Walter Pidgeon

Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in Mrs. Miniver (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). Pidgeon also starred in many notable films such as How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Forbidden Planet (1956), Executive Suite (1954), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), Advise & Consent (1962), Funny Girl (1968), and Harry in Your Pocket (1973).
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1975.
Early life
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, Pidgeon was the son of Hannah (née Sanborn), a housewife, and Caleb Burpee Pidgeon, a haberdasher.
Pidgeon received his formal education in local schools and the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His university education was interrupted by World War I when he volunteered with the 65th Battery, as a lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. He never saw action, however, as he was severely injured in an accident when he was crushed between two gun carriages and spent seventeen months in a military hospital. His Officer Attestation states he was born in 1895 and further medical records state 1896. Following the war, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a bank runner, at the same time studying voice at the Boston Conservatory of Music.
Career
While he was performing in amateur theatricals in Boston, Pidgeon was hired by Elsie Janis, a producer, actor and singer looking for a male singer for her revue. Pidgeon moved to New York City in 1923, where he interviewed with E. E. Clive, a British producer working on Broadway. Pidgeon made his first featured Broadway debut in Janis' 1925 revue, Puzzles of 1925. Clive was producing You Never Can Tell and cast Pidgeon in a supporting role despite Pidgeon's lack of theatrical experience. Pidgeon made his first featured Broadway debut in Janis' 1925 revue, Puzzles of 1925.
Pidgeon's success created a rift between Janis and him, leading to Pidgeon's dismissal and his move to Hollywood. His first role was in silent film Mannequin (1925). Discouraged with the quality of the roles he was getting, Pidgeon returned to New York in 1928 to resume his theater career. With the advent of talking films, Pidgeon starred in musicals Bride of the Regiment (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Viennese Nights (1930) and Kiss Me Again (1931). In 1935, he appeared onstage on Broadway, appearing in Something Gay, Night of January 16th, and There's Wisdom in Women.
Pidgeon returned to film in 1937 as a dramatic actor, appearing in Saratoga (1937) and The Girl of the Golden West (1938) and Dark Command (1940).
In 1941, Pidgeon starred in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture How Green Was My Valley (1941). He starred opposite Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) and its sequel, The Miniver Story (1950). He was also nominated for Madame Curie (1943), again opposite Garson. His partnership with her continued throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s with Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), and finally Scandal at Scourie (1953). He also starred as Chip Collyer in the comedy Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) and later as Colonel Michael S. 'Hooky' Nicobar, who was given the difficult task of repatriating Russians in post-World War II Vienna in the drama film The Red Danube (1949).
Although he continued to make films, including The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Executive Suite (1954) and Forbidden Planet (1956), Pidgeon returned to work on Broadway in the mid-1950s after a 20-year absence. He was featured in Take Me Along with Jackie Gleason and received a Tony Award nomination for the musical play. He continued making films, playing Admiral Harriman Nelson in 1961's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, James Haggin in Walt Disney's Big Red (1962), and the Senate Majority Leader in Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent. His role as Florenz Ziegfeld in Funny Girl (1968) was well received. Later, he played Casey, James Coburn's sidekick, in Harry in Your Pocket (1973).
Pidgeon guest-starred in the episode "King of the Valley" (November 26, 1959) of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. Pidgeon played Dave King, a prosperous rancher who quarrels with his banker over a $10,000 loan.
His other television credits included Rawhide ("The Reunion", 1962). Breaking Point, The F.B.I., Marcus Welby, M.D., and Gibbsville. In 1963 he guest-starred as corporate attorney Sherman Hatfield in the fourth of four special episodes of Perry Mason while Raymond Burr was recovering from surgery. In 1965, he played the king in Rodgers and Hammerstein's CBS television production of Cinderella, starring Lesley Ann Warren. Pidgeon retired from acting in 1977.
Pidgeon became a United States citizen on December 24, 1943.
Politics
A Republican, Pidgeon joined celebrity Republicans in 1944 at a rally in the Los Angeles Coliseum arranged by David O. Selznick to support the Dewey−Bricker ticket and Governor Earl Warren of California, who would be Dewey's running mate in 1948. The gathering drew 93,000, with Cecil B. DeMille as the master of ceremonies and short speeches by Hedda Hopper and Walt Disney.
Personal life
In 1919, Pidgeon wed Edna Muriel Pickles, who died during the birth of their daughter, Edna. In 1931, Pidgeon married his secretary, Ruth Walker, to whom he remained married until his death.
Death
Pidgeon died on September 25, 1984, age 87, in Santa Monica, California, following a series of strokes.
Walter Pidgeon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6414 Hollywood Boulevard in California.
Complete filmography
Radio appearances
References
External links
Walter Pidgeon TCM biography
1897 births
1984 deaths
20th-century American male actors
20th-century Canadian male actors
American male film actors
American male radio actors
American male silent film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Canadian male film actors
Canadian male radio actors
Canadian male silent film actors
Canadian male stage actors
Canadian male television actors
Canadian Expeditionary Force officers
Male actors from New Brunswick
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Musicians from Saint John, New Brunswick
New England Conservatory alumni
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild
University of New Brunswick alumni
20th-century American singers
20th-century Canadian male singers
University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law alumni
Activists from California
California Republicans
People with acquired American citizenship