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The character actor provided the understructure of
a film. Take any movie, good or mediocre, from 1930 to 1970 and
you will find one or more memorable “characters”.
A leading role in films usually required a “name”,
a celebrated star who had mass appeal and who could bring audiences
into the theater. The character or featured roles depended on
someone who specialized in a particular “type” of
personality and who could wrap a persona around the role to give
it dimension, depth and mood soon identified with that actor alone.
It was these players who kept the audiences in their seats.
Walter Brennan
July 25th, 1894 -
September 21st, 1974
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Teeth in, Walter Brennan was a great actor but when he
took them out he was an American original.
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He was born Walter Andrew Brennan
in Swampscott, Massachusetts, the son of an engineer and
his family fully expected him to follow in his father’s
footsteps. But Brennan got the acting bug while still in
college and went into vaudeville when he graduated. However,
two serious accidents molded his career. Walter enlisted
in the army during WWII and, while serving in an artillery
unit, was severely exposed to poison gas that ruined his
vocal cords and completely changed the texture of his voice.
After he was mustered out, he headed for California,
hoping that the change of climate would restore his health.
There he met and married Ruth Wells, a marriage that would
last 54 years until his death. A brief success in real estate
there was dashed when land values collapsed in 1925 so it
was off to the casting offices of the major studios where
he could pick up bit parts in films. It was there he met
Gary Cooper and the two became fast friends often appearing
as a team at casting calls. |
Brennan had mimicked dialects as a boy and it served
him well when talkies replaced silent films. In 1932, a second
accident during the shooting of a film cost him his teeth (some
say it was a stray kick by another actor, some blame it on a mule).
Walter was fitted with false teeth but found that taking them
out added to some of his characterizations and, with his gravelly
voice, gave him the ability to take the role of old men even though
he wasn’t yet out of his 30’s. The “old codger”
role was born.
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“The Wedding Night” as Jenkins, he also was given
a contract with Sam Goldwyn. By 1935 his parts were getting
fewer but bigger. Then, in 1936, Walter won his first Academy
Award as Swan Bostrom. a Swede, in “Come and Get It”.
Two years, later, he got his second as crotchety Uncle Pete
Goodwin in 1938’s “Kentucky”. But he also
played another unforgettable role that year…as Muff
Potter in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” for David
O. Selznick. In 1940, with good friend Gary Cooper, he portrayed
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Judge Roy Bean in “The Westerner” and got a
phenomenal third Oscar. He would also get a nomination in 1941 for
his role of Pastor Rosier Pile in “Sergeant York” again
with Gary Cooper.
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Soon Brennan’s name in the cast gave credence
and box office status to any film he did through the 1960’s.
One of the biggest roles of his career came in ‘Rio
Bravo” as Stumpy, the jailhouse keeper, in Howard Hawk’s
“Rio Bravo” with John Wayne and Dean Martin. The
it was off to television and huge success as Amos McCoy of
“The Real McCoys”, a character Brennan created
from all the relics of past old codger roles in his repetoire.
He was nominated for an Emmy for that role in 1959. Two other
series, “Tycoon”and “The Guns of Will |
Sonnett”followed six seasons of the McCoys. . He
also made a name for himself as a recording artist with a hit record
“Old Rivers”. 
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On the homefront, Walter Brennan had again become
a land owner with a 12,000 acre ranch and other property in
Northern California, and Joseph, Oregon. His sons, Arthur
and Walter, Jr. (Andy) ran the ranch. The Brennans also had
a daughter, Ruth. Only Andy did any film work.
Walter Brennan died of emphysema at the age of 80 in Oxhard, California.
He left over 200 pieces of work, most of them Westerns.
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