Edmund Gwenn was one of the most accomplished and beloved character actors on stage and screen in both his native England and the U.S. He was directed in four films by Alfred Hitchcock and, in the theater, was identified with such outstanding playwrights as George Bernard Shaw, J.B. Priestley and John Galsworthy.

Gwenn was one of the few character types to emerge as a Hollywood star. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his iconic performance as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and was nominated again for Edmund Goulding's Mister 880 (1950).

Edmund John Kellaway was born September 26, 1877, in Wandsworth, London. Educated at King's College London, he began his theater career in 1895, playing broad comedy roles in London and, later, Australia. During the early 1900s, he returned to the London stage and established himself in more sophisticated supporting roles, then leads. His career was interrupted by World War I, during which he served as an officer in the British Army. By the 1920s, he had graduated to starring roles in major productions.

Gwenn made his screen debut in the English short The Real Thing at Last (1916). After some 25 other British movies, he came to Hollywood to act in MGM's The Bishop Misbehaves and RKO's Sylvia Scarlett (both 1935). From then on, he was in demand in films and on Broadway (and eventually television), then moved his home to Beverly Hills. All told, he acted in more than 85 movies.

Gwenn was married in 1901, to Minnie Terry, the niece of actress Ellen Terry. Although they lived together only briefly, the marriage wasn't dissolved until 1914. He remained a bachelor for the rest of his life and died in 1959 from pneumonia after suffering a stroke.

Here are the movies in our salute to Edmund Gwenn:

Anthony Adverse (1936) stars Fredric March in the title role of this Oscar-winning screen version of the Hervey Allen novel, with Olivia de Havilland as Anthony's bride and Gwenn as his adoptive father - who turns out to also be his grandfather! Parnell (1937) was a Clark Gable vehicle and, rather famously, one of his few flops of the period. Most people thought he was miscast as Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell. Myrna Loy costars as his married love interest and Gwenn is fellow politician Henry Campbell.

The Earl of Chicago (1940) stars Robert Montgomery as an ex-bootlegger who inherits an estate in England and finds that his gangster-like ways don't work well among polite British society. Gwenn plays the kindly butler who helps him along. Dangerous Partners (1945) gave Gwenn a rare villainous role as a member of a Nazi gang mixed up in a plot involving missing wills. James Craig stars as an intrepid attorney.

Bewitched (1945), a film noir about a woman with a split personality (Phyllis Thaxter), gives Gwenn star billing as the psychiatrist who treats her. She Went to the Races (1945) is a comedy with Gwenn as a research scientist who is about to lose his job at an institute in Los Angeles and is helped out by a group of cronies who think they have a surefire plan for winning at the track. James Craig and Frances Gifford star with the young Ava Gardner in a supporting role. It's a Dog's Life (1955) tells the story of a bull terrier who has been used in fights but finds a new life as a show dog. Gwenn plays a caretaker who helps the canine on his way.

by Roger Fristoe