Charles Bickford
Active - 1929 - 1966 | Born - Jan 1, 1891 in Cambridge, MA | Died - Nov 9, 1967 in Los Angeles, CA | Genres - Drama, Western, Crime | Height: 6’ 1”
Charles Bickford was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the first minute of 1891. His parents were Loretus and Mary Ellen Bickford. The fifth of seven children, he was an intelligent but very independent and unruly child. He had a particularly strong relationship with his maternal grandfather, a sea captain, who was a powerful influence during his formative years.
At the age of nine, Bickford was tried and acquitted of the attempted murder of a trolley motorman, who had callously driven over and killed his beloved dog.
Bickford had intended to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to earn an engineering degree, but while wandering around the country, he became friends with the manager of a burlesque show, who convinced Bickford to take a role in the show. He debuted in Oakland, California in 1911. Bickford enjoyed himself so much that he abandoned his plans to attend MIT. He made his legitimate stage debut with the John Craig Stock Company at the Castle Square Theatre in Boston in 1912. He eventually joined a road company and traveled throughout the United States for more than a decade, appearing in various productions.
In 1925, while working in a Broadway play called Outside Looking In, co-star James Cagney (in his first Broadway role) and he received rave reviews. He was offered a role in Herbert Brenon's 1926 film of Beau Geste, but anxious not to give up his newfound Broadway stardom, turned it down, a decision he later came to regret. Following his appearance in the critically praised but unsuccessful Maxwell Anderson-Harold Hickerson drama about the Sacco and Vanzetti case Gods of the Lightning (Bickford was the Sacco character), Bickford was contacted by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille and offered a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios to star in DeMille's first talking picture: Dynamite. He soon began working with MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer on a number of projects.
Bickford became a star after playing Greta Garbo's lover in Anna Christie (1930), but never developed into a leading man. Always of independent mind, exceptionally strong-willed, and quick with his fists, Bickford frequently argued and nearly came to blows with Mayer and any number of other MGM authority figures during the course of this contract with the studio. During the production of DeMille's Dynamite, he punched out his director following a string of heated arguments, primarily related to the interpretation of his character's role.
Throughout his early career on both the stage and later films, Bickford rejected numerous scripts and made no secret of his disdain for much of the material he was offered. Not surprisingly, his association with MGM was short-lived, with Bickford asking for and quickly receiving a release from his contract. He soon found himself blacklisted at other studios, though, forcing him to take the highly unusual step (for that era) of becoming an independent actor for several years. His career took another turn in 1935, when he was mauled by a lion and nearly killed while filming East of Java. While he recovered, he lost his contract with Fox and his leading-man status owing to extensive neck scarring suffered in the attack, coupled with his advancing age. Soon, he made a very successful transition to character roles, which he felt offered much greater diversity and allowed him to showcase his talent to better effect. Much preferring the character roles that became his forte, Bickford appeared in many notable films, including The Farmer's Daughter, Johnny Belinda, A Star Is Born, and Not as a Stranger.
Finding great success playing an array of character roles in films and later in television, Bickford quickly became highly sought-after; his burly frame and craggy, intense features, coupled with a gruff, powerful voice lent themselves to a wide variety of roles. Most often, he played lovable father figures, stern businessmen, heavies, ship captains, or authority figures of some sort. During the 1940s, he was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He served as host of the 1950s television series The Man Behind the Badge.
On April 16, 1958, Bickford appeared with Roger Smith in "The Daniel Barrister Story" on Wagon Train. In this first-season episode, Daniel Barrister, played by Bickford, objects to medical treatment for his wife, Jenny, the victim of a wagon accident. Meanwhile, Dr. Peter H. Culver, played by Smith, has successfully fought a smallpox epidemic in a nearby town. He is brought to the wagon train by scout Flint McCullough, portrayed by series regular Robert Horton, to treat Mrs. Barrister. Viewers never knew if Barrister yielded to allow Dr. Culver to treat Jenny.
Bickford continued to act in generally prestigious projects right up to his death. He guest-starred on The Islanders, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, and The Eleventh Hour. In his final years, Bickford played rancher John Grainger, owner of the Shiloh Ranch, on The Virginian. Bickford was well-liked by both fans and his fellow actors, including series lead James Drury. According to Drury, Bickford, who guest-starred earlier in the series in an unrelated role, wished he could have been on the series from the beginning. According to Paul Green, author of A History of Television's The Virginian, 1962-1971, Bickford's vigorous portrayal of John Grainger helped restore the quality of the show after what some considered a chaotic fourth season.
Two of the actor's more memorable late-career, big-screen roles came in the Western The Big Country (1958) (as a wealthy and ruthless rancher) and in the drama Days of Wine and Roses (as the forlorn father of an alcoholic).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"It's appropriate that I should have come in on the wings of a blizzard. I've been blowing up a storm ever since."
[About not seeing his own films] "Perhaps it's because I'm too critical that I don't usually see my own stuff. Very often it's a weird experience, and sometimes it's a little nauseating."
- Charles Bickford
