Henry Wilcoxon
Henry Wilcoxon | |
---|---|
Los Angeles, California , U.S. | |
Other names | Harry Wilcoxon |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1926–83 |
Spouses | |
Children | 3 |
Henry Wilcoxon (born Harry Frederick Wilcoxon; 8 September 1905 – 6 March 1984) was a British-American
Early life
Wilcoxon was born on 8 September 1905 in Roseau, Dominica (then administered as part of the British West Indies). His father was English-born Robert Stanley 'Tan' Wilcoxon, manager of the Colonial Bank in Jamaica[3] and his mother, Lurline Mignonette Nunes, was a Jamaican amateur theatre actress, descendant of a wealthy Spanish merchant family.[3][2][4]
Henry was close with his older brother, Robert Owen Wilcoxon, known as 'Owen'. Henry (known then by his born name, Harry) had a difficult childhood. His mother "disappeared suddenly and mysteriously" (presumably she died) when he was about a year old, and his father took him and Owen (aged four) to England with the intention that his own mother, Ann Wilcoxon, would care for them. But because the grandmother was too frail to care for the children, they were first sent to a bad
Harry and his brother Owen were known as 'Biff' and 'Bang' to friends and family due to fighting skills gained in amateur boxing.
Acting
After completing his education, Wilcoxon was employed by Joseph Rank, the father of
Stage
Harry Wilcoxon's first stage performance was as a supporting actor in an adaptation of the novel The 100th Chance, by Ethel M. Dell, in November 1927 at Blackpool,
Early screen work
In 1931, Wilcoxon made his screen debut as "Larry Tindale" in
Also in 1933, "while acting on stage in Eight Bells, a
One of my longest and closest professional and personal associations began because I was impatient about waiting my turn for the use of a projection room at the studio, while I was casting Cleopatra. I had already engaged Claudette Colbert for the title role, but had not yet found a satisfactory Mark Antony to play opposite her.
However, I did have some film footage of horses that I wanted to see, for possible use in the picture. I took it to the projection room, but found the room in use... While waiting in the booth, I heard, come from the soundtrack of the test film [being shown], a resonant, manly voice, with only a pleasant trace of an English accent... I asked who the young actor was.
'Oh,' I was told, 'he's a young Englishman that Paramount signed from the London stage. Name of Harry Wilcoxon, but the executives don't think Harry is dignified enough, so we're changing his name to Henry Wilcoxon.'
'Harry or Henry,' I said, 'he is Marc Antony.' "[11]
So he was renamed by DeMille for the role of Marc Antony in Cleopatra, and from then on he was Henry Wilcoxon.
Wilcoxon was next given the lead role of
The war years
In 1941, Wilcoxon appeared as
, during the filming of which:a wad of flame fell from a torch directly on Olivier's head, setting his wig afire. Wilcoxon, standing right beside him, tried to extinguish the blaze but was unsuccessful. Finally he had to wrench the wig from Olivier's head, but both of his hands were badly burned while Olivier's eyebrows were scorched."[2]
When the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941, Wilcoxon enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, supposedly "leaving his home twenty minutes after the announcement that the U.S. had declared war and proceeding to enlist then and there."[2] He served with the Coast Guard until 1946, gaining the rank of lieutenant commander.[2]
During his period of service, three films in which he appeared were released in 1942, among them
Upon his return from war service, Wilcoxon "picked up his relationship with Cecil B. DeMille" with
Later life as producer and TV actor
In the late 1940s, "several young actors and actresses came to Wilcoxon and wife
Wilcoxon played a "small but important part" in DeMille's 1952 production The Greatest Show on Earth, on which film he also served as associate producer, helping steer the film towards its Academy Award for Best Picture, 1952.[2] He also acted as associate producer on, and acted (as Pentaur, the pharaoh's captain of the guards) in DeMille's remake of his own The Ten Commandments (1956). Wilcoxon was sole producer on the 1958 film The Buccaneer, a remake of DeMille's 1938 effort, which DeMille only "supervised" (due to his declining health) while Anthony Quinn directed.[2]
After DeMille died, Wilcoxon did "considerable work... in pre-production" on "a film based on the life of
After a relatively inactive period "for the next three or four years," Wilcoxon had a "chance meeting with actor
He was credited as co-producer on a "90-minute tribute to Cecil B. DeMille televised by
In the last two decades of his life, Wilcoxon worked sporadically and accepted minor acting roles in a number of television and film productions. He guest-starred in shows including
Personal life
Through loans from the assets he acquired from his early acting career, Wilcoxon assisted his brother Owen in establishing himself in 1931 as a partner in the Vale Motor Company in London. For a short time, Henry showed a personal interest in the development of their sports car, the Vale Special. At that time his female companion was a London-based American stage actress Carol Goodner.[15]
English-born actress Heather Angel, whom he had previously acted with in Self Made Lady (1932) when they were both in England, had come to Hollywood a few months before Wilcoxon and met him again in 1934.[16] They became lifetime friends.[17] She taught him horse-riding, and acted in two more films with him: The Last of the Mohicans (1936) and Lady Hamilton (1941). Heather Angel and her husband Ralph Forbes were both present at Wilcoxon's wedding to Sheila Garrett.
Wilcoxon married a 19-year-old actress Sheila Garrett on 28 June 1936, but they divorced a year later. When they had first met, two years before they were married, she was introduced by her sister Lynn Browning as "Bonnie", but when they got to know each other better he preferred the name Sheila Garrett.[18]
On 17 December 1938, he married 23 year old actress Joan Woodbury.[19] They had three daughters: Wendy Joan Robert Wilcoxon (1939–2020),[20] Heather Ann Wilcoxon (1947) and Cecilia Dawn "CiCi" Wilcoxon (1950).[2] His second daughter was named after Heather Angel.[21] His youngest daughter was named after Cecil B. DeMille: DeMille said he wanted the child to be called Cecil if it was a boy, but when it turned out to be a girl, DeMille was still insistent, saying "I think Cecilia is a beautiful name! My daughter is named Cecilia."[22] They divorced in 1969.[23]
Wilcoxon was an amateur painter and photographer, whose work was exhibited on at least one occasion in London.[2] He was also "an avid antique collector and accomplished flier."[2]
At his home in Burbank in the summer of 1975 Wilcoxon first met his niece Valerie (1933–2017), the English daughter of his brother Owen[24] with Dorothy Drew (sister of architect Jane Drew). Up until then he did not know that his brother, killed in 1940 during the Dunkirk evacuation, had any children.
Death
Wilcoxon died on March 6, 1984 in Los Angeles, at the age of 78, after suffering from cancer for a number of years.[25]
Recognition
Wilcoxon has a star on the
Partial filmography
Made in UK:
- The Perfect Lady (1931) as Larry Tindale
- Self Made Lady (1932) as Bert Taverner
- The Flying Squad (1932) as Inspector Bradley
- Taxi to Paradise (1933) as Stephen Randall
- Lord of the Manor (1933) as Jim Bridge
- Princess Charming (1934) as Capt. André Launa
- A Woman Alone (1936) (released in USA as Two Who Dared) as Capt. Nicolai Ilyinski
- Jericho (1937) as Capt. Mack
Made in USA:
- Marc Antony
- King Richard the Lionheart
- The Last of the Mohicans (1936) as Major Heyward
- The President's Mystery (1936) (released in UK as One for All) as James Blake
- Souls at Sea (1937) as Lieutenant Stanley Tarryton
- Jericho (1937) (also titled Dark Sands) as Capt. Mack
- Prison Nurse (1938) as Dale
- Keep Smiling (1938) as Jonathan Rand
- Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938) as Anton Darvak
- If I Were King (1938) as Captain of the Watch
- Five of a Kind (1938) as Dr. Scott Williams
- Woman Doctor (1939) as Allan Graeme
- The Arizona Wildcat (1939) as Richard Baldwin
- Chasing Danger (1939) as Captain Andre Duvac
- Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939) as Mr. Sande
- Free, Blonde and 21 (1940) as Dr. Hugh Mayberry
- The Crooked Road (1940) as Bob Trent
- Earthbound (1940) as Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds
- Mystery Sea Raider (1940) as Captain Jimmy Madden
- The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941) as Frank Jordan
- That Hamilton Woman (aka Lady Hamilton) (1941) as Captain Hardy
- Scotland Yard (1941) as Dakin Barrolles
- South of Tahiti (1941) as Captain Larkin
- The Corsican Brothers (1941) as Count Victor Franchi
- The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942) as Dr. Haggard
- Mrs. Miniver (1942) as Vicar
- Johnny Doughboy (1942) as Oliver Lawrence
- Dragnet (1947) as Inspector Geoffrey James
- Unconquered (1947) as Capt. Steele
- Sir Lancelot
- Samson and Delilah (1949) (also associate producer) as Ahtur
- Sunset Boulevard (1950) as Actor on DeMille's 'Samson & Delilah' Set (uncredited)
- The Miniver Story (1950) as Vicar
- The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) (also associate producer) as FBI Agent Gregory
- Scaramouche (1952) as Chevalier de Chabrillaine
- The Ten Commandments (1956) (also associate producer) as Pentaur
- The Buccaneer (1958) (producer only)
- The War Lord (1965) as Frisian Prince
- The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968) as Rear Admiral Arthur L. Stokes
- Man in the Wilderness (1971) as Indian Chief
- Doomsday Machine (1972) as Dr. Christopher Perry
- Against a Crooked Sky (1975) as Cut Tongue / Narrator
- Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) as Silent Film Director
- Pony Express Rider (1976) as Trevor Kingman
- When Every Day Was the Fourth of July (1978) as Judge Henry J. Wheeler
- F. I. S. T. (1978) as Win Talbot
- The Man with Bogart's Face (1978) as Mr. Chevalier
- Caddyshack (1980) as Bishop Fred Pickering
- Sweet Sixteen (1983) as Greyfeather (final film role)
References and notes
- ^ "Henry Wilcoxon". latimes.com. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai Daynard, Don Henry Wilcoxon in Peter Harris (ed.) The New Captain George's Whizzbang No. 13 (1971), pp. 2–7
- ^ a b The deMercado Family Website "Monthly Comments: Jamaica" Vol. 6 – 'Memories and Reflections,' by Ansell Hart Archived 24 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 7 August 2008
- ^ "BMD records". Retrieved 7 August 2008
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, Prologue p.xv: "Tan advertised for a foster home and the brothers were sent to the first family that responded. There Harry and Owen were locked in an attic room and fed leftovers while the money and clothing that came with them went to the family's own children. Harry and Owen were kept in appalling conditions, both afflicted with lice, Harry crippled with rickets and Owen developed a lifelong stutter and epileptic fits.
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, Prologue p.xvi: "Even when the abuse was discovered, neither father nor grandmother wanted to take them back; instead the boys were sent to an orphanage and might have remained there if a good foster home not heard of their plight and considered taking them in. The Stewart family (consisting mainly of maiden sisters), with a large house in Acton, accepted the abandoned children. The youngest, Ruth, took special care of Owen. Harry had atrocious behaviour but was taken in hand by an elder sister Sara. The boys had to call each sister "Auntie", were taught table manners, sent to Sunday school, tutored in school work and Harry's legs fitted with braces.
- ^ The 1911 census shows Harry and Owen Wilcoxon with the Stewart family at Springfield House, Horn Lane, Acton. They are Charlotte Stewart (age 80) and single daughters Harriet (49), Caroline (48), Sara (39), Kathleen (37) and Ruth (34). Also a son John (41) with his wife Florence (33). The house had 18 rooms.
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, p.29, p.86. Twice in the biography Henry is quoted as saying he was almost the underwater swimming champion of Barbados.
- ^ The Stage, 3 November 1927
- ^ The Stage, 30 June 1932
- ^ Cecil B. DeMille quoted by Daynard, Don Henry Wilcoxon in Peter Harris (ed.) The New Captain George's Whizzbang No. 13 (1971), pp. 2–7
- Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, had been killed by a German bomb when assisting in the Dunkirk evacuationon 29 May 1940.
- ^ Don Miller quoted in Daynard, Don Henry Wilcoxon in Peter Harris (ed.) The New Captain George's Whizzbang No. 13 (1971), pp. 2–7
- ^ Caddyshack: The making of a Hollywood Cinderella story, Flatiron Books, 2018, page 187.
- ^ David Cox, Ave Atque Vale, pp.13, 26
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, p.6
- ^ Statements made on certain movie websites that Heather Angel and Henry Wilcoxon were married are spurious. No such marriage is mentioned in Henry's autobiography Lionheart in Hollywood.
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, pp.69–70
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, p.114
- ^ On 21 June 1940, at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hollywood, Henry and Joan Wilcoxon's daughter, first named Wendy Joan Wilcoxon was christened Wendy Joan Robert Wilcoxon in memory of his brother Robert Owen Wilcoxon who had been killed at the Dunkirk Evacuation three weeks earlier
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, p.160
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, pp.196–197
- ^ Lionheart in Hollywood, p.351
- ISBN 0-7146-5120-6
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
Bibliography
- Cox, David (2006). Ave Atque Vale – the story of the Vale Special. Berkshire: Martin Publications. ISBN 0-9553010-0-9.
- Gardner, W. J. R., ed. (2000). The Evacuation from Dunkirk: 'Operation Dynamo' 26 May – 4 June 1940. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-5120-6.
- Harris, Peter (ed.); Daynard, Don (1971). "Henry Wilcoxon" in The New Captain George's Whizzbang No. 13 (Vol.3 No.1). Toronto: Vast Whizzbang Organization.
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has generic name (help) - Wilcoxon, Henry; Orrison, Katherine (1991). Lionheart in Hollywood: the autobiography of Henry Wilcoxon. Metuchen, NJ and London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-2476-0.
External links
- Henry Wilcoxon at IMDb
- Henry Wilcoxon at the Internet Broadway Database
- Henry Wilcoxon at the TCM Movie Database
- Henry Wilcoxon obituary in the New York Times
- Robert Owen Wilcoxon at Dunkirk – an account of the last day of his life, 29 May 1940, by John Morrison
- Finding aid author: Elizabeth West. "Henry Wilcoxon papers". Prepared for the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Provo, UT. Retrieved 16 May 2016.