Raymond Walburn

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Raymond Walburn (born September 9, 1887 in Plymouth , Indiana , † July 26, 1969 in New York City ) was an American actor.

life and career

Raymond Walburn was born to an actress and moved with his mother to Oakland , California after their parents divorced . There he made his acting debut in a production of Macbeth at the age of 18 . He soon made a name for himself as a comedy actor and performed for several years in San Francisco , where he survived the earthquake of 1906 . In the 1910s and 1920s, Walburn worked several times on Broadway , including in the world premiere of Arthur Richman's play The Awful Truth, which was filmed several times, or in the lead role of the successful comedies The Show Off and Freddy . His career was interrupted by a deployment in the First World War .

Walburn made his cinema debut in a short film as early as 1916 , but his film appearances remained in short supply during the silent film era. It was not until 1934 that Walburn turned his main focus on the film business and that same year played The Riddle of Monte Christo (1934) alongside Robert Donat . Walburn established himself as a successful character actor of mostly self-important minor characters who did not always take the truth seriously. In the 1936 classic film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town , he played Gary Cooper's loyal butler . He had some of his best-known roles in screwball comedies , such as the father of Myrna Loy in Third Finger, Left Hand (1940), as the eccentric owner of a coffee company in Christmas in July (1940) and as the inflated mayor in Heil the Victorious Hero (1944 ). He was used in several films by the star directors Frank Capra and Preston Sturges . Walburn also turned regularly outside of the comedy genre, for example, he played a captain in the film musical Born to Dance (1936) and a judge in the John Wayne Western Black Command (1940).

Usually used in substantial supporting roles, Walburn received a rare leading role from 1949 in the four-part "Henry" film series by the B-movie studio Monogram Pictures . His close friend Walter Catlett played at his side . In 1955, Walburn made his last film With Brute Force , in which he starred alongside Anne Baxter and Jeff Chandler . In the same year his wife Getrude, with whom he had been married since 1923 and had one child, died. After the death of his wife, he initially retired into private life, but then completed a few appearances on US television and also made a comeback on Broadway . Between 1962 and 1964, Walburn played the role of Erronius, which was played in the film adaptation of Buster Keaton , in the world premiere of Stephen Sondheim's world hit Toll, the old Romans ( A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ) . When he died in 1969 at the age of 81, he left behind his second wife, Jane Davis.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Raymond Walburn at Allmovie
personal data
SURNAME Walburn, Raymond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Plymouth , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1969
Place of death New York City