Edmund Gwenn


Actor
Edmund Gwenn

About

Also Known As
Edmund Kellaway Jr.
Birth Place
United Kingdom
Born
September 26, 1875
Died
September 06, 1959
Cause of Death
Pneumonia

Biography

Portly British actor in films since 1916 who made his mark in the 1940s as one of Hollywood's most endearing character actors, playing roles ranging from the cheerful murderer in Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent" (1940) to the long-suffering husband and father in "Pride and Prejudice" (1940) and Santa Claus in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), for which he won a well-deserved Osc...

Photos & Videos

Them! - Lobby Cards
Hills of Home - Publicity Photos
Pride and Prejudice - Scene Stills

Family & Companions

Minnie Terry
Wife

Biography

Portly British actor in films since 1916 who made his mark in the 1940s as one of Hollywood's most endearing character actors, playing roles ranging from the cheerful murderer in Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent" (1940) to the long-suffering husband and father in "Pride and Prejudice" (1940) and Santa Claus in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), for which he won a well-deserved Oscar.

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

The Rocket from Calabuch (1956)
Professor George Hamilton
It's a Dog's Life (1955)
Jeremiah [Edward Emmett Augustus] Nolan
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Capt. Albert Wiles
The Student Prince (1954)
Prof. Juttner
Them! (1954)
Dr. Harold Medford
Mister Scoutmaster (1953)
Reverend Dr. Stone
The Bigamist (1953)
Mr. Jordan
Something for the Birds (1952)
Johnnie Adams
Les Miserables (1952)
Bishop Courbet
Sally and Saint Anne (1952)
Grandpa Pat Ryan
Bonzo Goes to College (1952)
Ted "Pop" Drew
Peking Express (1951)
Father Joseph Murray
A Woman of Distinction (1950)
Mark Middlecott
Mister 880 (1950)
The Skipper Miller
Pretty Baby (1950)
Cyrus Baxter
For Heaven's Sake (1950)
Arthur
Louisa (1950)
Mr. [Henry] Hammond
Challenge to Lassie (1949)
John Traill
Hills of Home (1948)
Dr. William MacLure
Apartment for Peggy (1948)
Prof. Henry Barnes
Green Dolphin Street (1947)
Octavius Patourel
Bob, Son of Battle (1947)
Adam M'Adam
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Kris Kringle
Life with Father (1947)
Rev. Dr. Lloyd
Undercurrent (1946)
Prof. "Dink" Hamilton
Of Human Bondage (1946)
Athelny
The Keys of the Kingdom (1945)
Reverend Hamish MacNabb
Bewitched (1945)
Doctor Bergson
Dangerous Partners (1945)
Albert Richard Kingby
She Went to the Races (1945)
Dr. [Homer] Pecke
Between Two Worlds (1944)
Scrubby
The Meanest Man in the World (1943)
Frederick P. Leggitt
Lassie Come Home (1943)
Rowlie [Palmer]
Forever and a Day (1943)
Stubbs
A Yank at Eton (1942)
Justin
One Night in Lisbon (1941)
Lord Fitzleigh
Scotland Yard (1941)
Inspector [Henry James] Cork
Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941)
President Corcoran
The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
Hooper
Charley's Aunt (1941)
Stephen Spettigue
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Mr. Bennet
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Rowley
The Doctor Takes A Wife (1940)
Dr. Lionel Sterling
The Earl of Chicago (1940)
Munsey
Cheer Boys Cheer (1939)
A Yank at Oxford (1938)
Dean of Cardinal
South Riding (1938)
Alfred Huggins
Penny Paradise (1938)
Parnell (1937)
Campbell
Mad Holiday (1936)
Williams
Anthony Adverse (1936)
John Bonnyfeather
The Walking Dead (1936)
Dr. Beaumont
Sylvia Scarlett (1936)
Henry Scarlett
All American Chump (1936)
Jeffrey Crane
Laburnum Grove (1936)
The All-American Chump (1936)
The Bishop Misbehaves (1935)
[James,] Bishop [of Broadminster]
Channel Crossing (1934)
Trotter
Friday the 13th (1934)
For Love or Money (1934)
Edmund Gilbert
Warn London (1934)
Waltzes From Vienna (1934)
Passing Shadows (1934)
The Admiral's Secret (1934)
Spring in the Air (1934)
Java Head (1934)
I Was a Spy (1933)
The burgomaster
The Good Companions (1933)
Jess Oakroyd
Be Mine Tonight (1933)
Mayor Pategg
Marooned (1933)
Smithy (1933)
Early to Bed (1933)
Frail Women (1932)
Love on Wheels (1932)
Money For Nothing (1932)
Condemned to Death (1932)
How He Lied to Her Husband (1931)
Hindle Wakes (1931)
The Skin Game (1931)
Hornblower
The Real Thing at Last (1916)

Cast (Short)

The Greatest Gift (1942)

Life Events

1916

Film actor Great Britain

1947

Had perhaps most famous role as Santa Claus in "Miracle on 34th Street"; won Best Supporting Actor Oscar

1956

Last film, "Calabuch"

Photo Collections

Them! - Lobby Cards
Here are a few Lobby Cards from Them! (1954). Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.
Hills of Home - Publicity Photos
Here are a few Publicity Stills from Hills of Home (1948), featuring Lassie with Edmund Gwenn and Janet Leigh. Publicity stills were specially-posed photos, usually taken off the set, for purposes of publicity or reference for promotional artwork.
Pride and Prejudice - Scene Stills
Here are several scene stills from MGM's Pride and Prejudice (1940), starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier.
Anthony Adverse - Scene Stills
Here are some scene stills from Warner Bros' Anthony Adverse (1936), directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland.
Miracle on 34th Street - Movie Posters
Here are a few movie posters from Miracle on 34th Street (1947), starring John Payne, Maureen O'Hara, Edmund Gwynn, and Natalie Wood.
Hills of Home - Movie Poster
Here is the American one-sheet movie poster for Hills of Home (1948), featuring Lassie. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters.

Videos

Movie Clip

Green Dolphin Street (1947) -- (Movie Clip) I'm Bold And Scheming Introduction of the sisters Patourel, on a fictional Channel Island ca. 1840, Donna Reed as Marguerite with their mom (Gladys Cooper), and Lana Turner as self-assured (and brunette!) Marianne with papa (Edmund Gwenn), noticing the arrival of a hunky new neighbor (Richard Hart), not knowing yet that his father was her mother’s major first love, early in MGM’s Green Dolphin Street, 1947.
It's A Dog's Life (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Dog Eat Dog On The Waterfront Humans quite irrelevant in the opening, apart from the narration by Vic Morrow, the inner-monologue of the the Bull Terrier who will be named Wildfire (MGM used two visually identical dogs for the shoot), in It’s A Dog’s Life, 1955, from a story by the trendsetting journalist and Theodore Roosevelt supporter Richard Harding Davis.
It's A Dog's Life (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Well Deserving Of Your Support Owner Patch (Jeff Richards) brings “Wildfire” to his first fight in turn-of-the-century New York, Vic Morrow continuing his narration in the dog’s voice, as we discover MGM’s approach to shooting the action, and meet philosophical Jeremiah (Edmund Gwenn), in It’s A Dog’s Life, 1955.
Yank At Oxford, A (1938) -- (Movie Clip) The Mother In You After colliding again with the dean (Edmund Gwenn), Robert Taylor (as American student Lee Sheridan) visits a bicycle shop where he begins his first-ever scene with Vivien Leigh (as frisky faculty wife "Mrs. Craddock"), in the MGM-British production A Yank At Oxford, 1938.
Apartment For Peggy (1948) -- (Movie Clip) I Play Mental Leapfrog Professor Barnes (Edmund Gwenn), whom we know is happily planning to commit suicide, meets bubbly young Peggy (Jeanne Crain, her first scene), whose husband is at school on the G-I Bill, in Apartment For Peggy, 1948, also starring William Holden, from George Seaton and William Perlberg.
Apartment For Peggy (1948) -- (Movie Clip) Tinker To Evers to Chance Professor Barnes (Edmund Gwenn) who, as far as we know, is still secretly planning to take his own life, is welcomed to his attic, where grateful G-I Bill student Jason (William Holden) and wife Peggy (Jeanne Crain) have just moved in, in Apartment For Peggy, 1948.
Trouble With Harry, The (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Opening, Arnie Pastoral (shot in Vermont) opening sequence with Bernard Hermann's score to Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 satirical oddity The Trouble With Harry, starring Shirley MacLaine and John Forsythe.
Trouble With Harry, The (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Last Of Harry Hunter Captain Wiles (Edmund Gwenn), who assumes he's killed the corpse, hides in the landscape while Shirley MacLaine (as "Jennie") makes her first-ever screen appearance, considering the body found by her son Arnie (Jerry Mathers) in Hitchcock's satire The Trouble With Harry, 1955.
Anthony Adverse (1936) -- (Movie Clip) Into Sturdy Manhood Text advances the story at least ten years and introduces leads Fredric March and Olivia de Havilland 40 minutes into the picture, as the title character and ward of merchant Bonnyfeather (Edmund Gwenn), and the daughter of his servants, in Livorno ca. 1800, in Anthony Adverse, 1936.
Anthony Adverse (1936) -- (Movie Clip) What Is My Proper Place? Italian merchant Bonnyfeather (Edmund Gwenn) at work, pausing to admire his adopted son and employee (Fredric March, title character, whom he secretly knows to be his biological grandson) offering advice and promise, in the Warner Bros. treatment of the historical novel Anthony Adverse, 1936.
Bigamist, The (1953) -- (Movie Clip) Everything You Hate Apparently legit spouses and business partners Eve (Joan Fontaine) and Harry (Edmond O'Brien) at home in San Francisco, when their already suspicious rep from the adoption agency (Edmund Gwenn) arrives, in The Bigamist, 1953, directed by co-star Ida Lupino.
Them! (1954) -- (Movie Clip) -- The Queen's Chamber Scientist Pat (Joan Weldon) joins cop Ben (James Whitmore) and FBI man Bob (James Arness) on a foray into the giant ants' nest, armed with flame-throwers, in the original Them!, 1954.

Trailer

Anthony Adverse - (Original Trailer) Seven Oscar nominations went to Anthony Adverse (1936), Warner Brothers' adaptation of the best selling novel about 18th-Century Italy.
Foreign Correspondent - (Original Trailer) A camera with gun attachment, trick windmills and a mid-ocean plane crash are some of the predicaments facing Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940).
Bishop Misbehaves, The - (Original Trailer) A bishop (Edmund Gwenn) with a taste for mysteries gets involved in a real one in The Bishop Misbehaves (1935).
All-American Chump - (Original Trailer) A small-town math whiz is exploited by card sharks and hustlers in All-American Chump (1936).
Dangerous Partners - (Original Trailer) A young couple's accident could make them rich, if they can evade a Nazi spy ring in Dangerous Partners (1945).
Lassie Come Home - (Original Trailer) A faithful collie undertakes an arduous journey to return to his lost family in Lassie Come Home (1943) starring Roddy McDowall.
Of Human Bondage (1946) - (Original Trailer) Paul Henreid is the medical student in love with Eleanor Parker's Cockney waitress in the second version of Of Human Bondage (1946).
Mister 880 - (Original Trailer) A beloved old man is secretly Mister 880, an amateurish counterfeiter in Mister 880 (1950) starring Burt Lancaster as the agent out to get him.
Mad Holiday - (Original Trailer) A temperamental film star's vacation turns deadly when he uncovers a murder on Mad Holiday (1936).
Student Prince, The (1954) - (Original Trailer) A prince falls in love with a barmaid during his last fling before assuming the crown in the operetta The Student Prince (1954).
She Went To The Races - (Original Trailer) A pretty scientist (Frances Gifford) with a system for horse-race betting falls in love with a trainer in She Went To The Races (1945).
Yank At Eton, A - (Original Trailer) An American playboy (Mickey Rooney) is sent to a British boarding school to learn discipline in A Yank At Eton (1942).

Family

Arthue Chesney
Brother
Actor.

Companions

Minnie Terry
Wife

Bibliography