Donald Meek

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Donald Meek (born July 14, 1878 in Glasgow , Scotland , † November 18, 1946 in Woodland Hills , California ) was a Scottish-American film and stage actor. The unmistakable supporting actor was best known for his often nervous and fearful characters in numerous films.

Life

Donald Meek was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1878, where he also spent his childhood. At the age of eight he made his debut at the “Royal Theater” there. As a theater actor, he has toured as far as Australia , including playing in Sir Henry Irving's theater group . He finally came to Canada with an acrobatic troupe . From 1894 he was based in the USA. In 1898 Meek took part in the Spanish-American War for the USA , where he permanently lost a large part of his hair due to a yellow fever illness. Therefore, he had to take on character roles from an early age. As a stage performer, Meek had a now largely forgotten but respectable career in the United States for 35 years. He played in numerous plays on Broadway during the 1920s . Like many other theater actors, he moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s after the rise of the talkie , where actors with speaking experience were sought.

With his age of over 50 years and his small, slender stature as well as his bald head, Meek could not take on any leading roles, but quickly made a career as a prominent supporting actor. His "character head" became his trademark. He mostly embodied "mouse-gray, lively-quarrelsome, cowardly or fearful-bustling official figures, sometimes funny, sometimes vicious", as Kay Less put it. In 1938 and 1939 he played in some of his still best-known films: In John Ford's Western Ringo ( Stagecoach ), he played the fearful, inconspicuous liquor representative Samuel Peacock; in another Western classics, Jesse James, husband without law of Henry King , he played the other hand, a villainous railroad manager that bounty on the James brothers exposes, in Young Mr. Lincoln ( Young Mr. Lincoln ) by John Ford the Prosecutor John Felder, and finally he portrayed Mr. Poppins, inventor of toys and party masks, in Frank Capra's film Life Artist .

Donald Meek died in 1946 at the age of 68, and to the end he had appeared in almost 130 films. His last films were only released posthumously. Meek received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1752 Vine Street) in honor of his filmmaking .

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 368 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meek, Donald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish-American film and stage actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1946
Place of death Woodland Hills , California