Evening star., 1941-07-06
Five Wives Complicate His Life
Being Report Donald Cook the Understanding Mate
Of Caudia Not to Mention Those Soap Operas

strictly small time" he ex-
plains.
One day when he found himself
in Kansas City out of funds and
had to take a job as a bell-hop,
he thought he was down on his
luck But he was wrong. 1t was
strictly a gesture anyway, because
his family is in the banking busi-
ness and, although they then dis
approved of his choice of profess
sions, they never have felt any
financial pain.
Finally he got job in the lumber
business but was so stage struck
ne started acting in the Kansas
City Community Theater. and there
Margaret Anglin saw him, liked
his work, asked him to call at her
hotel, and told him so.
1T seemed too good to be true"
Cook relates, but soon l received
a telegram instructing me to join
An all-star touring company Of
Rivals featuring the late Minnie
Maddern Fiske."
This great lady of the stage, says
Cook, taught him everything he
knows about the theater.
He was first seen on Broadway
in The Seed of the Brute in
1927, and then made a hit with
Madge Kennedy in Paris Bound"
playing another kind of husband
the sort that goes to Europe
for romances.
No Film Sensation.
Next he was in Half Gods" and
Rebound" and then he spent
seven years in Hollywood. appear
ing in more than 80 pictures, among
them Viva Villa" and "Show Boat.
Cook has not yet been any great
sensation in pictures, perhaps be-
cause, although he is certainly an
expert and handsome actor. his
features are not as strongly etched
as most of the top stars of the
screen.
Since returning from the movie
capital, Cook has been in out-of-
| town companies of Our Town,
with Sinclair Lewis; in 1T Can't
Happen Here" in summer theater
| and on Broadway in Wine OF
Choice" with Alexander Woollcott
and more recently. with Gertrude
Lawrence in "Skylark."
When Claudia" opened last Val
entine's Day, two critics used the
same phrase about Cook, calling him
"the best leading man of his time.
| Recently Cook received golc
medal from the New York Academy
as an award for having given In
Claudia" the "best light-comedy
performance Of the year.
Refuses to Comment.
Although Cook has been bringing
smiles and tears to veteran wives
In his Broadway audiences inter
preting this role, he says he is skep'
tical about there ever having beer
a husband like David.
In the play, for example, Davic
suspends judgment when he come:
home to find Claudia being kissed
by a stunning Englishman and ever
braces up the shattered Briton with
q drink.
Cook works so hard at acting hus.
bands that he recently spent severa
days going directly from his worl
to the hospital for q rest.
He is much in demand for TIT
soap operas.
In Martha Webster" he is a rich
young benedict married to a gir
(Actress Toni Gilman whose fam
lily doesn't approve of him.
In "The Story of Bess johnson
he is wrong regularly as the hus'
band of Actress Helen Claire.
In Mother O. Mine" he is thu
husband, on the weak and comic
side, of Actress Ruth Yorke.
You'd think that Cook, switching
so rapidly from role to role, woule
get mixed up some night, and, per.
haps, startle the actor who play!
the part of the Englishman II
Claudia" by knocking him fiat.
Or drive home after confusing
days work and absent-mindedl.
call his real wife Claudia
But he blushingly declined to g
into that