Claude Gillingwater

Claude Benton Gillingwater (August 2, 1870 – November 1, 1939) was an American stage and screen actor born in Louisiana, Missouri. Though he studied law, he chose not to follow his father's profession and instead took work as a travelling salesman for a wholesale firm, selling vinegar. During that period he joined a small theatrical company managed by David Belasco, which set him on the path to a career in performance.

Gillingwater's stage career spanned from 1899 to 1918, during which he appeared in numerous Broadway productions including Mlle. Modiste, Three Wise Fools, The Rescuing Angel, The New Secretary, and M. Butterfly, among others. After eight years on the stage, Mary Pickford saw him perform and brought him into her production of Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), launching his transition to film.

Over the following two decades, Gillingwater appeared in more than 90 films. He became known for playing curmudgeonly character roles in his later years. Among his most prominent screen credits was the role of Jarvis Lorry in David O. Selznick's production of A Tale of Two Cities (1935), which received an Academy Award nomination. That same year he appeared in Mississippi (1935), and subsequent credits included The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), Conquest (1937), A Yank at Oxford (1938), Just Around the Corner (1938), and Little Miss Broadway (1938). Beginning with Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), he appeared in several films alongside Shirley Temple at 20th Century Fox.

In February 1936, while filming Florida Special at Paramount Studios, Gillingwater fell from a platform and sustained a severe back injury from which he never fully recovered. His health declined steadily in the years that followed, and the death of his wife Carlyn in April 1937 compounded his difficulties. On November 1, 1939, a housekeeper discovered Gillingwater dead in a chair inside a closet of his Beverly Hills, California home, from a self-inflicted bullet wound to the chest. A suicide note indicated he feared becoming an invalid and did not wish to be a burden to others. He was 69 years old, and his death was officially ruled a suicide. His cremated remains were interred at the Columbarium of Prayer, Niche 10628, in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His son, Claude Gillingwater Jr., also worked as an actor.