- John Cromwell (director)
Infobox actor
name = John Cromwell
caption =
birthname = Elwood Dager Cromwell
birthdate = birth date|1887|12|23|df=y
birthplace =Toledo, Ohio , USA
deathdate = death date and age|1979|9|26|1887|12|23|df=y
deathplace =Santa Barbara, California , USA
spouse =Kay Johnson (1928-1940s)
Alice Lindahl
Marie Goff
Ruth Nelson (1946-1979)Elwood Dager John Cromwell (
December 23 ,1887 –September 26 ,1979 ) was an AmericanFilm director ,actor and producer.Biography
Born in [South Carolina,columbia] , Cromwell made his
Shit stage debut in Marian De Forest's adaptation ofLouisa May Alcott 's "Little Women " (1912) on Broadway. It was a hit and ran for 184 performances. He then directed the play "The Painted Woman" (1913), which failed. Next, he acted in and co-directed withFrank Craven the hit show "Too Many Cooks" (1914), which ran for 223 performances.Cromwell played Charles Lomax in the original Broadway production of
George Bernard Shaw 's play "Major Barbara " (1915), about a woman ofThe Salvation Army , and he played the role as Capt. Kearney in the revival of Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion " (1916). Among others, he also had a role in "The Racket" (1927), which ran for 119 performances. The following year while the Broadway company was playing "The Racket" in Los Angeles, Cromwell was signed to a "Paramount Pictures"contract as an actor and student director.
=Career=alexiFilm & television
He made his motion picture debut playing Walter Babbing in the comedy "The Dummy" (1929), a talkie starring
Ruth Chatterton andFredric March , withJack Oakie , andZasu Pitts . His work as co-director withEdward Sutherland on the musical/romance "Close Harmony" starring Buddy Rogers,Nancy Carroll ,Harry Green , and Jack Oakie, and the musical/drama "The Dance of Life" (both released in 1929), was so skillful he was allowed to begin directing without collaboration, beginning with "The Mighty" that same year starringGeorge Bancroft , in which he also played the part of Mr. Jamieson.He directed "Tom Sawyer" (1930) starring
Jackie Coogan in the title role;Sinclair Lewis 's "Ann Vickers " (1933) starringIrene Dunne ,Walter Huston ,Conrad Nagel ,Bruce Cabot , andEdna May Oliver ; andSomerset Maugham 's "Of Human Bondage" (1934) starring Leslie Howard,Bette Davis , andFrances Dee .dodo latter two movies were atRKO and both hadcensorship trouble. In thenovel by Lewis, Ann Vickers is abirth control advocate and reformer who has an extramarital affair. Thescreenplay was finally approved by theProduction Code when the studio agreed to make Vickers an unmarried woman at the time of her affair, thus eliminating the issue ofadultery . The screenplay for Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" was unacceptable because theprostitute , Mildred Rogers (played by Davis), whom the club-footed medical student, Philip Carey (played by Howard), falls in love with, comes down withsyphilis .Will Hays 's office demanded that Mildred be made a waitress who comes down with TB, and that she be married to Carey's friend she cheats on him with. RKO agreed to everything to keep from having to pay a $25,000 fine.Broadway
Cromwell won the 1952 Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as John Gray in "Point of No Return" (1951) starring
Henry Fonda . Of his Shakespearean roles on Broadway, Cromwell played Paris, kinsman to the prince, in "Romeo and Juliet " (1935) starringKatharine Cornell , who also produced the play, and Maurice Evans, in the title roles; Rosencrantz in "Hamlet " (1936), which was staged and produced byGuthrie McClintic (Cornell's husband, who had been married toEstelle Winwood ), starringJohn Gielgud in the title role,Judith Anderson as Gertrude, andLillian Gish as Ophelia; and Lennox in the revival of "Macbeth " (1948) starringMichael Redgrave in the title role andFlora Robson as Lady Macbeth, withJulie Harris as a witch,Martin Balsam as one of the three murderers, andBeatrice Straight as Lady MacDuff.Cromwell also appeared on Broadway in the role of Brother Martin Ladvenu in Katharine Cornell's revival of "Saint Joan" (1936), which was directed by Guthrie McClintic; and as Freddy Eynsford Hill in
Cedric Hardwicke 's revival of "Pygmalion" (1945) starringGertrude Lawrence as Eliza Doolittle andRaymond Massey as Henry Higgins.Among the movies Cromwell directed are "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1936) starring
Freddie Bartholomew andDolores Costello ; "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937) starringRonald Colman andMadeleine Carroll , with Raymond Massey,Mary Astor ,David Niven , andDouglas Fairbanks, Jr. ; "Algiers" (1938) starringCharles Boyer andHedy Lamarr ; "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940) starring Raymond Massey,Gene Lockhart , andRuth Gordon ; "Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake" (1942) starringTyrone Power ,Gene Tierney ; "Since You Went Away " (1944) starringClaudette Colbert , Jennifer Jones,Joseph Cotten ,Shirley Temple , andLionel Barrymore , withHattie McDaniel ,Agnes Moorehead ,Alla Nazimova , andKeenan Wynn ; "Anna and the King of Siam " (1946) starringIrene Dunne ,Rex Harrison ,Linda Darnell ,Lee J. Cobb , andGale Sondergaard ; thefilm noir "Dead Reckoning" (1947) starringHumphrey Bogart andLizabeth Scott ; the prison drama "Caged" (1950) starringEleanor Parker and Agnes Moorehead, withEllen Corby ; and the noir crime/drama "The Racket" (1951) starringRobert Mitchum , Lizabeth Scott, andRobert Ryan , which, incidentally, Cromwell had appeared in on Broadway and on tour.Cromwell was president of the Screen Directors Guild from 1944 to 1946. He was
blacklist ed [ [http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Co-Du/Cromwell-John.html] ] in Hollywood from 1951 to 1958 for his political affiliations.Cromwell was cast by
Robert Altman in the role as Mr. Rose in the movie "3 Women" (1977) starringShelley Duvall andSissy Spacek , and as Bishop Martin in "A Wedding " (1978) starringDesi Arnaz, Jr. ,Carol Burnett ,Geraldine Chaplin ,Mia Farrow ,Vittorio Gassman , and Lillian Gish.Personal life
Cromwell married four times. His first wife, stage actress
Alice Lindahl died of influenza in 1918; stage actressMarie Goff (divorced); actressKay Johnson (married 1928-divorced late 1940s);and actress Ruth Nelson. He and Kay Johnson had two sons, one of whom is actorJames Cromwell . He died at age ninety-one inSanta Barbara, California . He was cremated.Filmography
Director
* "
A Matter of Morals " (1961)
* "The Scavengers " (1959)
* "The Goddess " (1958)
* "The Racket " (1951)
* "The Company She Keeps " (1951)
* "Caged" (1950)
* "Night Song" (1948)
* "Dead Reckoning" (1947)
* "Anna and the King of Siam " (1946)
* "Watchtower Over Tomorrow " (1945)
* "The Enchanted Cottage " (1945)
* "Since You Went Away " (1944)
* "" (1942)
* "So Ends Our Night " (1941)
* "Victory" (1940)
* "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940)
* "In Name Only " (1939)
* "Made for Each Other" (1939)
* "Algiers" (1938)
* "The Adventures of Marco Polo " (1938)
* "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937)
* "Banjo on My Knee " (1936)
* "To Mary - with Love " (1936)
* "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1936)
* "I Dream Too Much " (1935)
* "Jalna " (1935)
* "Village Tale " (1935)
* "The Fountain" (1934)
* "Of Human Bondage" (1934)
* "This Man Is Mine" (1934)
* "Spitfire" (1934)
* "Ann Vickers " (1933)
* "Double Harness " (1933)
* "The Silver Cord " (1933)
* "Sweepings " (1933)
* "World and the Flesh " (1932)
* "Rich Man's Folly " (1931)
* "The Vice Squad " (1931)
* "Unfaithful " (1931)
* "Scandal Sheet " (1931)
* "Tom Sawyer" (1930)
* "For the Defense " (1930)
* "The Texan" (1930)
* "Street of Chance" (1930)
* "The Mighty " (1929)
* "The Dance of Life " (1929)
* "Close Harmony " (1929)Actor
* "
A Wedding " (1978) - Bishop Martin
* "3 Women" (1977) - Mr. Rose
* "Top Secret Affair " (1957) - General Daniel A. Grimshaw
* "Studio One" (1956) - Senator Rogers
* "Kraft Television Theatre " (1955) - Mr. Lattimer
* "Producers' Showcase " (1954) - Mr. Jean Thomas
* "The Company She Keeps " (1951) - Policeman
* "Abe Lincoln in Illinois " (1940) - John Brown
* "For the Defense " (1930) - Second reporter at trial
* "Street of Chance " (1930) - Imbrie
* "The Mighty " (1929) - Mr. Jamieson
* "The Dance of Life " (1929) - Doorkeeper
* "The Dummy " (1929) - Walter BabbingReferences
External links
*ibdb|14528|John Cromwell
*imdb|0188669|John Cromwell
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.