Walter Connolly | |
|---|---|
 as Doctor Grauer in Bridal Suite (1939) | |
| Born | Walter James Connelly Jr. April 8, 1887 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | May 28, 1940 (aged 53) Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Film, stage and radio actor |
| Years active | 1914–1939 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
Walter James Connolly Jr. (April 8, 1887 – 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).
Connolly was born on April 8, 1887 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Ella Burke Connolly and Walter James Connolly. He attended St. Xavier College and the College of Music of Cincinnati 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 United States, Connolly went to Ireland, where he enrolled in a number of non-theatre-related courses at the University of Dublin, reportedly with the intention of abandoning acting altogether. However, numerous visits to the Abbey Theater evidently rekindled Connolly's acting bug. Within four months of his return to the States, 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.
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. 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 the Talkie era, when he appeared in four films in 1932. His trademark role was that of the exasperated business tycoon or newspaperman in screwball comedies, 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.
Connolly died on May 28, 1940 in Beverly Hills, following a stroke, and was buried in St. Joseph New Cemetery in Cincinnati.
Mrs. Ella Burke Connolly, 74 years old, mother of Walter J. Connolly, featured character actor in a number of screen hits which played in Cincinnati during the last few years, [...] He arrived Monday night and was at her bedside at the time of her death. Mrs. Connolly was the widow of Walter J. Connolly Sr., former chief night operator of the Cincinnati Western Union Telegraph office. He died in 1931, after being retired for five years.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio.. April 8, 1888 [sic] ... son of the late Walter James Connolly.
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.
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.
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.
