Louis Jean Heydt

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Louis Jean Heydt (born April 17, 1903 in Montclair , New Jersey , † January 29, 1960 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American actor. Between 1933 and 1960 Heydt made almost 170 film and television appearances, mostly in small to medium supporting roles.

life and career

Louis Jean Heydt was born as the son of the German emigrants George Frederick Heydt and Emma Foerster. His father worked as a jeweler and as a secretary for Louis Comfort Tiffany . Louis Jean Heydt completed his schooling at Worcester Academy and then at Dartmouth College . He first worked as a journalist for the New York World before he began working as an actor in 1927: the reporter attended the rehearsal of the Broadway play The Trial of Mary Dugan , in which an acquaintance of his played a role. Heydt was discovered by the theater producers and from September 1927 played a reporter in the play. In 1928 he married the actress Leona Maricle (1905-1988), who also had a role in The Trial of Mary Dungan . After this play he played regularly on Broadway in the following years and had, among other things, the leading role in Preston Sturges comedy Strictly Dishonorable between 1929 and 1931 . In 1933 he made his film debut alongside Leo Carrillo in the detective film Before Morning , but immediately returned to the theater after this film.

It wasn't until 1937 that he made his second film with a role as a somewhat shy doctor in No Place for Parents . In the following decades Heydt had almost 170 film and television appearances, mostly in smaller supporting roles, but occasionally also in larger roles. The blond-haired character actor was considered to be very versatile in his roles, but tended to embody insecure, fearful or unlucky "average guys". Over the course of his film career, he starred in classic films such as Gone With the Wind (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Schlagende Wetter (1941) and A New Star in the Sky (1954). A renewed collaboration with Preston Sturges came about for Heydt when he impersonated a suicidal bank teller who cheated on his bank in his political satire The Great McGinty . Many of Heydt's film characters died a violent death, including his blackmailer in the film noir Dead Sleeping Firmly (1946) alongside Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall . In the 1950s, Heydt rarely made major films; instead, he often took on supporting roles in B-Westerns and guest roles on television.

In addition to his film work, he continued to work as a stage actor, including on Broadway in the 1940s in two plays. On January 29, 1960, the 56-year-old actor was starring alongside Jane Fonda in There Was a Little Girl when he suffered a heart attack and passed away after his first scene. He was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale . At his death he was married to Donna Harnor.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Louis Jean Heydt at Matinee-Classics ( Memento from July 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Louis Jean Heydt at Find A Grave
personal data
SURNAME Heydt, Louis Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Montclair , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1960
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts