Charles Coburn
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Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877, Savannah, Georgia – August 30, 1961) was an American film and theater actor.
Coburn was a theater manager by the age of 17. He later moved on to acting and made his debut on Broadway in 1901. Coburn formed an acting company with his wife Ivah Wills Coburn in 1906, and in addition to managing the company, the couple performed frequently on Broadway. After his wife's death in 1937, Coburn relocated to Los Angeles, California and began acting in films.
He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The More the Merrier in 1943. He was also nominated for his roles in The Devil and Miss Jones in 1941 and The Green Years in 1946. His other film credits include Of Human Hearts (1938), The Lady Eve (1941), Kings Row (1942), The Constant Nymph (1943), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Wilson (1944), Impact (1949), The Paradine Case,(1947), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and John Paul Jones (1959).
In the 1940s, Coburn served as vice-president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideas, a right-wing group opposed to Communists in Hollywood. His virulent leadership of the blacklist of anyone with any connection to Fascism or Communism, supported by such Academy-Award nominees as Adolphe Menjou and Ginger Rogers, led to a myriad of talented actors, writers and directors being driven out of Hollywood and deprived of their livelihood during the witchhunt.
In 1959, Coburn married Winifred Natzka, who was forty-one years his junior and the former wife of Oscar Natzka, an opera singer.
He died from a heart attack on August 30 1961 in New York, New York.
Charles Coburn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures at 6240 Hollywood Boulevard.
| Preceded by: Van Heflin for Johnny Eager |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1943 for The More the Merrier |
Succeeded by: Barry Fitzgerald for Going My Way |
