Everything about Walter Pidgeon totally explained
Walter Davis Pidgeon (
September 23,
1897 -
September 25,
1984) was an American
actor of
Canadian birth, who lived most of his life in the United States, and eventually became a US citizen.
Early life
Born near
Saint John, New Brunswick, he attended local public schools followed by the
University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His studies were interrupted by
World War I and his enlistment in the 65th Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery. He never saw combat as he was severely injured when he was crushed between two gun carriages and hospitalized for 17 months. After the war, he moved to
Boston, where he worked as a bank runner. His earnings financed his voice studies at the
New England Conservatory of Music. He was a classically trained
baritone.
Career
Discontented with banking, he moved to
New York City where he made his entrance as an actor by walking into the office of
E. E. Clive and announcing that he could act and sing and was ready to prove it. After working as an actor on stage for a few years, he made his
Broadway debut in 1925.
Pidgeon made several
silent movies in the
1920s. He became a huge star with the arrival of talkies because he was able to sing pleasantly. He starred in a number of extravagant early
Technicolor musicals, such as
The Bride of the Regiment (1930),
Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930),
Viennese Nights (1930) and
Kiss Me Again (1931). He quickly became associated with musicals, however, and when the public grew weary of them late in 1930, his career began to falter. Afterwards, Pidgeon played secondary roles in such films as
Saratoga and
The Girl of the Golden West. During this period one of his better known roles was
The Dark Command, in which he portrayed the villain opposite
John Wayne and
Claire Trevor.
It wasn't until he starred in
How Green Was My Valley that his popularity rebounded. He starred opposite
Greer Garson in
Blossoms in the Dust,
Mrs. Miniver (for which he was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor) and its sequel,
The Miniver Story. He was also nominated in
1944 for
Madame Curie, again opposite Garson. His partnership with Garson continued into the 1950's and concluded with
Scandal at Scourie in 1953.
Although he continued making films, including
Week-End at the Waldorf and
Forbidden Planet, based on
Shakespeare's
The Tempest, Pidgeon returned to work on Broadway in the mid-
1950s after a twenty-year absence, and was featured in
Take Me Along with
Jackie Gleason. He continued making films, playing Admiral Harriman Nelson in the 1961
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and in 1962, in
Walt Disney's
Big Red and
Otto Preminger's
Advise and Consent. His role as
Florenz Ziegfield in
Funny Girl (1968) was well received. He also played Casey, James Coburn's sidekick in
Harry in Your Pocket (1973), in which, much to Mrs Miniver's disdain, he portrayed a cocaine addict. Pidgeon also guest-starred in many television programs, including
Perry Mason,
The F.B.I., and
Marcus Welby, M.D..
Pidgeon was active in the
Screen Actors Guild and served as president from 1952-1957. As such, he tried to stop the production of the film
Salt of the Earth, which was made by a team blacklisted during the
Red Scare.
After Louis B. Mayer's death it was reported that his favourite MGM actor was Pidgeon, who co-incidentally hailed from Saint John, which may have account for the strong studio support he received throughout his time at MGM.
He retired fully in 1973.
Pidgeon has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6414 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Pidgeon married twice. In 1919, he married Muriel Pickles. This marriage was short-lived as she died in 1921 at the birth of their daughter, Edna Pidgeon Atkins. Through her, he'd two granddaughters, Pat and Pam. In 1931, he married his secretary, Ruth Walker, to whom he remained married until his death. They had no children.
He died of a
stroke in
Santa Monica, California, in 1984. In accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to the
UCLA Medical School for medical research.
Selected filmography
Further Information
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