Clifton Webb
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Clifton Webb | |
---|---|
Born | Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck November 19, 1889 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
Died | October 13, 1966 | (aged 76)
Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1913–1962 |
Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck (November 19, 1889[1] – October 13, 1966), known professionally as Clifton Webb, was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He worked extensively and was known for his stage appearances in the plays of Noël Coward, including Blithe Spirit, as well as appearances on Broadway in a number of successful musical revues. As a film actor, he was nominated for three Academy Awards - Best Supporting Actor for Laura (1944) and The Razor's Edge (1946), and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Sitting Pretty (1948).
Early life
Webb was born Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the only child of Jacob Grant Hollenbeck (1867 – May 2, 1939), the ticket-clerk son of a grocer from an Indiana farming family, and his wife, the former Mabel A. Parmelee (Parmalee or Parmallee; March 24, 1869 – October 17, 1960), the daughter of David Parmelee, a railroad conductor. The couple married in Kankakee, Illinois, on January 18, 1888, and separated in 1891, shortly after their son's birth.[2] According to Marion County, Indiana, records, the marriage took place in Indianapolis.
In 1892, Webb's mother, now styling herself "Mabelle", moved to New York City with her beloved "little Webb", as she called him for the remainder of her life. She dismissed questions about her husband, Jacob, who like her father, worked for the
Career
Broadway
In 1909, using his new stage name, 19-year-old Clifton Webb had become a professional ballroom dancer, often partnering with "exceedingly decorative" star dancer Bonnie Glass (she would eventually replace him with
The year 1917 proved to be better, with a 233-performance run of
In the 1920s, Webb played in eight Broadway shows and made numerous other stage appearances, including
In 1925, Webb appeared on stage in a dance act with vaudeville star and silent film actress Mary Hay. Later that year, when her husband, Tol'able David star Richard Barthelmess and she decided to produce and star the film New Toys, they chose Webb to be second lead. The film proved to be financially successful, but 19 more years would pass before Webb appeared in another feature film.
Webb's mainstay was clearly Broadway theatre. Between 1913 and 1947, the tall, slender performer with the clear, gentle tenor appeared in 23 Broadway shows, starting with major supporting roles and quickly progressing to leads. He introduced Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade" and George and Ira Gershwin's "I've Got a Crush on You" in Treasure Girl in 1928; Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" in The Little Show in 1929; "Louisiana Hayride" in Flying Colors in 1932; and Irving Berlin's "Not for All the Rice in China" in the very successful revue As Thousands Cheer. His steamy duet with Libby Holman of Moanin' Low stunned the crowd nightly.[5] in 1933. One of his stage sketches, performed with co-star Fred Allen, was filmed by Vitaphone as a short subject entitled The Still Alarm in 1930. Allen's experiences while working with Webb in the film appear in Allen's memoirs.
Most of Webb's Broadway shows were musicals, but he also starred in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and his longtime friend Noël Coward's plays Blithe Spirit and Present Laughter.
Laura – established as character actor
Webb was in his mid-fifties when actor/director
Webb's performance won him wide acclaim, and he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Despite Zanuck's original objection, Webb was signed to a long-term contract with Fox. He worked for them solely for the rest of his career. His first film under the contract was The Dark Corner (1946), a film noir directed by Henry Hathaway; as in Laura, Webb played a suave villain. He was then reunited with Tierney in another highly praised role as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946). He received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Sitting Pretty and stardom
Webb was billed in a starring role in Sitting Pretty, playing Mr. Belvedere, a snide, know-it-all babysitter. It was a huge hit and Webb received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Fox promptly put Webb in a sequel, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) where Belvedere has to complete his college degree and acts as matchmaker. It was another box office success.
In the film
Less successful at the box-office was For Heaven's Sake (1950) in which Webb played an angel trying to help a couple on earth. He made Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951), with Belvedere causing trouble in an old-folks home, but the film was not as successful at the box-office as the first two, resulting in the end of the series.
Webb played a father trying to cancel his daughter Anne Francis' marriage in Elopement (1952), a minor hit. He made a brief appearance in Belles on Their Toes (1952), on a sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen, which covered the family's life after the death of the father.
Webb then starred in Dreamboat (1952) as college professor Thornton Sayre, who in his younger days was known as silent-film idol Bruce "Dreamboat" Blair. Now a distinguished academic who wants no part of his past fame, he sets out to stop the showing of his old films on television. The film concludes with Webb's alter ego Sayre watching himself star in Sitting Pretty.
Around the same time, he starred in the Technicolor film biography of bandmaster John Philip Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever (also 1952). He was a Belvedere-like scoutmaster in Mister Scoutmaster (1953). Webb had his most dramatic role as the doomed but brave husband of unfaithful Barbara Stanwyck in Titanic (also 1953). Writer Walter Reisch says this movie was created in part as a vehicle for Webb by Fox, who wanted to push Webb into more serious roles.[6]
Soon afterwards, he played the (fictional) novelist John Frederick Shadwell in Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), romancing Dorothy McGuire. It was a huge hit. He was top billed as a company owner in Woman's World (1954), a corporate drama.
The British film The Man Who Never Was (1956) featured Webb playing the part of Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu in the true story of Operation Mincemeat, the elaborate plan to deceive the Axis powers about the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II. In Boy on a Dolphin (1957), second-billed to Alan Ladd, with third-billed Sophia Loren, he portrayed a wealthy sophisticate who enjoyed collecting illegally obtained Greek antiquities. In a nod to his own identity, the character's name was Victor Parmalee.
He starred in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959), a Cheaper By the Dozen comedy as a man with two families, and Holiday for Lovers (1959), a family comedy set in South America. Neither was particularly successful. Fox was developing Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) as a vehicle for Webb, but when he fell ill and was unable to work, James Mason stepped into the role.[7]
Webb's final film role was an initially sarcastic, but ultimately self-sacrificing Catholic priest in Leo McCarey's Satan Never Sleeps (1962). The film showed the victory of Mao Tse-tung's armies in the Chinese Civil War, which ended with his ascension to power in 1949, but was actually filmed in Britain during the summer of 1961, using sets left from the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), which was also set in China.
Webb was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6850 Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the motion picture industry.[8]
Webb's portrayal of Lynn Belvedere was the model for the "Mr. Peabody" character in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment of the animated cartoon series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.
Personal life
Throughout his career, Clifton Webb remained a confirmed bachelor and had no children. He lived with his mother until her death at age 91 in 1960, leading Noël Coward to remark, "It must be terrible to be orphaned at 71."[9]
Actor Robert Wagner, who co-starred with Webb in the films Stars and Stripes Forever and Titanic and considered the actor one of his mentors, stated in his memoirs, Pieces of My Heart: A Life, that "Clifton Webb was gay, of course, but he never made a pass at me, not that he would have."[10][11][12] According to a journal article published more than 40 years after Webb's death, his sexual orientation was frequently alluded to through many veiled references in entertainment newspaper columns, though the article does not provide digital scans of any of them.[13]
On the Kraft Music Hall network radio broadcast of March 25, 1948, Webb exchanged banter with singer/actor Al Jolson and pianist/comedian Oscar Levant, with Webb, then near 60 himself, charging Jolson with "having aged". "You're not exactly a boy," responded Jolson, to which Levant added, "He's not exactly a girl, either."[13]
Later years and death
Due to health problems, Webb spent the last five years of his life as a recluse at his home in
Legacy
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television's Clifton Webb Scholarship, which was established in 1969, was named in honor of Webb.[16][17]
Complete filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1917 | National Red Cross Pageant | Dancer, The Pavane – French episode | Lost film |
1920 | Polly With a Past
|
Harry Richardson | Uncredited Lost film |
1924 | Let Not Man Put Asunder | Major Bertie | Uncredited Lost film |
1925 | New Toys | Tom Lawrence | Lost film |
The Heart of a Siren | Maxim | Alternative title: The Heart of a Temptress | |
1930 | The Still Alarm | short Vitaphone film | |
1944 | Laura | Waldo Lydecker | |
1946 | The Dark Corner | Hardy Cathcart | |
The Razor's Edge | Elliott Templeton | ||
1948 | Sitting Pretty | Lynn Belvedere | |
1949 | Mr. Belvedere Goes to College | Lynn Aloysius Belvedere
|
|
1950 | Cheaper by the Dozen | Frank Bunker Gilbreth | |
For Heaven's Sake | Charles / Slim Charles | ||
1951 | Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell | Lynn Belvedere | Alternative title: Mr. Belvedere Blows His Whistle |
Elopement | Howard Osborne | ||
1952 | Belles on Their Toes | Frank Bunker Gilbreth | Uncredited |
Dreamboat | Thornton Sayre / Dreamboat / Bruce Blair | ||
Stars and Stripes Forever | John Philip Sousa | Alternative title: Marching Along | |
1953 | Titanic | Richard Ward Sturges | |
Mister Scoutmaster | Robert Jordan | ||
1954 | Three Coins in the Fountain | John Frederick Shadwell | |
Woman's World | Ernest Gifford | Alternative title: A Woman's World | |
1956 | The Man Who Never Was | Lt. Cdr. Ewen Montagu | |
1957 | Boy on a Dolphin | Victor Parmalee | |
1959 | The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker | Mr. Horace Pennypacker | |
Holiday for Lovers | Robert Dean | ||
1962 | Satan Never Sleeps | Father Bovard | Alternative titles: The Devil Never Sleeps Flight from Terror, (final film role) |
Box office ranking
For a number of years film exhibitors voted Webb among the most popular stars in the country:
- 1949: 14th (U.S.)[18]
- 1950: 7th (U.S.)
- 1951: 21st (U.S.)
Stage work
- The Master of Carlton Hall (Children's Theatre) (1902)
- The Purple Road (1913)
- Dancing Around (1914)
- Ned Wayburn's Town Topics (1915)
- See America First (1916)
- Love O' Mike (1917)
- Listen Lester (1918)
- As You Were (1920)
- Fun at the Faire (1921)
- Phi-Phi (1922)
- Jack and Jill (1923)
- Meet the Wife (1923)
- Parasites (1924)
- Sunny (1925)
- She's My Baby (1928)
- Treasure Girl (1928)
- The Little Show (1929)
- Three's a Crowd (1930)
- Flying Colors (1932)
- As Thousands Cheer (1933)
- And Stars Remain (1936)
- You Never Know (1938)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (1939)
- Blithe Spirit (1941)
- Present Laughter (1946)
Radio appearances
Year | Program | Episode | Co Star | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1945 | Suspense | "The Burning Court" | n/a | |
1949 | Lux Radio Theatre | "Sitting Pretty" | w/ Robert Young | |
1950 | Lux Radio Theatre | "Mr. Belvedere Goes to College" | w/ Robert Stack[19] | |
1950 | Lux Radio Theatre | " The Man Who Came To Dinner " |
w/ Lucille Ball | |
1950 | The Big Show | n/a | w/ Tallulah Bankhead & Jimmy Durante | |
1951 | Lux Radio Theatre | "Cheaper by the Dozen" | w/ Rhoda Williams |
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Result | Category | Film |
---|---|---|---|---|
1945 | Academy Award | Nominated | Best Supporting Actor | Laura |
1947 | The Razor's Edge | |||
1949 | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Sitting Pretty | ||
1947 | Golden Globe Award | Won | Best Supporting Actor | The Razor's Edge |
1953 | Nominated | Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy | Stars and Stripes Forever |
See also
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
- ^ Illinois Marriage Collection, 1800–1941; www.ancestry.com, accessed September 25, 2010
- ^ Also living with them was Mabelle's mother, Grace S. Parmelee. Information from 1900 U.S. Federal Census viewed on ancestry.com, September 25, 2010. The 1910 U. S. federal census shows that Mabelle Hollenbeck and Green Raum had been married since 1897; he had formerly been married to Annie Iredell Rogers in 1890 (separated 1891, divorced 1894).
- ^ 1910 U.S. Federal Census accessed on ancestry.com on September 25, 2010
- ISBN 0-7935-7750-0
- ^ McGilligan, Patrick (1991). Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 237–238.
- ^ McGilligan, Pat (1991). Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s. University of California Press. pp. 243–244.
- ^ "Clifton Webb". walkoffame.com. October 25, 2019.
- ISBN 1-57488-480-8.
- ^ Robert Wagner with Scott Eyman, Pieces of My Heart: A Life (HarperCollins, 2009)
- ^ Robert Hofler, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson (Carroll & Graf, 2006), p. 203
- ^ Graham Payn with Barry Day, My Life with Noël, (Hal Leonard Corporation, 1996), page 5
- ^ S2CID 191480093.
- ^ Obituary Variety, October 19, 1966, page 54.
- ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 49982-49983). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition
- Broadway World. Archivedfrom the original on December 25, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
- UCLA. Archivedfrom the original on May 23, 2022. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
- ^ "Hope Tops Crosby At the Boxoffice" by Richard L. Coe. The Washington Post (1923–1954) 30 December 1949: 19.
- ^ "Monday Selections". Toledo Blade (Ohio). January 16, 1950. p. 4 (Peach Section). Retrieved October 10, 2022.
External links
- Clifton Webb at the Internet Broadway Database
- Clifton Webb at IMDb
- Clifton Webb at the TCM Movie Database
- Clifton Webb.com
- AFI Catalog entry for Clifton Webb
- Indiana Hollywood Hall of Fame: Clifton Webb
- 1921 passport photos of Webb and his mother Mabelle
- Literature on Clifton Webb
- The Clifton Webb Collection includes Webb's scrapbooks, autobiography drafts, personal and business correspondence, programs, clippings, notebooks and more are held by the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, The Ohio State University Libraries.