Charles Coburn

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Charles Douville Coburn (born June 17, 1877 in Savannah , Georgia , † August 30, 1961 in New York City ) was an American actor . For his appearance in Always More, Always Happy , he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1944 .

life and career

Charles Coburn began doing smaller jobs in a local theater as a teenager. At the age of 17 he was manager of a theater in Savannah before he later switched to the stage as an actor. From 1901 he appeared regularly on Broadway . In 1906 he married the actress Ivah Wills, with whom he had founded his own theater company The Coburn Players the year before . In addition to his acting career, Coburn also appeared as a theater producer and director on Broadway from the late 1910s. After his wife Ivah passed away in 1937, 60-year-old Coburn turned to the Hollywood film industry . Up to this point he had only tried his hand at being a cinema actor in two films.

Coburn's first film under his new studio contract in Hollywood was Of Human Hearts (1938), where he played the supporting role of a doctor. Coburn made a big impression in 1941 in Mary and the Millionaire next to Jean Arthur , where he wants to get to know the life of his simple employees in the role of a much-hated millionaire. This role earned him a first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor . He quickly established himself as the actor of lovable, mostly wealthy men. Coburn finally received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor again in 1944 for the role of a millionaire at the side of Jean Arthur: In the comedy Always More, Always Happy, he rented Jean Arthur's apartment, rented his room to Joel McCrea and wanted it bring both young people together. Three years later he was nominated again for an Oscar in the same category for the role of a kind-hearted great-grandfather in The Legacy (1946). Other comedic roles were the impostor Colonel Harrington in Preston Sturges ' Die Falschspielerin (1941) and the grandfather of Don Ameche in Ernst Lubitsch's A Heavenly Sinner (1943).

A constant trademark of Coburn were the monocle and cigar , which he carried with him in numerous films. Coburn not only starred in comedies, but also in more serious films, for example as a lawyer in Alfred Hitchcock's court film The Paradin Case . In the 1942 film Kings Row , Coburn played a malicious surgeon who amputated Ronald Reagan 's leg for no reason after he slept with his daughter. In the early 1950s he starred twice alongside Marilyn Monroe : in Darling, I'm Getting Younger (1952) and Blondes Preferred (1953), both directed by Howard Hawks . In particular, his appearance as an old millionaire in blondes , who fell for the charming Marilyn Monroe and finally embarrassed himself in a court case because of her, was remembered. From the 1950s, Coburn was also seen as a guest actor in a number of television series. Although his appearances in film and television became less frequent in the late 1950s, Coburn remained active almost until his death - the last television role he played in the year he died.

In 1959, the now 82-year-old Coburn married Winifried Natzka, who was half his age. The two had a child in 1960, and Coburn also had six children from his previous marriage. But the following year Charles Coburn died of a heart attack at the age of 84 .

Filmography (selection)

Awards

  • 1942: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Mary and the Millionaire
  • 1944: Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Always More, Always Happy
  • 1947: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Legacy
  • 1960: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6268 Hollywood Blvd.)

Web links

Commons : Charles Coburn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography of Charles Coburn
personal data
SURNAME Coburn, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coburn, Charles Douville
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Savannah (Georgia)
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1961
Place of death New York City