Louis Calhern

Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. Well known to film noir fans for his role as the pivotal villain in 1950's '' The Asphalt Jungle'', he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film '' The Magnificent Yankee'' later that year.

Early life

Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt in Brooklyn, New York, in 1895, the son of German immigrants Eugene Adolf Vogt and Hubertina Friese Vogt. He had one known sibling, a sister. His father was a tobacco dealer. His family left New York while he was in elementary school and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was raised. While playing high school football, a stage manager from a touring theatrical stock company noticed the tall, handsome youth and hired him as a bit player. Another source states " Grace George hired his entire high school football team as supers for a Shakespearean play." Due to the anti-German sentiment during World War I, he thought it wise to change his Teutonic given name. His stage name is an amalgam of his hometown of St. Louis and his first and middle names, Carl and Henry (Calhern).

Stage

Just before World War I, Calhern decided to return to New York to pursue an acting career. He began as a prop boy and bit player with various touring and burlesque companies. He became a matinee idol by virtue of a play titled ''Cobra''.

Calhern's Broadway credits include:

* ''Roger Bloomer'' (1923)
* ''The Song and Dance Man'' (1923–1924)
* ''Cobra'' (1924)
* ''In a Garden'' (1925–1926)
* ''Hedda Gabler'' (1926)
* ''The Woman Disputed'' (1926–1927)
* ''Up the Line'' (1926)
* ''The Dark'' (1927)
* ''Savages Under the Skin'' (1927)
* ''A Distant Drum'' (1928)
* '' Gypsy'' (1929)
* ''The Love Duel'' (1929)
* ''The Rhapsody'' (1930)
* ''The Tyrant'' (1930)
* ''Give Me Yesterday'' (1931)
* ''Brief Moment'' (1931–1932)
* ''The Inside Story'' (1932)
* ''Birthday'' (1934–1935)
* ''Hell Freezes Over'' (1935–1936)
* ''Robin Landing'' (1937)
* ''Summer Night'' (1939)
* ''The Great Big Doorstep'' (1942)
* ''Jacobowsky and the Colonel'' (1944–1945)
* ''The Magnificent Yankee'' (1946)
* ''The Survivors'' (1948)
* ''The Play's the Thing'' (1948)
* ''King Lear'' (1950–1951)
* ''The Wooden Dish'' (1955)

Military service

Calhern's burgeoning career was interrupted by World War I; he served in France in the 143rd Field Artillery of the United States Army.

Film

Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s, the most notable being '' The Blot'' (1921). A 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, deciding to devote his career entirely to the stage, but returned to the screen in the sound era. In films he was primarily cast as a character actor, while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. Among Calhern's notable portrayals were as the partner in crime to Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis in ''20,000 Years in Sing Sing'' (1932), as Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers comedy '' Duck Soup'' (1933), and as the spy boss of Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Notorious'' (1946).

Calhern was acclaimed for three diverse roles that he appeared in at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical '' Annie Get Your Gun''; as a double-crossing lawyer and sugar daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's '' 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 played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation, in the 1954 production of '' Executive Suite'', followed by the role of a jaded, acerbic high school teacher in '' The Blackboard Jungle'' (1955). His performance as lecherous Uncle Willie in '' High Society'' (1956), a musical remake of '' The Philadelphia Story'', was his final film appearance.

Personal life

Calhern battled alcoholism for much of his adult life; as a result, he lost several important screen and stage roles. According to former wife Schafer, Calhern's inability to overcome his addiction ended their marriage. While he was willing to consult doctors, she said Calhern refused to attend Alcoholics Anonymous because he was an atheist and considered AA to be a religious organization. Calhern ultimately overcame his alcohol addiction by the late 1940s.

Death

Calhern died May 12, 1956, at age 61 of a sudden heart attack in Nara, Japan, while there to film '' The Teahouse of the August Moon''.Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. . p. 195

Selected filmography

* '' What's Worth While?'' (1921) as "Squire" Elton
* ''Too Wise Wives'' (1921) as Mr. David Graham
* '' The Blot'' (1921) as The Professor's Pupil as Phil West
* ''Woman, Wake Up'' (1922) as Monte Collins
* ''The Last Moment'' (1923) as Harry Gaines
* '' Stolen Heaven'' (1931) as Steve Perry
* ''The Road to Singapore'' (1931) as Dr. George March
* '' Blonde Crazy'' (1931) as Dapper Dan Barker
* ''Okay, America!'' (1932) as Mileaway Russell
* '' Night After Night'' (1932) as Dick Bolton
* ''They Call It Sin'' (1932) as Ford Humphries
* ''Afraid to Talk'' (1932) as Asst. District Attorney John Wade
* ''20,000 Years in Sing Sing'' (1932) as Joe Finn
* ''Frisco Jenny'' (1932) as Steve Dutton
* ''The Woman Accused'' (1933) as Leo Young
* '' Strictly Personal'' (1933) as Magruder
* ''The World Gone Mad'' (1933) as Christopher Bruno
* ''Diplomaniacs'' (1933) as Winkelreid
* '' Duck Soup'' (1933) as Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania
* ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (1934) as De Villefort Jr.
* '' The Man with Two Faces'' (1934) as Stanley Vance
* '' The Affairs of Cellini'' (1934) as Ottaviano
* '' Sweet Adeline'' (1934) as Major Day
* ''The Arizonian'' (1935) as Sheriff Jake Mannen
* ''Woman Wanted'' (1935) as Smiley
* '' The Last Days of Pompei'' (1935) as Prefect
* ''The Gorgeous Hussy'' (1936) as Sunderland
* '' Her Husband Lies'' (1937) as Joe Sorrell
* ''The Life of Emile Zola'' (1937) as Major Dort
* ''Fast Company'' (1938) as Elias Z. "Eli" Bannerman
* '' Juarez'' (1939) as Le Marc
* '' 5th Ave Girl'' (1939) as Dr. Kessler
* ''Charlie McCarthy, Detective'' (1939) as Arthur Aldrich
* '' I Take This Woman'' (1940) as Dr. Duveen
* ''Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet'' (1940) as Dr. Brockdorf
* '' Heaven Can Wait'' (1943) as Randolph Van Cleve
* ''Nobody's Darling'' (1943) as Curtis Farnsworth
* '' The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' (1944) as Don Andre, The Viceroy
* ''Up in Arms'' (1944) as Colonel Ashley
* '' Notorious'' (1946) as Captain Paul Prescott
* '' Arch of Triumph'' (1948) as "Col." Boris Morosov
* ''The Red Pony'' (1949) as Grandfather
* '' The Red Danube'' (1949) as Colonel Piniev
* ''Nancy Goes to Rio'' (1950) as Gregory Elliott
* '' Annie Get Your Gun'' (1950) as Colonel William "Buffalo Bill" Cody
* '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950) as Alonzo D. Emmerich
* ''A Life of Her Own'' (1950) as Jim Leversoe
* '' Devil's Doorway'' (1950) as Verne Coolan
* '' Two Weeks with Love'' (1950) as Horatio Robinson
* '' The Magnificent Yankee'' (1950) as Oliver Wendell Holmes
* ''It's a Big Country'' (1951) as Narrator
* ''The Man with a Cloak'' (1951) as Charles Francois Thevenet
* ''A Letter from a Soldier'' (1951 short) as Narrator
* '' Invitation'' (1952) as Simon Bowker
* ''Washington Story'' (1952) as Charles W. Birch
* '' We're Not Married!'' (1952) as Frederick C. "Freddie" Melrose
* ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1952) as Col. Zapt
* ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952) as voice of Georgia Lorrison's Father
* ''Confidentially Connie'' (1953) as Opie Bedloe
* ''Julius Caesar'' (1953) as Julius Caesar
* '' Remains to Be Seen'' (1953) as Benjamin Goodman
* '' Latin Lovers'' (1953) as Grandfather Eduardo Santos
* '' Main Street to Broadway'' (1953) as Himself
* '' Executive Suite'' (1954) as George Nyle Caswell
* '' Rhapsody'' (1954) as Nicholas Durant
* '' Men of the Fighting Lady'' (1954) as James A. Michener
* ''The Student Prince'' (1954) as King Ferdinand of Karlsberg
* '' Betrayed'' (1954) as General Ten Eyck
* ''Athena'' (1954) as Grandpa Ulysses Mulvain
* '' The Prodigal'' (1955) as Nahreeb
* ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955) as Jim Murdock
* ''Forever, Darling'' (1956) as Charles Y. Bewell
* '' High Society'' (1956) as Uncle Willie

References

External links

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Wedding photograph of Louis Calhern and Natalie Schafer, Glendale, 1933.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calhern, Louis
1895 births
1956 deaths
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male silent film actors
American people of German descent
Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Male actors from St. Louis
Donaldson Award winners
20th-century American male actors
Male actors from New York City
United States Army personnel of World War I
People from Brooklyn