Louis Calhern
| Louis Calhern | |
|---|---|
from the trailer for Woman Wanted (1935)
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| Born |
Carl Henry Vogt February 19, 1895 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 12, 1956 (aged 61) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1921-1956 |
| Spouse(s) |
Ilka Chase (1900-1978) (m.1926-1927; divorced) Julia Hoyt (1897-1955) (m.1927-1932; divorced) Natalie Schafer (1900-1991) (m.1933-1942; divorced) Marianne Stewart (1922-1992) (m.1946-1955; divorced) |
Louis Calhern, born Carl Henry Vogt, (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956) was an American stage and screen actor. For portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (1950), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Calhern was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Eugene Adolf Vogt and Hubertina Friese Vogt, both of whom were natives of Germany. He had one sibling, a sister. His father was a tobacco dealer. His family left New York while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he grew up. While Calhern was playing high school football, a stage manager from a touring theatrical stock company spotted him, and hired him as a bit player. (Another source says, "Grace George hired his St. Louis high school football team as supers for a Shakespearean play.")
Just prior to World War I, Calhern decided to move back to New York to pursue an acting career. He began as a prop boy and bit player with touring companies and burlesque companies. He became a matinee idol by virtue of a play titled Cobra
Calhern's Broadway credits include Roger Bloomer (1923), The Song and Dance Man (1923-1924), Cobra (1924), In a Garden (1925-1926), Hedda Gabler (1926), The Woman Disputed (1926-1927), Up the Line (1926), The Dark (1927), Savages Under the Skin (1927), A Distant Drum (1928), Gypsy (1929), The Love Duel (1929), The Rhapsody (1930), The Tyrant (1930), Give Me Yesterday (1931), Brief Moment (1931-1932), The Inside Story (1932), Birthday (1934-1935), Hell Freezes Over (1935-1936), Robin Landing (1937), Summer Night (1939), The Great Big Doorstep (1942), Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1944-1945), The Magnificent Yankee (1946), The Survivors (1948), The Play's the Thing (1948), King Lear (1950-1951), and The Wooden Dish (1955).
Calhern's burgeoning career was interrupted by the war, and he served overseas in the 143rd Field Artillery of the United States Army during World War I.
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