Berton Churchill

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Berton Churchill (born December 9, 1876 in Toronto , Canada , † October 10, 1940 in New York , United States ) was a Canadian actor .

Life

Berton Churchill was an amateur theater actor from an early age, but initially worked as a newspaper editor. In contrast to many of his later film characters, Churchill was involved in the journalists' union. After moving to professional acting, he was also one of the earliest members of the Actors' Equity Association , the union for theater actors. The character actor was seen in around 20 plays on Broadway between 1909 and 1931. Berton Churchill usually appeared under his maiden name, but occasionally also as Burton Churchill .

After his first silent film role in 1919, Churchill was only seen sporadically in films. With the start of talkies in the early 1930s, the powerful-voiced Churchill, like many other “language-savvy” theater actors, was recruited from Broadway to Hollywood . In the following decade, Churchill was involved in over 100 films until his death, mostly in supporting roles as the actor of strict and self-important, and sometimes villainous, authority figures. One of his best-known roles is the portrayal of the fraudulent banker Henry Gatewood in the western classic Ringo by John Ford from 1939. When he died at the age of 64 from urine poisoning , he was preparing for a new role in the theater in New York. He was survived by his wife Harriet Gardner and a daughter and buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Churchill, Berton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Churchill, Burton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto , Canada
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1940
Place of death New York , United States