Thomas Mitchell (actor)
Thomas Mitchell ( born July 11, 1892 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, † December 17, 1962 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles ) was an American character actor who played prominent supporting roles in the 1930s in a number of Hollywood classics. Among his best known films include Gone with the Wind, Ringo, that 's a Wonderful Life? and twelve clock noon. He was the first actor to an Academy Award, Tony Award and was able to win the Emmy.
Life and career
Thomas Mitchell grew up as the son of Irish emigrants in New York. Many members were working as journalists or other social professions. His nephew James P. Mitchell was temporarily Minister of Labour under Eisenhower. Like his brother and his father, he arbeietete first as a reporter, but then began mostly comic texts for the theater to write.
In his introduction to acting in 1913, Mitchell was significantly supported by Charles Coburn. Mitchell was in 1916 made his Broadway debut in the play Under Sentence. By 1960, it should occur there in at least 27 pieces. Regularly, he also wrote plays, six of which were later made into a movie, including the man who did not come to the wedding with Gary Cooper in the lead role. Thomas Mitchell made his film debut in 1923 while in Silent Film Six Cylinder Role, but the breakthrough in Hollywood debut until 1937 with Frank Capra's film In of Shangri -La in the role of a swindler. Only a year later he received his first Oscar nomination for the film ... then came the hurricane, in which he played a wily banker.
In the following years, Mitchell played mostly larger, very different supporting roles in a number of recognized classics. 1939 was one of its most successful years. Among the films that he made this year, including the Western hellish trip to Santa Fe, for the Mitchell 1940 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor received and the screen epic Gone with the Wind, in which he portrayed Scarlett O'Hara's father, also the classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and SOS Fire on board. He remained on the 1940s a busy performer. 1946 Mitchell played as the slightly bumbling Uncle Billy in the Christmas classic that 's a Wonderful Life? on the side of James Stewart. In Fred Zinnemann's Western Twelve clock noon he starred opposite Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in the role of the mayor.
In the 1950s he worked regularly on television. 1952 Mitchell won the Emmy for Best TV Actor of the year 1952, only a year later he received the Tony Award for his performance in a musical version of Those Nothing is sacred. He was the first actor to an Oscar (film), an Emmy ( television) and won a Tony Award (theater), and thus the most important prizes won in the three main areas of work for actors. In 1954 he played the title character in the series Mayor of the Town and had in 1959 also starred in the television series Glencannon, were produced from the 39 episodes. Another classic with Mitchell, while his last film was Pocketful of Miracles from 1961 starring Bette Davis and Glenn Ford
He died at the age of 70 from cancer. He is survived by his second wife, whom he married in 1941. From his first wife he had separated after only two years of marriage in 1939.