Louis Calhern
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Image:LouisCalhern.JPG Louis Calhern (Carl Henry Vogt) (February 19, 1895 - May 12, 1956) was an American stage and screen actor of the silent era.
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Early life
While still a child, his family left New York City and moved to St. Louis, where he grew up. While playing high school football, a stage manager from a touring theatrical stock company spotted him, and hired him as an extra. Just prior to World War I, Calhern decided to move back to New York to pursue an acting career. He began as a prop boy and bit player with touring companies and burlesque companies. His burgeoning carrer was interrupted by the war and he served overseas in the military during World War I.
Career
He became a matinee idol by virtue of a play titled The Cobra, and soon began to act in films. In the early 30s he was primarily cast as a character actor in Hollywood, while he continued to play leading roles on stage. He finally reached his peak in the 1950s as an MGM contract player, among his most memorable roles were the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, and in 1950 his Oscar-nominated role as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee.
Death
Calhern died of a sudden heart attack in Tokyo, while filming The Teahouse of the August Moon. He his buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.