Melvyn Douglas

Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in 1929 as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy '' Ninotchka'' (1939) with Greta Garbo. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award-winning performances in '' Hud'' (1963) and ''Being There'' (1979) and his Academy Award–nominated performance in '' I Never Sang for My Father'' (1970). Douglas was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting. In the last few years of his life Douglas appeared in films with supernatural stories involving ghosts, including '' The Changeling'' in 1980 and '' Ghost Story'' in 1981, his last completed film role.

Douglas was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group.

Early life

Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford) and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a concert pianist and composer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. His mother, a native of Tennessee, was Protestant and a ''Mayflower'' descendant.

Douglas, in his autobiography, ''See You at the Movies'' (1987), wrote that he was unaware of his Jewish background until later in his youth: "I did not learn about the non-Christian part of my heritage until my early teens." His parents preferred to hide his Jewish heritage. His aunts, on his father's side, told him "the truth" when he was 14. He wrote that he "admired them unstintingly"; they in turn, treated him like a son.

Though his father, a prominent concert pianist, taught music at a succession of colleges in the U.S. and Canada, Douglas never graduated from high school. He took the surname of his maternal grandmother and became known as Melvyn Douglas.

Career

Douglas developed his acting skills in Shakespearean repertory while in his teens and with stock companies in Sioux City, Iowa, Evansville, Indiana, Madison, Wisconsin and Detroit, Michigan. He served in the United States Army in World War I. He established an outdoor theatre in Chicago. He had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930 Broadway role in ''Tonight or Never'' (opposite his future wife, Helen Gahagan) until just before his death. Douglas shared top billing with Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton in James Whale's sardonic horror classic '' The Old Dark House'' in 1932.

Douglas appeared as the hero in the 1932 horror film '' The Vampire Bat'' and the sophisticated leading man in '' She Married Her Boss'' (1935). He appeared with Joan Crawford in several films, most notably '' A Woman's Face'' (1941), and starred opposite Greta Garbo in three films: '' As You Desire Me'' (1932), '' Ninotchka'' (1939) and Garbo's final film '' Two-Faced Woman'' (1941). One of his most sympathetic roles was as the belatedly attentive father in '' Captains Courageous'' (1937).

During World War II, Douglas served first as a director of the Arts Council in the Office of Civilian Defense, and he then again served in the United States Army rising to the rank of major in the Special Services Entertainment Production Unit. According to his granddaughter Illeana Douglas, Melvyn Douglas first met Peter Sellers, his future ''Being There'' co-star while in Burma, when Sellers was serving in the Royal Air Force during the war. After the war, Douglas returned to films and more mature roles in '' The Sea of Grass'' (1947) and '' Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948).

From 1952 to 1961, Douglas made no film appearances, concentrating instead on stage and television work. During November 1952 to January 1953, Douglas starred in the DuMont detective show '' Steve Randall'' (''Hollywood Off Beat'') which then moved to CBS. In the summer of 1953, he briefly hosted the DuMont game show '' Blind Date''. In the summer of 1959, Douglas hosted eleven original episodes of a CBS Western anthology television series called '' Frontier Justice'', a production of Dick Powell's Four Star Television.

Douglas returned to films in the 1960s. As he aged, he took on older-man and fatherly roles in movies such as '' Hud'' (1963), for which he won his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, '' The Americanization of Emily'' (1964), the American Civil War comedy '' Advance to the Rear'' (1964), an episode of '' The Fugitive'' (1966), '' I Never Sang for My Father'' (1970), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and '' The Candidate'' (1972). He won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama ''Being There'' (1979). However, Douglas confirmed in one of his final interviews that he refused to attend the 52nd Academy Awards ceremony because he could not bear having to compete against child actor Justin Henry for '' Kramer vs. Kramer''.

In addition to his Academy Awards, Douglas won a Tony Award for his Broadway lead role in the 1960 '' The Best Man'' by Gore Vidal and an Emmy for his 1967 role in '' Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night''.

Douglas' final complete screen appearance was in the 1981 horror film '' Ghost Story''. He died before completing all of his scenes for the film ''The Hot Touch'' (1982); the film had to be edited to compensate for Douglas' incomplete role.

Douglas has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for movies located at 6423 Hollywood Boulevard and another for television at 6601 Hollywood Boulevard.

Personal life

Douglas, as Hesselberg, was married briefly to artist Rosalind Hightower, and they had one child, (Melvyn) Gregory Hesselberg, in 1926. Hesselberg, an artist, is the father of actress Illeana Douglas.

In 1931, Douglas married actress-turned-politician Helen Gahagan. They traveled to Europe that same year, and "were horrified by French and German anti-Semitism". As a result, they became outspoken anti-fascists. Douglas was also an active New Deal Democrat, serving on the State Central Committee of the California Democratic Party in the 1930s and 40s.

Gahagan Douglas (she began using her husband's name when she entered politics), as a three-term congresswoman, was Richard M. Nixon's unsuccessful opponent for the United States Senate seat from California in 1950. Nixon accused Gahagan Douglas of being soft on Communism because of her opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon went so far as to infamously call her "pink right down to her underwear". It was Gahagan Douglas who popularized Nixon's epithet nickname "Tricky Dick".

Melvyn and Helen Gahagan Douglas hired architect Roland Coate to design a home for them in 1938 on a lot they owned in Outpost Estates, Los Angeles. The result was a one-story, home.

The Douglases had two children: Peter Gahagan Douglas (1933) and Mary Helen Douglas (1938). The couple remained married until Helen Gahagan Douglas's death in 1980 from cancer. Melvyn Douglas died a year later, in 1981, aged 80, from pneumonia and cardiac complications in New York City at Sloan Kettering Hospital.

Broadway roles

Sources: Internet Broadway Database and ''Playbill''

* '' A Free Soul'' (1928) as Ace Wilfong
* ''Back Here'' (1928) as Sergeant "Terry" O'Brien
* ''Now-a-Days'' (1929) as Boyd Butler
* ''Recapture'' (1930) as Henry C. Martin
* ''Tonight or Never'' (1931) as the Unknown Gentleman
* '' No More Ladies'' (1934) as Sheridan Warren
* ''Mother Lode'' (1934) as Carey Ried (also staged)
* ''De Luxe'' (1935) as Pat Dantry
* ''Tapestry In Gray'' (1935) as Erik Nordgren
* ''Two Blind Mice'' (1949) as Tommy Thurston
* ''The Bird Cage'' (1950) as Wally Williams
* ''The Little Blue Light'' (1951) as Frank
* ''Glad Tidings'' (1951) as Steve Whitney
* '' Time Out for Ginger'' (1952) as Howard Carol
* '' Inherit the Wind'' (1955) as Henry Drummond (replacement)
* ''The Waltz of the Toreadors'' (1958) as General St. Pé
* ''Juno'' (1959) as "Captain" Jack Boyle
* ''The Gang's All Here'' (1959) as Griffith P. Hastings
* '' The Best Man'' (1960) as William Russell
* ''Spofford'' (1967) as Spofford

Douglas also staged ''Moor Born'' (1934), ''Mother Lode'' (1934) and ''Within the Gates'' (1934-1935) and produced ''Call Me Mister'' (1946-1948).

Filmography

Partial television credits

Source: Internet Movie Database

Radio appearances

References

Sources

*

External links

"Melvyn Douglas (1901–1981)"
at the New Georgia Encyclopedia ;

Melvyn Douglas
at ''Virtual-History.com'' : Photographs and literature

Papers

Melvyn Douglas Papers
at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research ;

Metadata
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Melvyn Douglas
- AFI Catalog - American Film Institute

Melvyn Douglas
at Turner Classic Movies
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Melvyn
1901 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American people of English descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Deaths from pneumonia in New York City
Jewish American military personnel
Male actors from Georgia (U.S. state)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
Spouses of California politicians
Tony Award winners
United States Army officers
United States Army personnel of World War I
United States Army personnel of World War II
Upper Canada College alumni