WALTER BRENNAN

Walter Brennan was a great character actor from the 1920s to the 1970s. Amazingly, it took him many years to get beyond playing uncredited roles! He had served in World War I (and supposedly he was exposed to mustard gas, which damaged his vocal chords and caused his distinctive voice!), and then he moved to Los Angeles where he speculated on real estate and made a fortune. But then he went broke, and he turned to movie acting in 1925, where he met struggling actor Gary Cooper, and the two became great friends, trying to get roles at the same time. But unlike Cooper, who became a major star, Brennan spent almost a decade playing very minor roles (often uncredited). In 1932, he had an accident while filming a movie, losing most of his teeth after an actor kicked his face, and from that point on, he played people much older than himself, often hillbillies! But he finally had a major role in Come and Get It (winner of the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film) in 1936, and he had major success from then on. Some of his roles include: Kentucky (winner of the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film), The Westerner (winner of the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film), Red River, Bride of Frankenstein, and My Darling Clementine. He appeared in several movies with Gary Cooper, including Sergeant York (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film) and Meet John Doe. He had much fame later in life as the star of TV's "The Real McCoys". Brennan passed away in 1974 at the age of 80.