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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
February 18, 1895
Died
May 12, 1956
Place of Birth
Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA
Also Known As
- Carl Henry Vogt
- Louis Calhearn
Louis Calhern
0.4 Popularity
Biography
Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. For portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film The Magnificent Yankee (1950), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s; the most notable being The Blot in 1921. A 1921 newspaper article commented, "The new arrival in stardom is Louis Calhern, who, until Miss Weber engaged him to enact the leading male role in What's Worth While?, had been playing leads in the Morosco Stock company of Los Angeles." In 1923 Calhern left the movies, but would return to the screen eight years later after the advent of sound pictures. He was primarily cast as a character actor in films while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. He reached his peak in the 1950s as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Among his many memorable screen roles were Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup (1933) and three that he appeared in at MGM in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's film noir The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated performance as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his role from the Broadway stage). He was also praised for his portrayal of the title role in the John Houseman production of Julius Caesar (adapted from the Shakespeare play) in 1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Calhern also played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation in the 1954 production of Executive Suite. Calhern's other film roles included the grandfather in The Red Pony (1949), adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck and starring Robert Mitchum, and the spy boss of Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic Notorious (1946). A performance as Uncle Willie in High Society (1956), a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, turned out to be his final film. Description above from the Wikipedia article Louis Calhern, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
6.9
(archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976
6.8
Uncle Willie
High Society
1956
7.0
Charles Y. Bewell
Forever, Darling
1956
4.0
Nahreeb
The Prodigal
1955
6.9
Jim Murdock
Blackboard Jungle
1955
5.6
Grandpa Ulysses Mulvain
Athena
1954
5.6
Gen. Ten Eyck
Betrayed
1954
6.1
King of Karlsberg
The Student Prince
1954
6.2
James A. Michener
Men of the Fighting Lady
1954
7.0
George Nyle Caswell
Executive Suite
1954
Credits
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
1976
6.9
High Society
as Uncle Willie
1956
6.8
Forever, Darling
as Charles Y. Bewell
1956
7.0
The Prodigal
as Nahreeb
1955
4.0
Blackboard Jungle
as Jim Murdock
1955
6.9
Athena
as Grandpa Ulysses Mulvain
1954
5.6
Betrayed
as Gen. Ten Eyck
1954
5.6
The Student Prince
as King of Karlsberg
1954
6.1
Men of the Fighting Lady
as James A. Michener
1954
6.2
Executive Suite
as George Nyle Caswell
1954
7.0
Rhapsody
as Nicholas Durant
1954
6.5
Main Street to Broadway
as Self
1953
6.5
Latin Lovers
as Grandfather Eduardo Santos
1953
4.3
Julius Caesar
as Julius Caesar
1953
7.1
Remains to Be Seen
as Benjamin Goodman
1953
5.7
Confidentially Connie
as Opie Bedloe
1953
5.3
The Bad and the Beautiful
as Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)
1952
7.3
The Prisoner of Zenda
as Col. Zapt
1952
6.8
We're Not Married!
as Freddie Melrose
1952
5.8
Washington Story
as Charles W. Birch
1952
6.0
Invitation
as Simon Bowker
1952
6.5
The Man with a Cloak
as Charles Theverner
1951
6.9
It's a Big Country
as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
1951
5.3
The Magnificent Yankee
as Oliver Wendell Holmes
1950
5.4
Two Weeks with Love
as Horatio Robinson
1950
6.2
A Life of Her Own
as Jim Leversoe
1950
5.1
Devil's Doorway
as Verne Coolan
1950
6.9
Annie Get Your Gun
as Col. Buffalo Bill Cody
1950
6.7
The Asphalt Jungle
as Alonzo D. Emmerich
1950
7.5
Nancy Goes to Rio
as Gregory Elliott
1950
5.7
The Red Danube
as Colonel Piniev
1949
6.3
The Red Pony
as Grandfather
1949
5.9
The Ed Sullivan Show
as Self
1948
6.8
Arch of Triumph
as Boris Morosov
1948
5.8
Notorious
as Captain Paul Prescott
1946
7.7
Up in Arms
as Colonel Ashley
1944
5.6
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
as Don Andre - The Viceroy
1944
6.0
Nobody's Darling
as Curtis Farnsworth
1943
0.0
Heaven Can Wait
as Randolph Van Cleve
1943
6.9
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
as Dr. Brockdorf
1940
6.5
I Take This Woman
as Dr. Martin Sumner Duveen
1940
5.6
Charlie McCarthy, Detective
as Arthur Aldrich
1939
6.0
Fifth Avenue Girl
as Dr. Kessler
1939
6.9
Juarez
as LeMarc
1939
6.5
Fast Company
as Elias Z. Bannerman
1938
5.0
The Life of Emile Zola
as Major Dort
1937
6.7
Her Husband Lies
as Joe Sorrell
1937
5.5
The Gorgeous Hussy
as Leroy Sunderland
1936
5.3
The Last Days of Pompeii
as Prefect Allus Martius
1935
5.6
Woman Wanted
as Smiley
1935
6.3
The Arizonian
as Sheriff Jake Mannen
1935
0.0
Sweet Adeline
as Major Jim Day
1934
5.7
The Count of Monte Cristo
as De Villefort Jr.
1934
6.7
The Affairs of Cellini
as Ottaviano
1934
4.9
The Man with Two Faces
as Stanley Vance
1934
6.6
Duck Soup
as Ambassador Trentino
1933
7.3
Diplomaniacs
as Winkelreid
1933
7.0
The World Gone Mad
as Christopher Bruno
1933
4.3
Strictly Personal
as Jack Magruder
1933
5.0
The Woman Accused
as Leo Young
1933
5.9
Frisco Jenny
as Steve Dutton
1933
6.3
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
as Joe Finn
1932
6.3
Afraid to Talk
as Asst. District Attorney John Wade
1932
6.0
They Call It Sin
as Ford Humphries
1932
5.8
Night After Night
as Dick Bolton
1932
6.2
Okay, America!
as Mileaway Russell
1932
5.3
Blonde Crazy
as 'Dapper Dan' Barker
1931
7.0
The Road to Singapore
as Dr. George March
1931
5.2
Stolen Heaven
as Steve Perry
1931
5.0
The Last Moment
as Harry Gaines
1923
0.0
The Blot
as Phil West
1921
6.2
Too Wise Wives
as David Graham
1921
5.2
What's Worth While?
as 'Squire' Elton
1921
0.0