A Couple of Characters

Donald Crisp

The role of the character actor is alive and well in today's movies as the enormously successful careers of John C. Reilly and Jim Broadbent proves. Hollywood has always needed memorable persons to fill in the gaps and add color and texture to the worlds inhabited by the more famous leading players. Where would we be, after all, without the crusty old codger, the befuddled uncle, the loyal best friend, the benevolent doctor or the sinister heavy?

Donald Crisp and Thomas Mitchell were two of the greatest character actors of all time. You may not know the names, but chances are you would recognize the faces of these too prolific actors. They appeared in some of the most famous classic Hollywood movies ever made.

Donald Crisp began his career at the dawn of movies, appearing in his first film in 1908. He made his final screen appearance fifty-five years later when he played Grandpa Spencer in Spencer's Mountain (1963). In between he made over 130 movies and, during the silent era, directed another sixty.

In 1912 he made what is considered to be the first gangster movie, The Musketeers of Pig Alley. He was equally at home playing both villains and heroes as he proved in two of D. W. Griffith's silent masterpieces. He was General Ulysses S. Grant in The Birth of a Nation and the evil prizefighter Battling Burrows, that brutalizes Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms.

In the nineteen-thirties he appeared in such classics as Red Dust (1932), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and The Life of Emile Zola (1937). His most famous screen persona was that of the stoic father and the kind physician. He played the former in such notable movies as That Certain Woman as Henry Fonda's father, How Green Was My Valley as Maureen O'Hara and Roddy McDowall's father and was Elizabeth Taylor's dad in National Velvet. His doctor roles included Jezebel, Wuthering Heights and The Old Maid.

Other noteworthy movies in his illustrious career include Juarez (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Knute Rockne All American (1940), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Lassie Come Home (1943) and Pollyanna (1960).

Donald Crisp passed away in 1974 at the age of 93.

Thomas Mitchell

Thomas Mitchell's career, though not nearly as prolific as that of Donald Crisp, boasts far more famous movies. He appeared in no less than five of the AFI's One Hundred Greatest American Films of all time.

He made his movie debut in the silent Six Cylinder Love in 1923. Throughout the thirties and forties he made dozens of movies, including Capra's Lost Horizon in 1937, Stagecoach with John Wayne, Only Angels Have Wings with Cary Grant and another Capra movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with Jimmy Stewart. In 1952 he worked with Gary Cooper in High Noon.

Undoubtedly though, his two most famous roles are as Gerald O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and as Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life. These two movies alone guarantee him screen immortality.

Thomas Mitchell made his last movie in 1961, another Capra movie, Pocketful of Miracles with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford.

To me these two fine old character actors represent two perfect grandfathers. Donald Crisp was the heroic grandfather that told old war stories to all of the neighborhood children and taught you how to ride a bike and throw a punch. Thomas Mitchell was the funny, slightly embarrassing grandfather that took you to the movies and bought you ice cream. One thing is for sure, John C. Reilly and Jim Broadbent have big shoes to fill.