Louis Calhern
Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. For portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film The Magnificent Yankee (1950), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s; the most notable being The Blot in 1921. A 1921 newspaper article commented, "The new arrival in stardom is Louis Calhern, who, until Miss Weber engaged him to enact the leading male role in What's Worth While?, had been playing leads in the Morosco Stock company of Los Angeles."
In 1923 Calhern left the movies, but would return to the screen eight years later after the advent of sound pictures. He was primarily cast as a character actor in films while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. He reached his peak in the 1950s as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Among his many memorable screen roles were Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup (1933) and three that he appeared in at MGM in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's film noir The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated performance as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his role from the Broadway stage). He was also praised for his portrayal of the title role in the John Houseman production of Julius Caesar (adapted from the Shakespeare play) in 1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Calhern also played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation in the 1954 production of Executive Suite.
Calhern's other film roles included the grandfather in The Red Pony (1949), adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck and starring Robert Mitchum, and the spy boss of Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic Notorious (1946). A performance as Uncle Willie in High Society (1956), a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, turned out to be his final film.
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Photos
Movies (73)
Becoming Marilyn
2022 · (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976 · (archive footage)
High Society
1956 · Uncle Willie
Forever, Darling
1956 · Charles Bewell
The Prodigal
1955 · Nahreeb
Blackboard Jungle
1955 · Jim Murdock
Athena
1954 · Grandpa Mulvain
Betrayed
1954 · Gen. Ten Eyck
The Student Prince
1954 · King of Karlsberg
Men of the Fighting Lady
1954 · James A. Michener
Executive Suite
1954 · George Nyle Caswell
Rhapsody
1954 · Nicholas Durant
Main Street to Broadway
1953 · Self
Latin Lovers
1953 · Grandfather Eduardo Santos
Julius Caesar
1953 · Julius Caesar
Remains to Be Seen
1953 · Benjamin Goodman
Confidentially Connie
1953 · Opie Bedloe
The Bad and the Beautiful
1952 · Georgia Lorrison's Father (voice) (uncredited)
The Prisoner of Zenda
1952 · Col. Zapt
We're Not Married!
1952 · Freddie Melrose
Washington Story
1952 · Charles W. Birch
Invitation
1952 · Simon Bowker
The Man with a Cloak
1951 · Charles Theverner
It's a Big Country
1951 · Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
The Magnificent Yankee
1950 · Oliver Wendell Holmes
Two Weeks with Love
1950 · Horatio Robinson
A Life of Her Own
1950 · Jim Leversoe
Devil's Doorway
1950 · Verne Coolan
Annie Get Your Gun
1950 · Col. Buffalo Bill Cody
The Asphalt Jungle
1950 · Alonzo D. Emmerich
Nancy Goes to Rio
1950 · Gregory Elliott
The Red Danube
1949 · Colonel Piniev
The Red Pony
1949 · Grandfather
Arch of Triumph
1948 · Boris Morosov
Notorious
1946 · Paul Prescott
Up in Arms
1944 · Colonel Ashley
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1944 · Don Andre - The Viceroy
Nobody's Darling
1943 · Curtis Farnsworth
Heaven Can Wait
1943 · Randolph Van Cleve
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
1940 · Dr. Brockdorf
I Take This Woman
1940 · Dr. Martin Sumner Duveen
Charlie McCarthy, Detective
1939 · Arthur Aldrich
Fifth Avenue Girl
1939 · Dr. Kessler
Juarez
1939 · LeMarc
Fast Company
1938 · Elias Z. Bannerman
The Life of Emile Zola
1937 · Major Dort
Her Husband Lies
1937 · Joe Sorrell
The Gorgeous Hussy
1936 · Leroy Sunderland
The Last Days of Pompeii
1935 · Prefect Allus Martius
Woman Wanted
1935 · Smiley
The Arizonian
1935 · Sheriff Jake Mannen
Sweet Adeline
1934 · Major Jim Day
The Count of Monte Cristo
1934 · De Villefort Jr.
The Affairs of Cellini
1934 · Ottaviano
The Man with Two Faces
1934 · Stanley Vance
Duck Soup
1933 · Ambassador Trentino
Diplomaniacs
1933 · Winkelreid
The World Gone Mad
1933 · Christopher Bruno
Strictly Personal
1933 · Jack Magruder
The Woman Accused
1933 · Leo Young
Frisco Jenny
1933 · Steve Dutton
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
1932 · Joe Finn
Afraid to Talk
1932 · Asst. District Attorney John Wade
They Call It Sin
1932 · Ford Humphries
Night After Night
1932 · Dick Bolton
Okay, America!
1932 · Mileaway Russell
Blonde Crazy
1931 · 'Dapper Dan' Barker
The Road to Singapore
1931 · Dr. George March
Stolen Heaven
1931 · Steve Perry
The Last Moment
1923 · Harry Gaines
The Blot
1921 · Phil West
Too Wise Wives
1921 · David Graham
What's Worth While?
1921 · 'Squire' Elton
