Henry Wilcoxon

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Henry Wilcoxon (* 8. September 1905 on Dominica as Harry Frederick Wilcoxon ; † 6. March 1984 in Los Angeles , California ) was a British actor and film producer . He gained international fame primarily through his collaboration with Cecil B. DeMille , who frequently cast him as an actor and as whose co-producer he also worked on a number of films.

Life

Henry Wilcoxon was born in Dominica to a British bank president . When his mother died shortly after his birth, the father sent his children to England to live with foster parents, the relatives refused to take them in. In his autobiography Lionheart in Hollywood , Wilcoxon describes how he and his older brother were mistreated, disadvantaged and locked in the attic by their foster parents for a long time. When the abuse was exposed, the brothers were placed in an orphanage and later with a good foster family before the father and his second wife returned to England from India and took the children back to himself. After that, they lived in Barbados . For the brothers, however, the relationship with their father and the second wife is now difficult. The father sent 13-year-old Henry to a school in Kent , England , where he completed the rest of his schooling.

After briefly working in a tailor's shop, Wilcoxon turned to acting. In the 1920s he was best known for a number of successful plays in English theaters. Wilcoxon made his film debut in 1931 with the male lead in the British comedy film The Perfect Lady . His appearances in British theater and film have also attracted the attention of Paramount Pictures film agents who brought him to Hollywood. His first role in Hollywood was in Cecil B. DeMille's film Cleopatra as Antony alongside Claudette Colbert . A year later he took the lead role in Crusaders - Richard the Lionheart with Loretta Young as Berengaria of Navarre . Despite a large budget for the time , the film was a financial flop. If successful, Wilcoxon would have risen to the top ranks of Hollywood stars, but he remained a leading actor in smaller films, usually only in supporting roles in large-scale productions such as Lord Nelson's Last Love (1941) or Mrs. Miniver (1942) was occupied. Wilcoxon was primarily committed to noble and venerable characters, such as the vicar in Mrs. Miniver and the sequel The Miniver Story .

Despite the failure of the Richard the Lionheart film, Henry Wilcoxon and Cecil B. DeMille continued their collaboration. From the 1940s he played in all of DeMille's films until his death in 1959. Wilcoxon was seen in his films Samson and Delilah , The Greatest Show in the World and The Ten Commandments . In the 1950s, the collaboration between the two became so close that Wilcoxon also acted as co-producer on the last DeMille films. In the 1960s he was often active as a film producer, but as an actor he only worked sporadically. One of his last roles was the golfing bishop in the 1980 comedy Madness Without a Handicap .

Henry Wilcoxon was married twice; with the British actresses Heather Angel (1909-1986) and Joan Woodbury (1915-1989). The second marriage had three children. Wilcoxon died in 1984 at the age of 78 years at a cancer .

Award

Henry Wilcoxon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Henry Wilcoxon and Katherine Orrison: Lionheart in Hollywood. Scarecrow Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-8108-2476-0 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wilcoxon, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilcoxin, Harry; Wilcoxon, Harry; Wilcoxon, Harry Frederick (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Dominica
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1984
Place of death Los Angeles , California , USA