WALTER PIDGEON

'Walter Davis Pidgeon' (September 23, 1897–September 25, 1984) was a Canadian actor who lived most of his life
in the United States and eventually became a US citizen.
Born near Saint John, New Brunswick, he attended local public schools followed by the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His studies were interrupted by World War I and his enlistment in the 65th Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery. He never saw combat as he was severely injured when crushed between two gun carriages and hospitalized for 17 months.
After the War he moved to Boston, where he worked as a bank runner. Discontented with banking, he moved to New York City where he made his entrance as an actor by walking into the office of E. E. Clive and announcing that he could act and sing and was ready to prove it.
Pidgeon
began his career by studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He was a classically trained baritone.
After working as an actor on stage for a few years, he made his Broadway debut in 1925. He made several silent movies in the 1920s. He became a huge star with the arrival of talkies because he was able to sing pleasantly. He starred in a number of extravagant early Technicolor musicals such as ''The Bride of the Regiment'' (1930), ''Sweet Kitty Bellairs'' (1930), ''Kiss Me Again'' (1930) and ''Viennese Nights'' (1930). He quickly became associated with musicals, however, and when the the public grew weary of them late in 1930, his career began to falter. Afterwards, Pidgeon played secondary roles in such films as ''Saratoga'' and ''The Girl of the Golden West''.
It was not until he starred in ''How Green Was My Valley'' that his popularity soared once again. He starred opposite Greer Garson in ''Blossoms in the Dust'', in ''Mrs. Miniver'' (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) and in its sequel, ''The Miniver Story''. He was nominated again in 1944 for ''Madame Curie'', again opposite Garson. Although he continued making films, including ''Week-End at the Waldorf'' and ''Forbidden Planet'', based on Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'', Pidgeon returned to work on Broadway in the mid-1950s after a twenty-year absence, and was featured in ''Take Me Along'' with Jackie Gleason. He continued making films, playing Admiral Harriman Nelson in the 1961 ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'', and in 1962, in Walt Disney's ''Big Red'' and Otto Preminger's ''Advise and Consent''. His role as Florenz Ziegfield in ''Funny Girl'' (1965) was well received. He also played Casey, James Coburn's sidekick in ''Harry in Your Pocket''(1973). Also during his career, he guest-starred in many television programs, including ''Perry Mason'', ''The FBI'', and ''Marcus Welby, M.D.''.
Pidgeon was active in the Screen Actors Guild and served as President from 1952-1957. In this role he tried to stop the production of the film Salt of the Earth which was made by a team blacklisted during the Red Scare.
He retired fully in 1973, and died of stroke in Santa Monica, California, in 1984. In accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to the UCLA Medical School for medical research.
Pidgeon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6414 Hollywood Blvd.
Pidgeon married twice. In 1919 he married Edna Pickles. This marriage was short-lived as she died in 1921 at the birth of their daughter, Edna Pidgeon Atkins. Through her he had two granddaughters, Pat and Pam. In 1931 he married his secretary, Ruth Walker, to whom he remained married until his death. They had no children.

Contents

Selected filmography

See also

External links

Selected filmography

★ ''Dark Command'' (1940)

★ ''How Green Was My Valley'' (1941)

★ ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942)

★ ''Madame Curie'' (1943)

★ ''Mrs. Parkington'' (1944)

★ ''Command Decision'' (1948)

★ ''The Miniver Story'' (1950)

★ ''Million Dollar Mermaid'' (1952)

★ ''The Bad and the Beautiful'' (1952)

★ ''Dream Wife'' (1953)

★ ''Executive Suite'' (1954)

★ ''The Last Time I Saw Paris'' (1954)

★ ''Forbidden Planet'' (1956)

★ ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' (1961)

★ ''Advise and Consent'' (1962)

See also

★ Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

External links

★

★

★ New York Times obituary