* Films in Bold Will Air on TCM in March

Clifton Webb enjoyed one of the more unusual careers in film acting, establishing himself as a starchy and somewhat effete character actor in the mid-1940s before emerging at the end of that decade -- when he was almost 60 -- as a full-fledged movie star. The vehicle that turned the trick for him was Sitting Pretty (1948), in which he played the imperious and all-knowing babysitter, Lynn Belvedere. Webb appeared in two sequels, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) and Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951), and worked variations on the character in such other films as Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), For Heaven's Sake (1950), Mister Scoutmaster (1953) and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959).

One could be forgiven for thinking that Webb, with his crisp diction and impeccable demeanor, was British. However, he was born in a rural area of Marion County, Indiana, near Indianapolis, on November 19, 1899. Christened Webb Parmalee Hollenbeck, he was raised by his mother Mabel after she and his father separated. As a youngster he studied dance, theater, music and painting. By age 19, under the name Clifton Webb, he had become a professional ballroom dancer. He performed in operettas and made his debut on Broadway in The Purple Road in 1913. Through the 1920s he appeared in many other plays and revues in New York, and acted in a handful of silent films.

His mainstay through the early 1940s was Broadway, where he progressed from supporting player to leading man and often employed his clear, pleasant tenor in singing roles. During his tenure in musical comedy he introduced several famous songs including Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade," George and Ira Gershwin's "I've Got a Crush on You" and Arthur Schwartz and George Dietz's "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan." As a straight leading man Webb had great success in the Noel Coward plays Blithe Spirit and Present Laughter.

Webb's big break in movies came when director Otto Preminger cast him in the classic film noir Laura (1944) as Waldo Lydecker, a snide radio columnist with sinister designs on beautiful Gene Tierney. The performance won him critical acclaim and led to a long-term contract with Twentieth Century Fox and another highly praised performance as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946). He received Oscar® nominations for both films as Best Supporting Actor.

Sitting Pretty brought him another nomination, this one as Best Actor. After the huge success of that film, Webb continued to play leads in Fox movies for the next 14 years. Another hit was Cheaper by the Dozen, with Webb and Myrna Loy as Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, real-life efficiency experts of the 1920s who raised 12 children. Webb was quite funny in Mister Scoutmaster as a TV star trying to get in touch with the younger generation. His most dramatic role came in Titanic (1953), in which he clashes memorably with Barbara Stanwyck as an estranged couple quarreling over custody of their children during the ship's ill-fated voyage.

Other highlights included Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), a biopic with Webb as composer John Philip Sousa; and two all-star romantic comedies in which he is top-billed, Three Coins in the Fountain and Woman's World (both 1954). In Boy on a Dolphin (1957), costarring Alan Ladd and Sophia Loren, Webb plays a ruthless art collector named Parmalee (his middle name, taken from his mother's maiden name). His final film role was that of an aging, self-sacrificing priest in China in Satan Never Sleeps, (1962), costarring William Holden.

Webb, who died in 1966, remained a bachelor all his life and lived with his mother until her death at age 91. Reportedly, he grieved fiercely for her, prompting his friend Noel Coward to comment, "It must be terrible to be orphaned at 71."

by Roger Fristoe