Claim: Saratoga includes actors.

Lionel Barrymore -LRB- born Lionel Herbert Blythe ; April 28 , 1878 -- November 15 , 1954 -RRB- was an American actor of stage , screen and radio as well as a film director . He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul -LRB- 1931 -RRB- , and remains best known to modern audiences for the role of the villainous Mr. Potter character in Frank Capra 's 1946 film It 's a Wonderful Life . He is also particularly remembered as Ebenezer Scrooge in annual broadcasts of A Christmas Carol during his last two decades . He is also known for playing Dr. Leonard Gillespie in MGM 's nine Dr. Kildare films , a role he reprised in a further six films focussing solely on Gillespie and in a radio series entitled The Story of Dr. Kildare . He was a member of the theatrical Barrymore family .