John Cromwell

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Cromwell , actually Elwood Dager Cromwell , (born December 23, 1887 in Toledo , Ohio , † November 26, 1979 in Santa Barbara , California ) was an American actor and director .

Career

Young John Cromwell (seated) alongside Alice Brady in a theater production of Little Women (1912)

John Cromwell came from a wealthy family in the iron and steel business. After attending Howe Military Academy, he turned to acting and made his Broadway debut in a theater production of the novel Little Women in 1912 . He was also briefly as a soldier for the US Army in the First World War .

After around twenty years as a stage actor, director and producer, John Cromwell came to Hollywood in 1928 , where he was initially under contract with Paramount . After appearing alongside Ruth Chatterton in The Dummy , he switched to directing and behind the camera in the same year in 1929. Already with the first strips, two musicals with Nancy Carroll , he demonstrated his ability to stage even shallow subjects in a gripping and effective way and at the same time to get good performances from the actors. With Street of Chance , a drama from 1930 about a professional player who dies out of love for a woman, he turned the two contract actors William Powell and Kay Francis into a popular screen duo that shot a total of six films together. Cromwell had a lifelong friendship with the producer of the film, David O. Selznick , which would lead to some successful films together. With the move from Selznick to RKO , Cromwell also went to the newly founded studio, where he quickly rose to become one of the most prominent women directors , who led top female stars such as Irene Dunne in The Silver Cord and Ann Vickers as well as Ann Harding in Double Harness to above-average performances . However, with Spitfire he also turned the biggest failure in Katharine Hepburn's career, which was certainly not poor in flops . Also in 1934 he gave Bette Davis her breakthrough as a serious actress in Of Human Bondage, and the fact that Davis was not nominated for an Oscar caused a sensation.

Cromwell followed the path of Selznick again when he started his own business as an independent producer in 1936. With The Little Lord and The Prisoner of Zenda , Cromwell gave the new studio Selznick International Pictures two much-needed hits. The elegant staging of The Prisoner of Zenda about a mistaken Crown Prince benefited from the good performances of Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll , as well as the camera work by James Wong Howe . In the following year, Cromwell was responsible for Hedy Lamarr's highly acclaimed American debut in Algiers , a stylish remake of the French film Pépé le Moko - In the Dark of Algiers . Charles Boyer played a criminal who hides in the Kashba of Algiers and is lured out of his hiding place by his love for the mysterious Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr, whose acting talent was considered to be below average, nevertheless became a sensation practically overnight and the brunette became the fashion color of the late thirties.

In 1939 Cromwell made two films with Carole Lombard , who, after rising to become a highly paid comedian, had the desire to take on serious roles. While Made For Each Other , the sentimental story about an idealistic pair of lovers who lack the money for their sick child's medication, was a financial failure for producer David O. Selznick and Lombard, the collaboration on In Name Only proved to be an unqualified success. The melodrama depicts the almost tragic love story between Cary Grant , who is unhappily married to Kay Francis, and Lombard, a newly divorced mother and freelance artist. Francis, in particular, as an ice-cold wife, who only married Grant out of calculation and consciously refused to divorce him, was an excellent representation. Cromwell reached his artistic peak in the mid-1940s. Together with Selznick he created Since You Went Away in 1944, the ultimate film about the American home front . Claudette Colbert said goodbye to the role of the naive for a salary of US $ 250,000 and three days off extra paid vacation a month and played the mother of Shirley Temple and Jennifer Jones . While producer Selznick was constantly arguing with Colbert and upset about her obesession with only holding the left side of her face in front of the camera, Cromwell got along very well with her and rather had problems with the still very inexperienced Jones, who was Selznick's lover at the time . The film cost a fortune at $ 3.5 million and grossed over $ 5 million an even bigger one. In 1946, Cromwell led Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison to a deserved artistic and financial triumph in Anna and the King of Siam . The story of an English governess at the court of the King of Siam was based partly on facts and the description of the more or less unspoken relationship between the two protagonists is told with great tact and skill. A little later, the sentimental story The Enchanted Cottage about two defaced people who experience themselves as beautiful when they are alone in their little hut, filled the cinemas.

The 1947 film Night Song was a failure and the role of Merle Oberon as the rich, aimless heiress who also pretends to be blind out of love for a blind pianist resulted in a box office loss of over a million US dollars. He got the early 1950s by communism allegations during the McCarthy era to the black list , from 1952 to 1957 he was able to turn any other film. Between 1944 and 1946, Cromwell had served as president of the Directors Guild of America . His last film before it was blacklisted was the 1951 noir flick The Racket, starring Robert Mitchum in the lead role of a die-hard cop. Cromwell turned back to acting at times, for his appearance in the play Point of No Return on Broadway he was awarded the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1952 . From the end of the 1950s, Cromwell worked as a film director again, but he had already passed the zenith of his career. In 1961 he made his last film A Matter of Morals with Maj-Britt Nilsson in the lead role.

John Cromwell has directed successful films in a variety of genres over the course of his career, but most of the time he produced romances and melodramas. He attached great importance to dialogue and was therefore able to fill even rather boring scripts with life. The very old John Cromwell ended his career with two appearances as an actor in films by Robert Altman : In 1977 he played the father of Sissy Spacek in 3 Women , in A Wedding the following year he was seen as a bishop.

Private life

He was married to Alice Lindahl until her death in 1918, and to Marie Goff from 1919 until the divorce in 1921. In 1928 he married actress Kay Johnson , with whom he had two children, including well-known actor James Cromwell . The marriage ended in divorce in 1946. He was married to actress Ruth Nelson until his death . In September 1979, John Cromwell died of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 91 .

A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to John Cromwell for his film career .

Filmography

As a director

As an actor

  • 1929: A dummy
  • 1929: Artists (The Dance of Life)
  • 1929: The Mighty
  • 1930: Street of Chance
  • 1930: For the Defense
  • 1933: Ann Vickers
  • 1940: Abe Lincoln in Illinois
  • 1951: Released on Parole (The Company She Keeps)
  • 1954: Producers' Showcase (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1955: Kraft Televison Theater (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1956: Studio One (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1957: Charming and cute - but a beast (Top Secret Affair)
  • 1977: 3 women  (3 Women)
  • 1978: The Wedding (A Wedding)

Web links

Commons : John Cromwell  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Cromwell, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cromwell, Elwood Dager (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Toledo , Ohio , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1979
Place of death Santa Barbara , California , United States