Walter Connolly | |
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as Doctor Grauer in Bridal Suite (1939)
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Born |
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
April 8, 1887
Died | May 28, 1940 Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
(aged 53)
Cause of death | stroke |
Occupation | Film, stage and radio actor |
Years active | 1914–1939 |
Spouse(s) | Nedda Harrigan (m. 1923–40) (his death) |
Children | Ann Connolly (1924–2006) |
Walter Connolly (April 8, 1887 – May 28, 1940) was an American character actor who appeared in almost fifty films between 1914 and 1939. His best known film is It Happened One Night.
Connolly was a successful stage actor who appeared in twenty-two Broadway productions between 1916 and 1935, notably revivals of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. His first film appearances came in two silent films, The Marked Woman (1914) and A Soldier's Oath (1915), and his first talkie film came in 1930, Many Happy Returns, but his Hollywood film career really began in 1932, when he appeared in four films. His trademark role was that of the exasperated business tycoon or newspaperman, often as the father of the female lead character, as in It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; Broadway Bill (1934), supporting Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy; and Libeled Lady (1936) with William Powell and Loy again. Other notable roles included the worthless uncle of Paul Muni's character in The Good Earth (1937) and one of the two con men encountered by Mickey Rooney's Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). Connolly starred as General Yen's American advisor in The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933).