Walter Connolly
Walter Connolly ( born April 8, 1887 in Cincinnati, Ohio; † 28 May 1940 Beverly Hills, California ) was an American actor. He played particularly serious or professional conscious characters in comedies like It Happened One Night.
Life
Connolly was born in Ohio and of the stature rather stocky debuted in 1916 on Broadway, where he was active for many years as a performer. Although he had turned in 1914 and 1915, two films, but it was only in the early 1930s he was appointed to Hollywood. He was primarily responsible for the representation of serious journalists and businessmen who starred in screwball comedies such as 1934 in the style-defining for the genre film It Happened One Night as the father of Claudette Colbert as well as in Napoleon of Broadway as a friend and business partner of John Barrymore. But even in more serious films, such as the literary adaptation The Good Earth with Paul Muni and Luise Rainer, Connolly was occupied. In films with a smaller budget, he also took on leading roles. His last of 49 film roles he played in 1939 in the musical comedy, three-quarter time on Broadway.
In his spare time he collected old books and theater programs. Walter Connolly was married in 1920 to actress Nedda Harrigan. The couple had a daughter named Ann (1924-2006), a successful theater actress was later. Connolly died at the age of 53 of a stroke. It was the day his divorce from his wife Nedda. She married in 1945 the director Joshua Logan, with whom she remained married until his death in 1988.