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Whitford Kane est un Acteur Américain né le 29 janvier 1881 à Larne (Royaume-uni)

Whitford Kane

Whitford Kane
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Nom de naissance Thomas Wheeler Kane
Nationalité Etats-Unis
Naissance 29 janvier 1881 à Larne (Royaume-uni)
Mort 17 décembre 1956 (à 75 ans)

Whitford Kane (January 30, 1881 – December 17, 1956) was a noted Irish-born American stage and screen character actor remembered for playing the First Gravedigger in numerous productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and by the students that attended his drama classes over a career that spanned nearly six decades. By the end of his long career, Whitford Kane's theatre credits had grown to fill three columns in John Parker's Who's Who in the Theatre.

Biographie

Thomas Wheeler Kane was born on January 30, 1881 in Larne, a seaport on the east coast of County Antrim, Ireland (today a part of Northern Ireland), to Dr. John Kane and the former Isabella Whiteford. He first took to the stage in Belfast while in his early 20s, and by 1910 was performing on the London stage. Kane’s first known Broadway performance, the idle inventor, Daniel Murray, in Rutherford Mayne’s comedy, The Drone, came in 1912, the year he immigrated to America. He would go on to be involved in some fifty-six Broadway productions over a near fifty-three year acting career that only closed due to illness as he neared the end of his life.

Kane typically played character roles often described as likable and benign. Theatre critic Brooks Atkinson wrote of Kane’s performance as Dr. Wilson in John Steinbeck’s 1942 play, The Moon Is Down, “As the benign village doctor, Whitford Kane, one of the best pipe-smokers on the stage, presides in cheerful humor.” He played the First Gravedigger in 23 productions of Hamlet, supporting such actors as John Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Walter Hampden, William Mollison, Godfrey Tearle and Osmond Tearle. When asked why he played in so many Shakespearean productions, Kane replied, “It’s saved my bacon a good many times. The old gravedigger has fed me better than any other part. I earn my eats by Shakespeare; thank God it’s always coming up.”

Whitford Kane appeared in a handful of films over the 1930s and 40s, the most memorable probably being The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) starring Fredric March, and the 1947 film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, in which he played the publisher Mr. Sproule. His career extended into the early years of television where the “round little man with a plum for a nose, a plump chin and ruddy full-blown cheeks” was one Christmas Eve called upon to play Santa Claus. Kane was a member of the cast that appeared in the very early NBC 1939 Teleplay, The Streets of New York and the 1954 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of King Richard II that was adapted for television by Maurice Evans.



For a good number of years, Kane trained young actors for the stage at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and later in New York with the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. As director of the Goodman Theatre, Kane once awarded a young Orson Welles a drama prize. Some years later the two developed a close friendship with Kane becoming a key member of Welles's Mercury Theatre repertory company.

Kane's final Broadway performance came early in 1956 as Samuel in Seán O'Casey's drama, Roses for You, before closing out his career that summer at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. By then, Kane was struggling with cancer, but refused to cut back on his commitments in order to preserve his record of only missing one performance in over fifty years of theatre work. Whitford Kane died at the age of 75 on December 17, 1956 in New York City. He was survived by a brother and sister and his partner of over 25 years, actor Hiram Sherman.

A few days after his passing, actor Will Geer wrote in a letter to The New York Times Drama Editor, “It should be noted that Whitford Kane was an expert teacher and had a following as stout as any “studio” of the day. For fifty years he taught that an actor’s warmth must burst through the proscenium arch. Sometimes he would gallop into the parlors with such Christmas horseplay as “St. George and the Dragon.” For he was always ready to tilt at sham or tinsel in the theatre of life. I can hear him today; Yes Virginia Rouns Patrick Dennis Tanner, there is a real Auntie Mame.”

Whitford Kane published his autobiography Are we all met? in 1931.

Le plus souvent avec

Stuart Holmes
Stuart Holmes
(3 films)
Douglas Wood
Douglas Wood
(2 films)
Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann
(1 films)
Sidney Wagner
Sidney Wagner
(1 films)
Ray June
Ray June
(1 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmographie de Whitford Kane (6 films)

Afficher la filmographie sous forme de liste

Acteur

L'Aventure de Mme Muir, 1h44
Réalisé par Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Origine Etats-Unis
Genres Drame, Thriller, Fantastique, Comédie, Comédie romantique, Fantasy, Romance
Thèmes Fantômes, Films pour enfants
Acteurs Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Edna Best, Natalie Wood, Isobel Elsom
Rôle Sproule - London Publisher (uncredited)
Note77% 3.8972553.8972553.8972553.8972553.897255
Au début des années 1900 en Angleterre, une jeune veuve, Lucy Muir, étouffant à Londres auprès de sa belle-mère et sa belle-sœur, décide de louer le cottage Les mouettes dans la station balnéaire de Whitecliff. Elle s'y installe avec sa fille Anna et sa fidèle servante Martha. La maison est hantée et, dès le premier soir, elle surprend l'apparition fantomatique de l'ancien propriétaire, un capitaine de la marine bougon et espiègle mais inoffensif du nom de Daniel Gregg. Ce dernier, mort en 1896, promet à contrecœur de ne se faire connaître que d'elle seule, Anna étant trop jeune pour comprendre les fantômes. Lucy connait rapidement des problèmes d'argent. Daniel lui propose alors de dicter ses mémoires, qu'elle publiera sous son nom. Au cours de l'écriture du livre, une grande complicité s'instaure entre Lucy et Daniel. La tâche achevée, celle-ci ne pourra plus s'exercer et tous deux ressentent comme une petite dépression. Daniel l'incite alors à sortir, notamment dans le but de rencontrer un compagnon dans le monde des vivants.
The Judge Steps Out, 1h31
Origine Etats-Unis
Genres Drame, Comédie
Acteurs Ann Sothern, George Tobias, Alexander Knox, Sharyn Moffett, Florence Bates, Frieda Inescort
Rôle Dr. Charles P. Boyd
Note67% 3.3885353.3885353.3885353.3885353.388535
Circa late ‘40’s. Boston (and, it’s always winter there) Judge Thomas Bailey is bored with his job as a probate judge and appears to be just going through the motions as he decides in a case against a mother for custody of her child in favor of the child’s more conservative grandfather.
Les Aventures de Mark Twain, 2h10
Réalisé par Irving Rapper
Origine Etats-Unis
Genres Drame, Biographie, Aventure
Thèmes Film sur un écrivain
Acteurs Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, C. Aubrey Smith, John Carradine
Rôle Joe Goodwin
Note70% 3.5436953.5436953.5436953.5436953.543695
Le film raconte la vie de Samuel Langhorne Clemens, alias Mark Twain (1835-1910).
Jours heureux, 1h21
Réalisé par W. S. Van Dyke
Origine Etats-Unis
Genres Drame, Comédie, Comédie dramatique, Policier, Romance
Acteurs Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward Arnold, Elizabeth Patterson, Mickey Rooney, Whitford Kane
Rôle Henry Miller
Note68% 3.443923.443923.443923.443923.44392
Un gangster blessé se cache dans une ferme à la campagne, il va y trouver l'amour et la rédemption.