Walter Connolly

The name may have been forgotten especially today seven decades later but the portly apoplectic exasperated figure on the 1930s screen wasnt While his film career save a couple of silents lasted a paltry seven years 19321939 character actor Walter Connolly certainly ran the distance While some film historians complain that a number of his performances were annoying or overbaked he was for the most part applauded for his zesty contributions to a number of comedy classics Frank Capras Lady for a Day 1933 Broadway Bill 1934 and It Happened One Night 1934 not to mention the Carole LombardFredric March screwball farce Nothing Sacred 1937 as news reporter Marchs hotheaded editor boss are surefire examples The Cincinnati Ohio native was born on April 8 1887 and schooled there The son of the head of the Western Union relay office he attended St Xavier College and the University of Dublin in Ireland before making his New York debut in 1910 in an outdoor presentation of As You Like It For the next year or so he was a member of EH Sotherns touring company and played supporting roles in a number of Shakespearean shows on the road After a few silent pictures left him unimpressed with filmmaking he turned to the Broadway stage in the 1920s and scored quite well Somewhat short and tubby it was not difficult for the jowly mustachioed actor to seize laughs and he found his share in such outings as The Talking Parrot 1923 Applesauce 1925 The Springboard 1927 The Happy Husband 1928 Stepping Out 1929 Your Uncle Dudley 1930 Anatol 1931 Six Characters in Search of an Author 1931 The Good Fairy 1932 and The Late Christopher Bean 1932 With his talents as a stage farceur firmly established it was time to make a second attempt at a film career and Hollywood specifically Columbia wisely opened their doors to him Interestingly his debut in a fulllength talking picture came at age 45 in the form of a drama Washington MerryGoRound 1932 where he was thirdbilled as a rather benign senator For the next seven years Connolly often playing older than he really was could be found everywhere giving good fluster to the greatest and glossiest of stars Janet Gaynor Carole Lombard Clark Gable Jean Harlow Myrna Loy Paul Muni Spencer Tracy and Ginger Rogers among hordes of others His hobbies were collecting old books and theatre programmes Connolly was married to actress Nedda Harrigan from 1923 to his death They had one daughter Ann 19242006 Connolly suffered a fatal stroke on May 28 1940 and was buried in New St Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati