Charles Winninger

Charles Winninger
Charles J. Winninger (May 26, 1884 – January 27, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals.
Life and career
Winninger was born in Athens, Wisconsin, the son of Rosalia (Grassler) and Franz Winninger. His parents were Austrian immigrants. He began as a vaudeville actor. His most famous stage role was as Cap'n Andy Hawks in the original production of Show Boat, the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical classic, in 1927. He played the role in the 1932 stage revival and the 1936 film version of the show. He became so identified with the role and with his persona as a riverboat captain that he played several variations of the role, notably on the radio program Maxwell House Show Boat, which was clearly inspired by the Broadway musical.
Winninger's pre-Code film career includes Night Nurse, a 1931 drama about two girls being systematically starved to death by the family chauffeur. Winninger portrays a kindly physician who attempts to save the suffering children. After the film of Show Boat in 1936, Winninger appeared in 1936's Three Smart Girls (as the father of Deanna Durbin's character), 1937's Nothing Sacred (as the drunken doctor who misdiagnoses Carole Lombard's character), 1939's Destry Rides Again (as Wash, the sheriff), 1941's Ziegfeld Girl (as the father of Judy Garland's character), and 1945's State Fair (as Abel Frake). He returned to Broadway only once for the 1951 revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Music in the Air.
Winninger had the lead role in only one film, 1953's The Sun Shines Bright, John Ford's remake of Judge Priest. Winninger played the role that Will Rogers portrayed in 1934.
Winninger made a notable television appearance in 1954 in I Love Lucy as Barney Kurtz, the former vaudevillian partner of Fred Mertz (played by William Frawley) in an episode titled "Mertz and Kurtz". He made his last film in 1960.
Personal life
On November 12, 1912, Winninger married actress Blanche Ring. They were divorced on June 12, 1951. He married Gertrude Walker in 1951, which lasted until his death.
Winninger died in 1969 and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
Recognition
In 1960, Winninger received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his radio contributions.
Filmography
Mister Flirt in Wrong (1915, Short) as Mr. Rawsberry
Lizzie's Shattered Dreams (1915, Short) as 2nd Stranger from the City
The Doomed Groom (1915, Short) as The Groom
A September Mourning (1916, Short) as The Artist
Pied Piper Malone (1924) - Louie as the Barber
The Canadian (1926) as Pop Tyson
Summer Bachelors (1926) as Preston Smith
Soup to Nuts (1930) as Otto Schmidt
Fighting Caravans (1931) as Marshall
Bad Sister (1931) as Mr. Madison
Gun Smoke (1931) as Tack Gillup
God's Gift to Women (1931) as John Churchill
Night Nurse (1931) as Dr. Arthur Bell
Children of Dreams (1931) as Dr. Joe Thompson
The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) as M. Novella, Photographer
Flying High (1931) as Doctor Brown
Husband's Holiday (1931) as Mr. Reid
Social Register (1934) as Jonesie
Show Boat (1936) as Cap'n Andy Hawks
White Fang (1936) as Doc McFane
Three Smart Girls (1936) as Judson Craig
Woman Chases Man (1937) as B.J. Nolan
Cafe Metropole (1937) as Joseph Ridgeway
The Go Getter (1937) as Cappy Ricks
You Can't Have Everything (1937) as Sam Gordon
Nothing Sacred (1937) as Dr. Enoch Downer
Every Day's a Holiday (1937) as Van Reighle Van Pelter Van Doon
You're a Sweetheart (1937) as Cherokee Charlie
Goodbye Broadway (1938) as Pat Malloy
Hard to Get (1938) as Ben Richards
Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) as Judson Craig
Babes in Arms (1939) as Joe Moran
Destry Rides Again (1939) as Washington Dimsdale
Barricade (1939) as Samuel J. Cady
If I Had My Way (1940) as Joe Johnson
Beyond Tomorrow (1940) as Michael O'Brien
My Love Came Back (1940) as Julius Malette
Little Nellie Kelly (1940) as Michael Noonan
Pot o' Gold (1941) as C.J. Haskell
Ziegfeld Girl (1941) as 'Pop' Gallagher
The Getaway (1941) as Dr. Josiah Glass
My Life with Caroline (1941) as Bliss
Mister Gardenia Jones (1942, Documentary short) as John Jones
Friendly Enemies (1942) as Karl Pfeiffer
Coney Island (1943) as Finnigan
Hers to Hold (1943) as Judson Craig
A Lady Takes a Chance (1943) as Waco
Flesh and Fantasy (1943) as King Lamarr (Episode 3)
Broadway Rhythm (1944) as Sam Demming
Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) as Dudley 'Granfeathers' Osborne
Belle of the Yukon (1944) as Pop Candless
State Fair (1945) as Abel Frake
She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945) as Doctor Lane
Lover Come Back (1946) as William 'Pa' Williams, Sr.
Living in a Big Way (1947) as D. Rutherford Morgan
Something in the Wind (1947) as Uncle Chester Read
The Inside Story (1948) as Uncle Ed
Give My Regards to Broadway (1948) as Albert Norwick
Father Is a Bachelor (1950) as Professor Mordecai Ford
Torpedo Alley (1952) as Oliver J. Peabody
The Sun Shines Bright (1953) as Judge William Pittman Priest
A Perilous Journey (1953) as Captain Eph Allan
Champ for a Day (1953) as Pa Karlsen
Those Were the Days (1953, TV Movie)
Las Vegas Shakedown (1955) as Ernest Raff
Raymie (1960) as R.J. Parsons
The Miracle of the White Reindeer (1960) as Zoo Keeper
Radio appearances
References
External links
1884 births
1969 deaths
People from Athens, Wisconsin
Male actors from Wisconsin
American male stage actors
American male film actors
American male radio actors
Vaudeville performers
Deaths from sepsis
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
20th-century American male actors