Walter Brennan
San Fernando Mission Cemetery
Walter Brennan is best known
for his supporting roles, and he's the most-honored supporting actor in the
history of the Academy Awards.
While studying engineering in Massachusetts, Brennan also became
involved in the school's acting club. After serving in France during World War I,
and against the wishes of his family, Brennan moved from the East Coast to
Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. Brennan first started
working on Westerns in the late 1920s, usually playing supporting roles or
doing stunts. During one of the films, he was involved in a fight scene
in which another actor accidentally kicked Brennan in the face, knocking
out all his front teeth. Brennan later described the incident as "the
luckiest break in the world. I got a set of false choppers, so I looked
all right off the set. But when necessary, I could take them out, and
suddenly look about 40 years older."
With that "skill," Brennan quickly developed a career as a
character actor, winning Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor for
his work in "Come and Get It" (1936), "Kentucky" (1938) and "The Westerner"
(1940). He was the first actor to win three Oscars, and is the only
actor to pick up three awards for supporting roles. He was also
nominated for his work in "Sergeant York" (1941).
Though best known for his roles as a grizzled old man,
Brennan could also play melodrama and light comedy with equal success.
He even has small roles in the horror films "The Invisible Man" (1933)
and "The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), and he appeared with the
Three Stooges in "Woman Haters" (1934). Brennan worked often with
his off-screen friend, Gary Cooper, appearing with him in "The Wedding
Night" (1935), "The Cowboy and the Lady" (1938), "The Westerner" (1940),
"Sergeant York" (1941), "Meet John Doe" (1941), "Pride of the Yankees"
(1942) and "Task Force" (1949). Overall, Brennan appeared in more than 200
films, including "Barbary Coast" (1935), "Three Godfathers" (1936),
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938), "The Story of Verne and Irene
Castle" (1939), "Northwest Passage" (1940), "To Have and Have Not" (1944),
"My Darling Clementine" (1946), "Red River" (1948), "Bad Day at Black Rock"
(1955), "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1957), "Rio Bravo" (1959), "How the
West Was Won" (1962) and "The Gnome-Mobile" (1967).
In 1957, Brennan accepted his first role in a television
series, playing Grandpa Amos McCoy in the long-running series, "The Real McCoys."
He also starred in the series "The Tycoon" in 1964, and "The Guns of
Will Sonnett" from 1967 to 1969.
Brennan was born Walter Andrew Brennan on July 25, 1894,
in Swampscott, MA. He died Sept. 21, 1974, in Oxnard, CA.
1894 - 1974
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