Walter Brennan

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Walter Brennan
Publicity photo
Birth name	Walter Andrew Brennan
Born	July 25, 1894 Swampscott, Massachusetts, USA
Died	September 21, 1974 Oxnard, California, USA, age 80
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor 1936 Come and Get It 1938 Kentucky 1940 The Westerner

Walter Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was a three-time Academy Award winning American actor. He is remembered as one of the premier character actors in motion picture history.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Successful career as a character actor 3 Status in film history 4 Political beliefs and later life 5 Academy Awards 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Born Walter Andrew Brennan in Swampscott, Massachusetts, to Irish emigrants, his father was an engineer and inventor. The younger Brennan studied engineering before becoming an actor.

While in school, he became interested in acting, and began to perform in vaudeville. After service in World War I (where, according to legend, his vocal cords were damaged by mustard gas, which also caused him to age prematurely), he moved to Guatemala and raised pineapples, before settling in Los Angeles. During the 1920s he would become involved in the realestate market where he would make a fortune. Unfortunately, he lost most of his money when the market took a sudden downturn. Finding himself broke, he would begin taking bit parts in as many films as he could get in order to earn money, including The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and also worked as a stunt man during this time.

In the early 1930s he began appearing in higher quality films and received more substantial roles as his talent was recognized. This culminated with his receiving the very first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1936 for his role as Swan Bostrom in the period film Come and Get It.

[edit] Successful career as a character actor

Throughout his career, Brennan was frequently called upon to play characters considerably older than he was in real life. A 1932 accident that cost him many teeth; his rapidly thinning hair, thin build, and raspy voice all made him seem older than he really was. He used these physical features to great effect in many of his roles. 1941 Sergeant York, he played the sympathetic preacher and dry goods store owner, Pastor Rosier Pile who works to get Alvin C. York played by Gary Cooper deferred from World War One service. He was particularly skilled in playing the hero's sidekick or as the "grumpy old man" in a picture. He was hardly ever cast as the villain. Two notable exceptions were his roles as the heartless Old Man Clanton in the classic 1946 film My Darling Clementine opposite Henry Fonda and the 1962 Cinerama production How the West Was Won as the unsavory Colonel Jeb Hawkins.

In the 1950s, he starred in the ABC's television series The Real McCoys, which costarred Richard Crenna, Kathleen "Kathy" Nolan, Andy Clyde, Madge Blake, Lydia Reed, Michael Winkleman and Tony Martinez. The program was a comedy about a poor West Virginia family which relocated to a farm in southern California. Crenna was "Luke McCoy", Brennan's fictitious grandson on the program. Nolan was "Luke's" new bride, "Kate", who often disagreed with the stern-willed "Grandpappy Amos" character played by Brennan. Reed played Luke's teenaged sister, "Aunt" Hassie. Winkleman was Luke's brother, "Little Luke." Martinez was "Pepino Garcia", a stereotyped 1950's happy musical Mexican farm hand. Blake played Brennan's sometimes romantic interest in her role as "Flora McMichael". Clyde was "Flora's brother, "George McMichael", a neighboring farmer who always seemed to be outfoxed by "Grandpa". The program ran on ABC from 1957-1962, when it switched to CBS for a final season without Nolan's "Kate" character (She was depicted as having died and left "Luke" a widower) and was renamed The McCoys.

Brennan appeared in several other movies and television programs, usually as an eccentric "old-timer" or "prospector". He also made a few recordings, the most popular being "Old Rivers" in 1962.

In 1967, he starred in the television series The Guns of Will Sonnett, where he played a father in search of his gunfighter son, James, with his grandson, Jeff, played by Dack Rambo. After the series went off the air, Brennan continued working in both television and feature films. Among his television appearances at this time were three episodes of Alias Smith and Jones, the western comedy starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy. Brennan played retired confidence man Silky O'Sullivan in two episodes, and Elmer Gantry, one member of a dwindling trail drive team, in another. Additionally, Brennan starred as wealthy executive Walter Andrews in the short-lived mid-1960s television series "The Tycoon".

[edit] Status in film history

Film historians and critics have long regarded Brennan as one of the finest character actors in motion picture history. While the roles he was adept at playing were extremely diverse, he is probably best remembered for his portrayals in movie Westerns. He was the first actor to win three Academy Awards. He remains the only person to have won three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (see Academy Awards below).

Unlike many actors, Brennan's career never really went into decline. As the years went on, he was able ply his talents to find work in dozens of high quality films, and later television appearances throughout the 1950s and 60s. As he grew older, he simply become a more familiar, almost comforting film figure whose talented and entertaining performances continued to endear him to new generations of fans. In all, he would appear in more than 230 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly five decades.

[edit] Political beliefs and later life

Brennan was politically conservative and supported American Independent Party candidate (and former governor of Alabama) George C. Wallace, Jr., over Republican Party nominee (and, at the time, former Vice President) Richard M. Nixon in the 1968 presidential campaign because he felt Nixon was too liberal. In 1964, however, Brennan had endorsed and made appearances for U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater, the GOP nominee that year. He also supported Ronald W. Reagan for governor of California.

In one of his films, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), Brennan portrayed a Democratic supporter of U.S. President Grover Cleveland. Buddy Ebsen, who played Brennan's son in the film, was depicted as a supporter of Cleveland's 1888 rival, Benjamin Harrison. In the comedy musical and dance film, Brennan disparaged Ebsen's character as "never too bright for he was a gol-dern Republican". Ironically, both Brennan and Ebsen were considered Hollywood Republicans.

For his contribution to the television industry, Walter Brennan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6501 Hollywood Blvd. In 1970, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his photograph adorns a wall.

On his death from emphysema at the age of eighty in Oxnard, Walter Brennan was interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles. Brennan's wife, Ruth, whom he married in 1920, lived to be 100, and is buried next to him. They had a daughter and two sons.

[edit] Academy Awards

Wins:

• 1936 - Best Supporting Actor in Come and Get It
• 1938 - Best Supporting Actor in Kentucky
• 1940 - Best Supporting Actor in The Westerner

Nominations:

• 1942 - Best Supporting Actor in Sergeant York

Awards
Preceded by —	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1936 for Come and Get It	Succeeded by Joseph Schildkraut for The Life of Emile Zola
Preceded by Joseph Schildkraut for The Life of Emile Zola	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1938 for Kentucky	Succeeded by Thomas Mitchell for Stagecoach
Preceded by Thomas Mitchell for Stagecoach	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1940 for The Westerner	Succeeded by Donald Crisp for How Green Was My Valley

[edit] See also

• Other notable figures in Western films

According to the person managing the desk of the Indian Lodge Motel in Joseph, Oregon Mr. Brennan built or was involved in building this motel in 1952. Cameron Hinman

[edit] External links

• Walter Brennan at the Internet Movie Database
• Walter Brennan at the TCM Movie Database
• Walter Brennan at Find A Grave