Nat Pendleton

Nat Pendleton
as Eugen Sandow from the trailer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Born	Nathaniel Greene Pendleton August 9, 1895(1895-08-09) Davenport, Iowa, U.S.
Died	October 12, 1967(1967-10-12) (aged 72) San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1913–1956
Spouse	Barbara Evelyn (?-1967) (his death) Juanita Alfonzo (?-?)

Olympic medal record
Men's freestyle wrestling
Silver	1920 Antwerp	heavyweight

Nathaniel Greene "Nat" Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler and film actor.

Biography

Early life

Pendleton was born in Davenport, Iowa to Adelaide E. and Nathaniel G. Pendleton. He studied at Columbia University where he began his wrestling career. He was twice Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) champion in 1914 and 1915. Chosen to compete in the US wrestling team at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, Pendleton lost only one match during the competition, and was awarded a silver medal. Returning to the US he became a professional wrestler, and with the celebrity status he had achieved, drifted into movies in the late 1920s.

Movie career

His early roles were largely uncredited. Then he was chosen to appear in Horse Feathers (1932) with the Marx Brothers as one of the two college football players who kidnap Harpo and Chico, and his career began to develop. His role as circus strongman Eugen Sandow in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) brought him the strongest reviews of his career. Pendleton was most often cast in supporting roles as thugs, gangsters, or policemen and was usually typecast playing characters that depended on their brawn but were "none too bright".

Some of his other films include The Thin Man (1934) and At the Circus (1939), again with the Marx Brothers. He appeared in recurring roles in two MGM film series of the late 1930s and 1940s - as Joe Wayman, the ambulance driver in the Dr. Kildare series, and its spin-off, the Dr. Gillespie series. He made his final film appearances in Scared to Death with Bela Lugosi, and Buck Privates Come Home (both 1947).

Pendleton died in San Diego, California in 1967 from a heart attack.

Partial filmography

• The Battle of Gettysburg (1913) (unconfirmed)
• The Big Pond (1930)
• Mr. Lemon of Orange (1931)
• Blonde Crazy (1931)
• The Star Witness (1931)
• Hell Fire Austin (1932)
• The Sign of the Cross (1932)
• Attorney for the Defense (1932)
• Whistling in the Dark (1933)
• Goldie Gets Along (1933)
• Child of Manhattan (1933)
• Lady for a Day (1933)
• Penthouse (1933)
• Lazy River (1934)
• Fugitive Lovers (1934)
• Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
• The Thin Man (1934)
• Death on the Diamond (1934)
• The Gay Bride (1934)
• Reckless (1935)
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
• Trapped by Television (1936)
• Gangway (1937)
• Fast Company (1938)
• The Shopworn Angel (1938)
• The Crowd Roars (1938)
• Young Dr. Kildare (1938)
• It's a Wonderful World (1939)
• 6,000 Enemies (1939)
• On Borrowed Time (1939)
• At the Circus (1939)
• Another Thin Man (1939)
• The Secret of Dr. Kildare (1939)
• Northwest Passage (1940)
• Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940)
• Flight Command (1940)
• Scared to Death (1947)
• Buck Privates Come Home (1947)

External links

Biography portal

• Nat Pendleton at the Internet Movie Database
• Nat Pendleton at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nat Pendleton at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Pendleton, Nat
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 9, 1895
Place of birth	Davenport, Iowa, U.S.
Date of death	October 12, 1967
Place of death	San Diego, California, U.S.