Charles Coburn
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- born: 19/Jun/1877 (Savannah, Georgia, USA)
- died: 30/Aug/1961 (New York, New York, USA) - heart attack
Biography
Charles Douville Coburn was an Oscar-winning American film and theater actor.
He was born in Savannah, Georgia and was an only child. He married two times. His first wife was Ivah Wills Coburn, an American actress and theatrical producer. In 1959, Coburn married Winifred Natzka, who was forty-one years his junior and the former wife of Oscar Natzka, an opera singer.
Coburn was a theater manager by the age of 17. He later moved on to acting and made his debut on Broadway in 1901. Coburn formed an acting company with his wife Ivah in 1906. In addition to managing the company, the couple performed frequently on Broadway. After his wife's death in 1937, Coburn relocated to Los Angeles, California and began acting in films.
He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "The More the Merrier" in 1943. He was also nominated for "The Devil and Miss Jones" in 1941 and "The Green Years" in 1946. Coburn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard.
His other film credits include Of "Human Hearts" (1938), "The Lady Eve" (1941), "Kings Row" (1942), "The Constant Nymph" (1943), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), "Wilson" (1944), "Impact" (1949), "The Paradine Case" (1947), "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "John Paul Jones" (1959).
In the 1940s, Coburn served as vice-president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a right-wing group opposed to Communists in Hollywood. His leadership of the Hollywood blacklist of anyone with any connection to Communism, supported by such luminaries as John Wayne, Hedda Hopper, Adolphe Menjou, Ward Bond, Robert Taylor, Ronald Reagan and Ginger Rogers, to name a few, led to a myriad of talented actors, writers and directors being driven out of Hollywood and deprived of their livelihood.
He died from a heart attack on August 30, 1961 in New York, New York, aged 84.
Filmography
With Hitchcock...
- The Paradine Case (1947) - cast: Sir Simon Flaquer