Walter Connolly
as Doctor Grauer in Bridal Suite (1939)
Born(1887-04-08)April 8, 1887
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
DiedMay 28, 1940(1940-05-28) (aged 53)
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Film, stage and radio actor
Years active1914–1939
Spouse
​
(m. 1921)​
Children1

Walter Connolly (April 8, 1887[1] – May 28, 1940) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 50 films from 1914 to 1939. His best known film is It Happened One Night (1934).

Early years

Born in Cincinnati to Walter Joseph Connolly and Ella Burke, Connolly attended St. Xavier College and the Cincinnati College of Music, and acted locally in amateur theatrical productions. Several years later, following his service with the U. S. Marines in World War I, rather than return directly to the U.S., Connolly elected to visit Ireland, where he enrolled in a number of non-theatre-related courses at the University of Dublin, reportedly with the intention of abandoning the profession altogether. However, numerous visits to the Abbey Theater evidently rekindled Connolly's acting bug,[1] and within four months of his return to the States,[2] Connolly was being praised for his work alongside Margaret Anglin and others in Paul Kester's adaptation of Henry Kistemaeckers' play, The Woman of Bronze.[3][4]

Career

Between the years of 1916 and 1935, Connolly was a successful stage actor who appeared in twenty-two Broadway productions, notably revivals of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.[5] His first film appearances came in two silent films, The Marked Woman (1914) and A Soldier's Oath (1915), and his first talkie film came in 1930, Many Happy Returns, but his Hollywood film career really began in 1932, when he appeared in four films. His trademark role was that of the exasperated business tycoon or newspaperman, often as the father of the female lead character, as in It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; Broadway Bill (1934), supporting Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy; and Libeled Lady (1936) with William Powell and Loy again. Other notable roles included the worthless uncle of Paul Muni's character in The Good Earth (1937) and one of the two con men encountered by Mickey Rooney's Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). Connolly played General Yen's American advisor in The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933).

Connolly mostly played supporting roles, but starred occasionally, as Nero Wolfe in The League of Frightened Men (1937), in RKO's 5th Ave Girl (1939), opposite Ginger Rogers, and as the title character in The Great Victor Herbert (1939), his last film.

On radio, Connolly starred as the title character in The Adventures of Charlie Chan on NBC Radio from 1932 to 1938.[6]

Death

Connolly died on May 28, 1940 in Beverly Hills, following a stroke,[1] and was buried in St. Joseph New Cemetery in Cincinnati.[7]

Complete filmography

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "WALTER CONNOLLY, ACTOR, 53, IS DEAD: Veteran of Stage and Screen Toured With Sothern and Marlowe in 1911-14 JOINED FILMS 8 YEARS AGO Played Role of Victor Herbert in Recent Picture--Planned Broadway Return in Fall Portrayed Many Types Went on Stage at 21 Appeared in 'Applesauce'". The New York Times. May 29, 1940. p. 29. ProQuest 105463030. Mr. Connolly was born in Cincinnati on April 8, 1887, a son of Walter Joseph Connelly, a telegraph employe, and Ella Burke Connolly. He attended St. Xavier's College in Cincinnati and the Cincinnati College of Music, and later in life took courses at the University of Dublin. [...] After the war, he went to Dublin, where he studied with the intention of embracing some other calling than that of the actor. His efforts to leave the stage were frustrated when he made several visits to the Abbey Theater, visits which again aroused the call of the boards.
  2. ↑ "In Dramatic Studios". The Cincinnati Enquirer. September 7, 1919. Sec. IV, p. 5. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Russian, Hungarian, Latin Roles All One To Walter Connolly: Actor Finds Irish Ancestry No Handicap in Parts That Are Obviously Non-Celtic Domineering in 'Grand Hotel'; Got Job as Curtain Boy; Studied at Dublin University". New York Herald Tribune. November 29, 1931. p. F2. ProQuest 1114156636. This was 1917. Walter Connolly could not forget that Irish ancestry. He enlisted in the Marines and departed for France. Before he returned to this country, at the end of the war, he went into Ireland and studied at the University of Dublin, spending some time at the Abbey Theater. Back in New York again, Connolly then resumed his career in 'The Woman in Bronze,' with Margaret Anglin, playing the role of the lovable Paddy Griggs.
  4. ↑ Hammond, Percy (January 9, 1920). "The Theatre". Chicago Tribune. p. 13. ProQuest 174608425. When Miss Anglin and the emotions are effectively in confluence, as they are in 'The Woman of Bronze,' you may expect to experience all the rapid and sympathetic heart-beats common to the theater. [...] 'The Woman of Bronze' is deliberate, premeditated, and according to order. Paul Kester, who adapted it from the collaboration of Henry Kistemaecker and Eugene Delard, deprives it of none of its routine possibilities, and it is by no means a botch. The acting is very good, and it includes that of Fred Eric as the sculptor, Walter Connolly as the honest friend, Miss Marion Barney as a merry widow, Sidney Mather as a semi-villain, and others.
  5. ↑ Walter Connolly at the Internet Broadway Database
  6. ↑ Cox, Jim (June 24, 2015). Radio Crime Fighters: More Than 300 Programs from the Golden Age. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4766-1227-0.
  7. ↑ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-7864-7992-4.
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