The Golden Age of Hollywood! Stars like Cary Grant, John Wayne, and Betty Davis…luminaries. But for every A-list star there was a bevy of wonderful actors lost in the shadow of klieg lights. These are just a few:
Beulah Bondi – A marvelous character actress who moved from the Broadway stage to the movies in 1929 and worked continuously well into the 1970s. She was one of the first women nominated for the Academy Award’s Best Supporting Actress, and later made frequent television appearances as the family matriarch.
Laird Cregar – In the early 1940’s there was no more villainous character actor than 300 lb. Cregar. In This Gun for Hire and I Wake Up Screaming he threatened leading ladies and punished leading men. His most famous role was as Jack the Ripper, London’s famous assassin, in The Lodger. He died in 1944 at age 31.
Burgess Meridith – Described as a ‘virtuosic’ actor, he moved seamlessly from his Broadway stage beginnings in1930 to lead roles in Of Mice and Men, The Story of G.I. Joe, and Rocky. He was short in stature, but he dominated every scene in the film with rare skills for more than six decades.
Clifton Webb – Beginning his career as a dancer on Broadway in 1909, he starred in a variety of plays and musicals, especially those of Noel Coward. But it was 1944’s film hit, Laura, that introduced him to moviegoers and earned him an Academy Award nomination. Later films, including Cheaper by the Dozen and the biopic of John Philip Sousa showed the breadth of this acting ability.
Cicely Tyson – She burst upon the screen in the early 1970s and continued to awe film and television audiences until her death three years ago. Sounder first introduced her to us followed by The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Roots, and Sounder. Her career was filled with Academy Award, Globe, Emmy, and BAFTA nominations and awards.
Katy Jurado – A star in Mexican cinema, a lucrative contract brought her to America during Hollywood’s Golden age. She starred with Burt Lancaster in Broken Lance and with Gary Cooper in High Noon, winning award nominations for both films and a Golden Globe for her performance in the latter. She worked frequently well through the 1970s.
Raymond Massey – He played the stern mogul in The Fountainhead and starred as Abe Lincoln. He starred in the comedy Arsenic & Old Lace and more than 80 other films. He fought in World War I and returned to Canada before being spotted on a Toronto stage and given a Hollywood contract. His career spanned nearly seven decades.
Gloria Grahame – With a mother who was an acting coach it was natural that she began her career on stage before moving to Hollywood and most often cast as the ‘other’ woman…the seductress, most often in film noirs. Against her movie image, she convinced the studio to cast her as Ado Annie in Oklahoma, making famous the song I Can’t Say No.
There are dozens more…think Thomas Mitchell, Charles Coburn, Marsha Hunt, Anne Baxter, Woody Strode, Ossie Davis, Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, Ann Rutherford, George Sanders, Forest Whitaker…so many talented and versatile actors that brought big screen pleasure during the dark days of the depression and World War II. Many can still be seen on various classic movie channels.