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Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg (April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981), better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor who won all three of the entertainment industries highest awards, two Oscars, one Tony and an Emmy.
Early life
Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia to Eduard Kurljandsky Graoidanin, a Jewish concert pianist from Riga, Latvia, and Lena Priscilla Shackelford, a Scottish American. Though his father taught music at a succession of colleges in the U.S. and Canada, Douglas never graduated from high school.
Career
Douglas had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930 Broadway role opposite his future wife, Helen Gahagan, in Tonight or Never until just before his death. He was the hero in the 1932 horror film The Vampire Bat and the sophisticated leading man in 1935's She Married Her Boss. He played opposite Greta Garbo in three films: "As You Desire Me" (1932) "Ninotchka" (1939) and Garbo's final film Two Faced Woman (1941).
During World War II, Douglas served first as a director of the Arts Council in the Office of Civilian Defense, and then in the United States Army. He returned to more mature roles as in The Sea of Grass and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. As Douglas grew older, he took on the older-man and father roles, in such movies as The Americanization of Emily, Hud, The Candidate and I Never Sang for My Father, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1959 he made his musical debut playing Captain Boyle in the ill-fated Marc Blitzstein musical Juno, based on Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock.
In addition to his Academy Awards (see below), Douglas won a "Tony" for his Broadway lead role in the 1960 The Best Man by Gore Vidal, and a television "Emmy" for his 1967 playing in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Douglas' final screen appearance was in The Hot Touch (1982). Douglas has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 6423 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 6601 Hollywood Blvd.
Private life
Douglas was married for fifty years to actress-turned-politician Helen Gahagan. As a three-term Congresswoman, she was Richard Nixon's opponent for the United States Senate seat from California in 1950. Nixon accused Gahagan of being a Communist because of her opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon went so far as to call her "pink right down to her underwear". It was Gahagan who gave Nixon his epithet "Tricky Dick."
Douglas died in 1981.
Actress Illeana Douglas is his granddaughter.
Academy Awards and Nominations
- 1980 - Won - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Being There
- 1971 - Nominated - Best Actor in a Leading Role - I Never Sang for My Father
- 1964 - Won - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Hud
External links
1901 births | 1981 deaths | American film actors | American television actors | American World War II veterans | Best Actor Academy Award nominees | Best Supporting Actor Oscar | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Jewish American actors | People from Georgia (U.S. state) | Scottish-Americans
"Melvyn Douglas"