Charles Winninger

Charles Winninger
in State Fair (1945)
Born	May 26, 1884(1884-05-26) Athens, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	January 27, 1969(1969-01-27) (aged 84) Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1915–1960
Spouse	Blanche Ring (1912-1951) Gertrude Walker (1951-1969) (his death)

Charles Winninger (May 26, 1884 – January 27, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.

Biography

He began as a vaudeville actor. His most famous stage role was as Cap'n Andy Hawks in the original production of the Jerome Kern - Oscar Hammerstein II musical classic Show Boat in 1927, a role that he reprised – to great acclaim – in the 1932 stage revival and the 1936 film version of the show. He became so identified with the role, and with his "persona" as a riverboat captain, that he played several variations of the role, notably on the radio program Maxwell House Show Boat, which was clearly inspired by, but not actually based on, the Broadway musical.

After the 1936 Show Boat, Winninger largely abandoned the stage and stayed on in Hollywood, becoming one of its most beloved and most often seen character actors. He appeared in such classics as the 1937 Nothing Sacred (as the drunken doctor who misdiagnoses Carole Lombard), the 1939 Destry Rides Again (as Wash, the sheriff who hires James Stewart as his deputy), as Deanna Durbin's father in the film Three Smart Girls, and as Abel Frake in the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein film musical State Fair. He played the protective Irish Grandfather in MGM's film version of George M. Cohan's Little Nellie Kelly (1940), and the father of a budding show-girl in Ziegfeld Girl (1941), both starring Judy Garland. In all of these films, Winninger was the very image of the kindly, lovable, chubby, grandfatherly figure, but in "Show Boat", especially, he showed that he could play a dramatic, emotional scene as well as any serious dramatic actor. He returned to Broadway only once more - for the 1951 revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Music in the Air.

Winninger had the lead role in only one film, 1953's The Sun Shines Bright, John Ford's remake of his own Judge Priest. Winninger played the role that Will Rogers had undertaken in 1934.

Winninger made a notable television appearance in 1954 in I Love Lucy as Barney Kurtz, the former Vaudevillian partner of Fred Mertz (played by William Frawley) in an episode titled "Mertz and Kurtz".

External links

Biography portal

• Charles Winninger at the Internet Movie Database
• Charles Winninger at the Internet Broadway Database
• Charles Winninger at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Winninger, Charles
Alternative names
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	May 26, 1884
Place of birth	Athens, Wisconsin, USA
Date of death	January 27, 1969
Place of death	Palm Springs, California, USA