Donald Crisp

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Donald Crisp
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • producer
  • director
  • screenwriter
Years active1908–1963
Political partyRepublican
Spouses
  • Helen Pease
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1912; died 1913)​
  • Marie Stark
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1917; div. 1920)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1932; div. 1944)​

Donald William Crisp (27 July 1882 – 25 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley.[1]

Early life

Donald Crisp was born George William Crisp in Bow, London, in a family home on 27 July 1882.[2] He was the youngest of ten children (four boys and six girls) born to Elizabeth (née Christy) and James Crisp, a labourer. He was educated locally and in 1901 was living with his parents and working as a driver of a horse-drawn vehicle.[3]

Crisp made a number of claims about his early life that were eventually proven false decades after his death. He claimed that he was born in 1880 in

10th Hussars in the Boer War.[8][3]

Early career

Still of Crisp in a US Army uniform for his role as General Ulysses S. Grant in D. W. Griffith's silent drama The Birth of a Nation (1915)

While travelling on the

D.W. Griffith. When Griffith ventured west, to seek his fortune in Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him. [citation needed
]

From 1908 to 1930, Crisp, in addition to directing dozens of films, also appeared in nearly 100 silent films, though many in bit or small parts. One notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffith's landmark film The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Another was his role in Griffith's 1919 film Broken Blossoms as "Battling Burrows", the brutal and abusive father of the film's heroine, Lucy Burrows (played by Lillian Gish; the actress was only 11 years his junior).[10]

Director

Crisp worked as an assistant to Griffith for several years and learned much during this time from Griffith, an early master of film story telling who was influential in advancing a number of early techniques, such as

cross cutting in editing his films. This experience fostered a similar passion in Crisp to become a director in his own right. His first directing credit was Little Country Mouse, made in 1914. Many directors (and actors) would find themselves turning out a dozen or more films in a single year at this time. Over the next fifteen years, Crisp directed some 70 films in all, most notably The Navigator (1924) with Buster Keaton and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) with Douglas Fairbanks.[11]

When asked later by an interviewer why he eventually gave up directing and returned full-time to acting, Crisp commented that directing had become extremely wearisome because he was so often called upon, if not forced, to do favours for

better source needed
]

Military career

Between working for Griffith and other producers, along with his many acting roles, Crisp managed to return to the U.K., serving in British army intelligence during the First World War (1914–1918).[13][7] Crisp became an American citizen in 1930;[14] during the Second World War (1939–1945), he served in the United States Army Reserve, attaining the rank of colonel.

Return to acting

From trailer for Shining Victory (1941)

With the advent of "talkies", Crisp abandoned directing and devoted himself entirely to acting after 1930. He became a much sought after character actor. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in a wide range of roles alongside some of the era's biggest stars, including Katharine Hepburn in The Little Minister (1934) and A Woman Rebels (1936), Charles Laughton and Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Bette Davis and Henry Fonda in That Certain Woman (1937) and Jezebel (1938), Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1939), Errol Flynn in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940) and Gregory Peck in The Valley of Decision (1945).[10]

A versatile supporting actor, Crisp could be equally good in lovable or sinister roles. During the same period he was playing loving father figures or charming old codgers in classic films like National Velvet and Lassie Come Home, he also turned in a well-received performance as Commander Beach, the tormented presumptive grandfather in Lewis Allen's The Uninvited (1944). Undoubtedly, however, Crisp's most memorable role was as the taciturn but loving father in How Green Was My Valley (1941) directed by John Ford. The film received ten Oscar nominations, winning five, including Best Picture, with Crisp winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1942.[10]

Hollywood power broker

Crisp was an active and important liaison between the film industry and outside business interests. His extensive experience in business, the military and entertainment, including being a production and

chairman. In this role, he had the ear of its board of directors, and many of the films eventually financed by the bank during the 1930s and 1940s got their most important approval from Crisp.[12]

Later years and legacy

Crisp eventually became one of the more wealthy members of the film industry. His "banker's sobriety", extensive contacts and clarity of thought allowed him to make good investments, particularly in the

Earl Hamner, Jr., was the basis for the 1970s television series The Waltons.[10]

Crisp was in his eighties by the time he quit acting entirely, continuing to work long after it was financially necessary simply because he enjoyed it. He was married three times. In 1912, he married actress Helen Pease, and they remained together until her death the following year. In 1917, he married Marie Stark, whom he divorced in 1920; she went on to act in silent films as Marie Crisp. In 1932, he married film

Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[15][16]

He was a staunch

Thomas Dewey in 1944.[17]

On February 8, 1960, Crisp received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion pictures industry at 1628 Vine Street.[18][19]

Partial filmography

As actor

As a director

See also

References

  1. ^ Obituary, Variety, 29 May 1974.
  2. ^ "Master Index of Births registered in England & Wales in July, August, September, 1882". www.freebmd.org (FreeBMD). ONS. Retrieved 19 April 2015. George William Crisp: Poplar [London]. Folio 1 c. Page 594
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781476618067
    . Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  4. ^ "Scots actor Justice outed as Londoner". Scotland on Sunday. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  5. ^ "Home-town honour for film pioneer Crisp". Sunday Herald. 12 August 1996. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  6. ^ "Donald Crisp". www.nndb.com. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  7. ^ a b "Donald Crisp". IMDb. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  8. ^ Jewell, Ruth. "Donald Crisp". IMDb. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  9. ^ Donald Crisp at the Internet Broadway Database
  10. ^
    IMDb
  11. ^ Employment contract with the Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation Archived 8 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine, animationguild.org; accessed 9 July 2014.
  12. ^ a b Profile of Donald Crisp, The New York Times; accessed 9 July 2014.
  13. ^ "Soldiers of the Queen – Errol Flynn and Donald Crisp in The Charge of the Light Brigade 1936". www.soldiersofthequeen.com. Archived from the original on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  14. ISBN 9780786496839
    – via Google Books.
  15. ^ Literature on Donald Crisp, virtual-history.com; accessed 9 July 2014.
  16. ISBN 9780786496839
    – via Google Books.
  17. ISBN 9781107650282
    – via Google Books.
  18. ^ "Donald Crisp | Hollywood Walk of Fame". www.walkoffame.com. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  19. ^ "Donald Crisp". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 June 2016.

External links

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