Paul Douglas
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
Gruff, gravelly-voiced former professional football player and successful radio sportscaster and news announcer who, though he made his Broadway stage debut in 1935, only won notice when he electrified Broadway with his comic portrayal of Harry Brock, an overbearing, uncouth junk tycoon who gets his well-deserved comeuppance in the long-running 1946 comedy hit, "Born Yesterday." Turning down the plum role in the 1950 film version (which proved film heavy Broderick Crawford to be an equally deft comic performer), Douglas nonetheless signed with 20th Century-Fox and made an impressive film debut in Joseph Mankiewicz's "A Letter to Three Wives" (1948), once again playing a big, blustering, slightly doltish tycoon.
Although he did not enter films until the age of forty-one and his onscreen career lasted only eleven years until his death from a heart attack at age 52, the bulky, middle-aged actor became an unlikely, down-to-earth lead in both comedies and even romantic dramas throughout the 1950s. Frequently typecast as slightly dim-witted authority figures or gruff gorillas, Douglas often revealed an appealing vulnerability under the rough exterior; he gave a sensitive performance as the naive fisherman husband of Barbara Stanwyck in "Clash by Night" (1952), parried enjoyably with Ginger Rogers in "Forever Female" (1953), and reteamed with "Born Yesterday" co-star Judy Holliday as another deflated, cantankerous businessman in the comedy vehicle "The Solid Gold Cadillac" (1956). The last two of Douglas's five wives were the actresses Virginia Field and Jan Sterling.
Filmography
Cinematography (Feature Film)
Editing (Feature Film)
Visual Effects (Feature Film)
Cinematography (Special)
Misc. Crew (Special)
Editing (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1935
Broadway acting debut in "Double Dummy" (ran 21 performances)
1946
Starred in over 1000 performances of one of Broadway's longest-running comedies, "Born Yesterday"
1948
Film acting debut, "A Letter to Three Wives"
1957
Starred on Broadway in "A Hole in the Head"
1959
Last performance, on "The Mighty Casey" TV drama produced by Rod Serling
Family
Companions
