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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
August 1, 1870
Died
November 2, 1939
Place of Birth
Louisiana, Missouri, USA
Also Known As
- Claude Benton Gillingwater
- Claude Gillingwater Sr.
Claude Gillingwater
2.2 Popularity
Biography
Tall, balding character actor in US films from 1921 until the year he died, usually portraying obstinate or irascible types. A man so disagreeable on celluloid, Claude Gillingwater's characters seemed to subsist on a steady diet of persimmons. Fondly recalled as the cranky old skinflint whose seemingly cold heart could only be warmed by the actions of a cute little tyke, the tall and rangy Gillingwater invariably played much older than he was. He, with the omnipresent bushy brows, crop of silver hair and perpetually sour puss, had a much more versatile career than perhaps realized -- on both stage and in film. Most assuredly, this caustic screen image he perfected belied a softer, gentler off-screen demeanor for he was a kind and sympathetic gent and devoted husband to wife Carlyn Stiletz (or Stellith). Their only child, Claude Gillingwater Jr., briefly became an actor himself. Sadly, Gillingwater Sr.'s thriving character career ended on a grim and tragic note in 1939. A serious accident on the movie set of the picture Florida Special (1936) (he fell from a platform and injured his back) damaged his health and threatened his career, and the death of his long-time wife Carlyn left him irrevocably depressed. Fearing the possibility of becoming an invalid and wishing not to become a serious burden to anyone, the 69-year-old actor committed suicide at his Beverly Hills home with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Gillingwater left a fine Hollywood legacy and the fun of some of his old films is watching his vinegar turn to sugar. Date of Birth 2 August 1870, Louisiana, Missouri Date of Death 2 November 1939, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California (suicide)
Known For
6.0
Old Christopher West
Cafe Society
1939
5.5
Samuel G. Henshaw
Just Around the Corner
1938
7.1
Cyrus W. Butterfield
There Goes My Heart
1938
6.4
Judge
Little Miss Broadway
1938
6.7
Ben Dalton
A Yank at Oxford
1938
6.5
Stephan
Conquest
1937
5.2
William Borden
Top of the Town
1937
0.0
Col. Robert Peachtree
Can This Be Dixie?
1936
0.0
Mr. Gossamer
Wives Never Know
1936
6.6
Simon Peck
Poor Little Rich Girl
1936
Credits
Cafe Society
as Old Christopher West
1939
6.0
Just Around the Corner
as Samuel G. Henshaw
1938
5.5
There Goes My Heart
as Cyrus W. Butterfield
1938
7.1
Little Miss Broadway
as Judge
1938
6.4
A Yank at Oxford
as Ben Dalton
1938
6.7
Conquest
as Stephan
1937
6.5
Top of the Town
as William Borden
1937
5.2
Can This Be Dixie?
as Col. Robert Peachtree
1936
0.0
Wives Never Know
as Mr. Gossamer
1936
0.0
Poor Little Rich Girl
as Simon Peck
1936
6.6
Ticket to Paradise
as Robert Forbes
1936
6.0
Counterfeit
as Tom Perkins
1936
6.0
Florida Special
as Simeon Stafford
1936
6.0
The Prisoner of Shark Island
as Colonel Dyer
1936
6.8
A Tale of Two Cities
as Jarvis Lorry
1935
6.8
Together We Live
as Dick
1935
0.0
Calm Yourself
as Col. Allenby
1935
4.5
Baby Face Harrington
as Colton
1935
4.8
Mississippi
as General Rumford
1935
6.7
The Woman in Red
as Grandpa Wyatt
1935
6.0
Strange Wives
as Guggins
1934
0.0
The Captain Hates the Sea
as Judge Griswold
1934
5.8
Green Eyes
as Steven Kester
1934
5.2
In Love with Life
as Morley
1934
5.0
Unknown Blonde
as Papa Van Brunt, Sr.
1934
1.0
City Limits
as Tom Oliver
1934
4.0
The Show-Off
as J.B. Preston
1934
5.7
You Can't Buy Everything
as Asa Cabot - Banker
1934
7.0
Before Midnight
as John Fry
1933
4.2
Back Page
as Sam Webster
1933
6.4
I Loved a Woman
as Banker (uncredited)
1933
4.5
Skyway
as John Beaumont
1933
5.2
The Avenger
as Witt
1933
6.0
Ann Carver's Profession
as Bingham
1933
6.3
Tess of the Storm Country
as Frederick Garfield Sr
1932
6.0
🎬
Running Hollywood
as Claude Gillingwater
1932
0.0
The Wide Open Spaces
as Judge
1931
0.0
Compromised
as John Brock
1931
1.0
How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 8: 'The Brassie'
1931
0.0
Gold Dust Gertie
as John Aberdeen Arnold
1931
3.0
Daddy Long Legs
as Riggs
1931
4.0
The Conquering Horde
as Jim Nabours
1931
5.0
Illicit
as Richard Ives Sr.
1931
5.6
Kiss Me Again
as Count de St. Cyr
1931
6.0
The Flirting Widow
as Faraday
1930
4.0
Dumb-bells in Ermine
as Uncle Roger
1930
4.0
Mexicali Rose
as (uncredited)
1929
5.2
So Long Letty
as Uncle Claude Davis
1929
5.9
The Great Divide
as Winthrop Amesbury
1929
4.8
Smiling Irish Eyes
as Michael O'Connor
1929
0.0
Glad Rag Doll
as Sam Underlane
1929
0.0
Stolen Kisses
as H.A. Lambert Sr.
1929
5.0
Stark Mad
as James Rutherford - Expedition Leader
1929
3.0
Oh Kay!
as Judge Appleton
1928
0.0
Women They Talk About
as Grandfather Mervin
1928
0.0
Husbands for Rent
as Sir Reginald Knight
1927
0.0
The Gorilla
as Cyrus Townsend
1927
0.0
Barbed Wire
as Jean Moreau
1927
6.2
Naughty But Nice
as Judge J. R. Altewood
1927
0.0
Fast and Furious
as Smithfield
1927
1.0
45 Minutes from Hollywood
as Old Man in Hotel Bed (uncredited)
1926
5.2
For Wives Only
as Professor von Waldstein
1926
0.0
Into Her Kingdom
as Ivan
1926
0.0
🎬
That's My Baby
as John Raynor
1926
0.0
Wages for Wives
as Jim Bailey
1925
0.0
We Moderns
as Sir Robert Sundale
1925
0.0
Seven Sinners
as Pious Joe McDowell
1925
6.0
Winds of Chance
as Tom Linton
1925
4.8
A Thief in Paradise
as Noel Jardine
1925
6.0
Cheaper to Marry
as Riddle
1925
0.0
Idle Tongues
as Judge Daniel Webster Copeland
1924
0.0
Madonna of the Streets
as Lord Patrington
1924
0.0
How to Educate a Wife
as Henry Bancks
1924
0.0
Daddies
as James Crockett
1924
5.0
Tiger Rose
as Hector McCollins
1923
4.5
A Chapter in Her Life
as Mr. Everingham
1923
6.0
Dulcy
as Mr. Forbes
1923
0.0
Three Wise Fools
as Theodore Findley
1923
0.0
Souls for Sale
as Self - Celebrity Actor (uncredited)
1923
6.2
Alice Adams
as Virgil Adams
1923
0.0
Crinoline and Romance
as Col. Charles E. Cavanaugh
1923
0.0
The Christian
as Lord Storm
1923
0.0
The Strangers' Banquet
as Uncle Sam
1922
0.0
Remembrance
as John P. Grout
1922
0.0
The Dust Flower
1922
0.0
Fools First
as Denton Drew
1922
0.0
My Boy
as Captain Bill
1921
5.9
Little Lord Fauntleroy
as Earl of Dorincourt
1921
7.0
Wild Primrose
as Standish
1918
0.0