Leon Ames

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leon Ames (born January 20, 1902 in Portland , Indiana as Leon Waycoff , † October 12, 1993 in Laguna Beach , California ) was an American actor who was best known for his portrayals of family men . Between 1931 and 1986 he played in over 150 film and television productions.

life and career

Leon Ames was born in 1902 as the son of Russian immigrants in a small town in the US state of Indiana . Under his maiden name Leon Waycoff , he also appeared in some of his early films before changing the name to Leon Ames in 1935. He wanted to be an actor from an early age and as a young man joined various theater companies touring across America. All in all, however, he initially had only mixed success, at times he even had to earn his living as a shoe shine. Ames made his first film appearance in 1931 when he played a supporting role alongside Spencer Tracy in Rowland Brown's crime film Quick Millions . In the years that followed, Ames played various leading and supporting roles in many B-movies. He probably had the most famous appearance of this kind in 1932 in the horror film Murder on Rue Morgue , where he has to free his lover from the hands of the murderous Bela Lugosi as a hero .

In 1933 Ames first appeared on New York's Broadway with the comedy It Pays to Sin . In total, he was to appear in around a dozen Broadway productions by 1958, including comedies such as Bright Honor and The Male Animal . In Hollywood, Ames was often limited to unfriendly supporting roles in the 1930s and early 1940s. The resounding success came for Ames only in 1944 with Vincente Minnelli's musical film Meet Me in St. Louis , in which he played the father of Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien . As a result, Ames was mostly cast as the somewhat stiff, conservative head of the family, who ultimately showed himself to be understanding and kind. He played this type of father's role in films such as Kleine brave Jo ( Little Women , 1949) and the television series Life With Father and Father of the Bride . In the 1960s he played alongside Alan Young as Colonel Gordon Kirkwood in the television series Mr. Ed . He starred alongside Fred MacMurray as President Daggett in the Disney comedies The Flying Drummer and The Drummer Can't Quit .

Leon Ames was one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933 . He was a member of the board of directors for over 30 years, and between 1957 and 1958 he even served as president of the union. In the 1960s he owned four car rental companies in the Los Angeles area, which he later sold at an advanced age. Despite this considerable source of income, Ames worked as an actor well into old age. In the war film Torah! Torah! Torah! In 1970 he played the US Secretary of the Navy, John Knox , and two years later he portrayed a general in Peter Ustinov's black comedy Hammersmith is out alongside Richard Burton . His last role was in 1986 in Francis Ford Coppola's feature film Peggy Sue got married as the grandfather of Leading actress Kathleen Turner .

While filming, he met his wife Christine Gossett (1912-2005), who was just recently hired as a young actress at 20th Century Fox . They married in 1938 and were married for over 55 years until his death. They had two children. Leon Ames died in 1993 at the age of 91 after a stroke .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in the New York Times
  2. ^ Leon Ames at the Internet Broadway Database
  3. ↑ Leon Ames at the New York Times
  4. ^ IMDb Trivia on Leon Ames
  5. ↑ Christine Gossett at the Internet Movie Database
  6. ^ Obituary in the New York Times
personal data
SURNAME Ames, Leon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Waycoff, Leon (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland, Indiana , USA
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 1993
Place of death Laguna Beach , California