Wendell Corey

Wendell Reid Corey (March 20, 1914 – November 8, 1968) was an American actor who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Dracut, Massachusetts, to Milton Rothwell Corey, a Congregationalist clergyman and actor, and Julia Etta McKenney, Corey was educated in Springfield, Massachusetts. His ancestry included U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

Corey's entry into acting came by chance after high school, when he was working as an appliance salesman at a Springfield department store. A visit to a friend at the Springfield Repertory Theater led to his being cast as a Swedish janitor in Street Scene. He remained with the group for a year, holding his department store job during the day while performing at night. He subsequently joined a theater company in Holyoke and transitioned to acting full-time, accumulating extensive experience in summer stock as a producer, director, and performer across hundreds of productions. He was also employed by the Federal Theatre Project during this period.

Corey's Broadway career spanned from 1942 to 1959 and encompassed both plays and musicals. His credits included The Wind Is Ninety, the musical Dream Girl, Jolly's Progress, and Night of the Auk, among other productions. His stage work earned him a Theatre World Award in 1946. It was during his run in Elmer Rice's comedy Dream Girl in 1945, in which he played a cynical newspaperman, that producer Hal Wallis saw him perform and signed him to a contract with Paramount Pictures. In 1947, Corey appeared on stage in The Voice of the Turtle alongside Margaret Sullavan in England, and in 1954 he toured the United States in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.

His feature film debut came in Wallis's Desert Fury (1947), in which he played a gangster opposite Burt Lancaster, John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, and Mary Astor. Wallis subsequently elevated him to co-star status in The File on Thelma Jordon (1950), pairing him with Barbara Stanwyck. That same year he appeared in Columbia's No Sad Songs for Me (1950) as Margaret Sullavan's husband. Among his most recognized film roles was that of Lt. Thomas Doyle in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

On television, Corey portrayed Lou Gehrig in "The Lou Gehrig Story," an episode of the series Climax! in 1955, and later starred alongside Casey Walters in the series Harbor Command from 1957 to 1958. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard, awarded for his television work.

Beyond performing, Corey served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1961 to 1963, sat on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild, and was a trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He was elected to the Santa Monica City Council in April 1965 and had been active as a Republican campaigner in national politics since 1956, supporting Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election. Corey died on November 8, 1968, at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 54. Funeral services were held at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica, California.