Joseph Granby

Joseph Granby (March 24, 1885 – September 22, 1965) was an American actor born in Boston, Massachusetts, whose career encompassed silent film, Broadway, sound film, and television across five decades.

Granby entered motion pictures in 1915, working primarily in short films for studios including Universal, its predecessor the Independent Motion Picture Company, Rex, and Victor. Among his early screen appearances, he supported actress Valeska Suratt in her vamp-style productions at Fox Studios. His film roles during this period included Mikula Dvorkin in Rasputin, the Black Monk (1917), Prince Boris in The Great Romance (1919), and Pietro in Diane of Star Hollow (1921), which marked the end of his silent film work.

His Broadway career ran from 1911 to 1929 and included appearances in both plays and musicals. His stage credits encompassed the musical We've Got to Have Money, and the plays The Claw, He Understood Women, Hawk Island, and The Town's Woman, among other productions.

Granby returned to motion pictures in 1943 after more than a decade away from the screen, though his film appearances from that point forward were largely uncredited. He took on roles in a wide range of productions, including The Cross of Lorraine (1943), Kismet (1944), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Joan of Arc (1948), Viva Zapata! (1952), and Written on the Wind (1956), in which he played R.J. Courtney. He is particularly associated with the 1946 holiday film It's a Wonderful Life, in which he provided the uncredited voice of Joseph, an angel.

His television work extended from the early 1950s through 1960 and included appearances on The Cisco Kid, Fireside Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, Adventures of the Falcon, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, The Loretta Young Show, and This Man Dawson, among other programs. Granby died on September 22, 1965.