Jack Benny, masquerading as a woman. Other important films included A Yank at Eton (1942), The Meanest Man in the World (1943), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) and Between Two Worlds (1944).
In 1945 he played villain Albert Richard Kingby in Dangerous Partners (1945). There is a peculiar scene in this film, which makes one wonder what director Edward L. Cahn was thinking. James Craig and Signe Hasso, the hero and heroine, are being held by the villainous Gwenn in a room, when Gwenn comes in to interrogate them.
After "Dangerous Partners" Gwenn was in Bewitched (1945), She Went to the Races (1945), Of Human Bondage (1946), Undercurrent (1946), Life with Father (1947), Green Dolphin Street (1947) and Apartment for Peggy (1948). In Thunder in the Valley (1947) he played one of his most unlikable characters, a father who beats his son, smashes his violin and shoots his dog.
Then in 1947, he struck it rich. Twentieth Century-Fox was planning Miracle on 34th Street (1947). It had offered the role of Kris Kringle to Gwenn's cousin, the well-known character actor 'Cecil Kellaway', but he had turned it down with the observation that "Americans don't like whimsy."
Fox then offered it to Gwenn, who pounced on it. His performance was to earn him an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor (at age 71) and, because it is rerun every Christmas season, he would become for many their all-time favorite screen Santa.
Accepting the award, Gwenn said, "Now I know there is a Santa Claus." He beat out some stiff competition: Charles Bickford (The Farmer's Daughter (1947)), Thomas Gomez (Ride the Pink Horse (1947)), Robert Ryan (Crossfire (1947)) and Richard Widmark (Kiss of Death (1947)).
He was also delightful in Mister 880 (1950) as a kindly counterfeiter. Gwenn received his second Oscar nomination for his performance, though this time he lost out to George Sanders in All About Eve (1950) He did, however, win the Golden Globe Award.
In 1952 he appeared in Sally and Saint Anne (1952) as Grandpa Patrick Ryan, affecting an Irish brogue for the role. He played football coach Pop Doyle, teamed up with a chimpanzee, in Bonzo Goes to College (1952). "The Student Prince" followed in 1954, as did the science-fiction classic Them! (1954).
The next year Gwenn was in It's a Dog's Life (1955) and The Trouble with Harry (1955). He had already co-starred with Pal as Lassie in Lassie Come Home (1943), The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991) and Challenge to Lassie (1949).
"Harry" was Gwenn's fourth picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the others being "The Skin Game," Strauss' Great Waltz (1934) and "Foreign Correspondent". Gwenn's last feature film was The Rocket from Calabuch (1956), shot in Spain and released in 1958 when he was 81.
As for TV, his most memorable role may have been as a snowman that comes to life in a Christmas night telecast on "The Ford Television Theatre" (1952) from a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Heart of Gold." Gwenn's final days were spent at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California which he died at age 81 on September 6, 1959.
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