Walter Pidgeon

Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of Hannah Pidgeon, a housewife, and Caleb Burpee Pidgeon, a haberdasher. He attended local schools and studied law and drama at the University of New Brunswick before his education was interrupted by World War I, during which he volunteered as a lieutenant with the 65th Battery of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery. He did not see combat, and some accounts indicate he was severely injured when crushed between two gun carriages, spending 17 months in a military hospital, though his medical records attribute the end of his active service to a hernia. After the war, Pidgeon relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a bank runner while studying voice at the Boston Conservatory.

His professional career began when producer, actress, and singer Elsie Janis hired him as a male singer for her revue while he was performing in amateur theatricals in Boston. Pidgeon moved to New York City in 1923 and made his featured Broadway debut in Janis's 1925 production Puzzles of 1925. That same year, British producer E.E. Clive cast him in a supporting role in You Never Can Tell despite his limited theatrical experience. A subsequent falling-out with Janis led to his dismissal and a move to Hollywood, where his first screen appearance came in the silent film Mannequin (1925). Dissatisfied with the roles available to him, he returned to New York in 1928 to resume stage work. In 1935, he appeared on Broadway in Something Gay, Night of January 16th, and There's Wisdom in Women.

With the arrival of sound films, Pidgeon transitioned back to Hollywood, appearing in the musicals Bride of the Regiment (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Viennese Nights (1930), and Kiss Me Again (1931). He returned to film as a dramatic actor in 1937 with Saratoga, followed by The Girl of the Golden West (1938) and Dark Command (1940). His prominence grew substantially in 1941 when he starred in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture How Green Was My Valley and in Blossoms in the Dust alongside Greer Garson. His partnership with Garson became one of the defining professional collaborations of his career, extending through Mrs. Miniver (1942), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and Madame Curie (1943), which earned him a second such nomination. The two continued to appear together in Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950), and Scandal at Scourie (1953). Additional notable film credits from this period include Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) and The Red Danube (1949).

Pidgeon's film work continued into the 1950s with The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Executive Suite (1954), and Forbidden Planet (1956). After approximately two decades away from the stage, he returned to Broadway in the late 1950s, appearing in the musical Take Me Along alongside Jackie Gleason and earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical in 1960. He also appeared on Broadway in the comedy The Happiest Millionaire and in the play Dinner at Eight, with his Broadway career spanning from 1925 to 1966. His subsequent film appearances included the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), James Haggin in Walt Disney's Big Red (1962), the Senate majority leader in Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent (1962), Florenz Ziegfeld in Funny Girl (1968), and Casey in Harry in Your Pocket (1973).

Beyond his acting work, Pidgeon served as the tenth president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1952 to 1957 and received the Guild's Life Achievement Award in 1975. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6414 Hollywood Boulevard in 1960. His television appearances included guest roles on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, Rawhide, Perry Mason, and a 1965 CBS television production of Cinderella in which he played the king. Pidgeon retired from acting in 1977.

In his personal life, Pidgeon married Edna Muriel Pickles in 1919; she died during the birth of their daughter Edna in 1921. He married his secretary Ruth Walker in 1931, and the two remained married until his death. Pidgeon became a United States citizen on December 24, 1943. He died on September 25, 1984, in Santa Monica, California, following a series of strokes, two days after his 87th birthday.