Walter Brennan

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Walter Brennan (born July 25, 1894 in Swampscott , Massachusetts , † September 21, 1974 in Oxnard , California ) was an American actor and singer . He won the Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in 1937 , 1939 and 1941 . As a result, he is the only male actor, alongside Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis , to have received an Oscar three times. In his roles, Brennan was regularly used as a "curious age" from a young age.

Life

Film career

Walter Brennan, who had already discovered at school his interest in acting and starred there in school plays, worked prior to his military service, which he began in 1917, in insignificant musical - comedy with. After the First World War he went to Hollywood and worked there - initially in silent films - as an extra and stuntman . It was only after a few years that he received minor speaking parts, in which he could prove himself and finally become a respected supporting actor in the mid-1930s. In 1936 he received the first Oscar for best supporting role in the film Take What You Can Get . In it, he played a man whose old, wealthy friend is interested in his significantly younger daughter. Brennan got his second gold statue for the 1938 film The Golden Whip : He played a bitter old southerner who is confronted with the descendant of the man who once killed his father. He received his third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance as the self-proclaimed "judge" Roy Bean in the film The Westerner alongside Gary Cooper . This makes him the only actor to date to receive three Oscars for best supporting role.

His other famous films heard his appearance as a sidekick of Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not also his roles in the Howard Hawks -Western panic at Red River and Rio Bravo . In both films he was seen as a rough but good-natured friend of John Wayne's character. Because Brennan had broken his jaw in an accident and one of his legs has been stiff since then, the character actor often took on the role of the weird old man who played the "comic component" in the films. Often his characters were significantly older than himself, so he portrayed an 80-year-old man in Die Goldene Leitsche at the age of 44 and received his second Oscar for this transformation. Only occasionally did he play really malicious roles, for example as a murderous river pirate in the western epic That Was the Wild West (1962).

Although he originally had an aversion to television, Brennan began a career as a television actor in the late 1950s; He had his best-known role as grandfather in the sitcom series The Real McCoys , which began in October 1957 and from which a total of 224 episodes were filmed by September 1963. This role in the production that was extremely successful at the time gave him great popularity as a leading actor in the USA. In total, Walter Brennan played around 200 roles until his death.

Music career

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Dutchman's Gold
  US 30th 04/18/1960 (12 weeks)
Old Rivers
  US 5 04/07/1962 (11 weeks)
Houdini
  US 100 08/04/1962 (1 week)
Mama sang a song
  US 38 10/20/1962 (8 weeks)

In the early 1960s, Brennan also tried his hand at singing. In April 1960, he released his first single , Dutchman's Gold and Back to the Farm, on the Dot Records label . With Dutchman's Gold , Brennan immediately got into the Hot 100 of the music magazine Billbord , where he rose to number 30. A total of three singles were produced at Dot by 1962, plus the long-playing record Dutchman's Gold . From 1962 to 1963 Brennan was under contract with the record company Liberty Records , where he released five singles and six long-playing records . The Liberty period became his most successful years in the record business, in which he placed another three tracks in the single charts (Old Rivers, Houdini and Mama Sang a Song) and with the album Old Rivers also in the LP charts (No. 38 ) came. The single version of Old Rivers was Brennan's greatest record success, the title rose to number five on the Billboard Hot 100. After a long break from the record scene, two singles came out again in 1970 and 1971 with the record companies London Records and Kapp Records .

Private life

Walter Brennan died of emphysema in 1974 at the age of 80 . From 1920 until his death he was married to Ruth Wells (1897-1997). They had three children.

Filmography (selection)

Grave of Walter Brennan and his wife at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery (2014)

US discography

Vinlyl Singles
(Title - Label - Released)

  • Dutchman's Gold / Back to the Farm
    Dot 16066 - 3/1960
  • Space Mice / The Thievin 'Stranger
    Dot 16136 - 9/1960
  • Tribute to a Dog / Life Gits Tee-Jus, Don't It?
    Dot 16348 - 3/1962
  • Noah's Arc (Part 1) / Noah's Arc (Part 2)
    Everest 19365 - 6/1960
  • Knight in Bright Armor / The Soul O 'Big Jack Dunn
    RPC 502 - 5/1961
  • Old Rivers / The Epic Ride of John H. Glenn
    Liberty 55436 - 3/1962
  • Houdini / The Old Kelly Place
    Liberty 55477 - 7/1962
  • Mama Sang a Song / Who Will Take Gramma
    Liberty 55508 - 10/1962
  • Henry Had a Merry Christmas / White Christmas
    Liberty 55518 - 11/1962
  • Keep A Movin 'Old Man / Waiting for a Train
    Liberty 55617 - 8/1963
  • Yesterday, When I Was Young / Time
    London 141 - 10/1970
  • Grandad / Man Needs to Know
    Kapp 2126 - 1971

Vinlyl long-playing records
(title - label - released)

  • Dutchman's Gold - Dot 25309 - 1960
  • The President - Everest 5123 - 1960
  • By the Fireside - RPC 106-1960
  • Old Rivers - Liberty 3233 - 1962
  • A World of Miracles - Liberty 3244 - 1962
  • 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - Liberty 3257 - 1962
  • Mama Sang a Song - Liberty 3266 - 1962
  • Talkin 'from the Heart - Liberty 3317 - 1963
  • Gunfight At the OK Corral - Liberty 3372 - 1963
  • Country Heart of Walter Brennan - Sunset 1100 - 1966
  • He's Your Uncle! Not Your Dad ... - Key 1080 - 1967

Awards

Web links

Commons : Walter Brennan  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oscar winners ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Martingoehring.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.martingoehring.de
  2. ↑ Charts US
personal data
SURNAME Brennan, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Swampscott , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1974
Place of death Oxnard , California