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Actresses who appeared with Walter Brennan on screen:

Marilyn Monroe
Goldie Hawn
Natalie Wood
Sally Field
Lauren Bacall
Betty Davis
Bette Davis
Angie Dickinson
Leslie Anne Warren
Lesley Ann Warren
Leslie Ann
Debbie Reynolds
Leslie Hope
Shelley Winters
Lana Turner
Barbara Stanwyck


Walter Brennan
Birthday: December 31, 1969

Birth Place: Swampscott, Massachusetts, USA
Height: 5' 1"

Below is a complete filmography (list of movies he's appeared in) for Walter Brennan. If you have any corrections or additions, please email us at corrections@actorsofhollywood.com. We'd also be interested in any trivia or other information you have.

 

Biography

It had originally been the hope of Walter Brennan (and his family) that he would follow in the footsteps of his father, an engineer; but while still a student, he was bitten by the acting bug and was already at a crossroads when he graduated in 1915. Brennan had already worked in vaudeville when he enlisted at age 22 to serve in World War I. He served in an artillery unit and although he got through the war without being wounded, his exposure to poison gas ruined his vocal chords, leaving him with the high-pitched voice texture that made him a natural for old man roles while still in his thirties. (Other stories claimed that the gas attack had cost him his teeth, but that was a separate, later accident). His health all but broken by the experience, Brennan moved to California in the hope that the warm climate would help him and he lost most of what money he had when land values in the state collapsed in 1925. It was the need for cash that drove him to the gates of the studios that year, for which he worked as an extra and bit player. During this period, he befriended another young, struggling, would-be actor named Gary Cooper. At one point, they were even appearing as a team at casting offices, and although Cooper emerged in major and leading roles first, they would work together in the good years, too. The advent of the talkies served Brennan well, as he had been mimicking accents in childhood and could imitate a variety of different ethnicities on request. It was also during this period that, in an accident during a shoot, another actor (some stories claimed it was a mule) kicked him in the mouth and cost him his front teeth. Brennan was fitted for a set of false teeth that worked fine, and wearing them allowed him to play lean, lanky, virile supporting roles; but when he took them out, and the reedy, leathery voice kicked in with the altered look, Brennan became the old codger with which he would be identified in a significant number of his parts in the coming decades. He can be spotted in tiny, anonymous roles in a multitude of early-'30s movies, including King Kong (1933) (as a reporter) and one Three Stooges short. In 1935, however, he was fortunate enough to be cast in the supporting role of Jenkins in The Wedding Night. Directed by King Vidor and produced by Samuel Goldwyn, it was supposed to launch Anna Sten (its female lead) to stardom; but instead, it was Brennan who got noticed by the critics. He was put under contract with Goldwyn — eventually staying with the independent producer for nine years, longer than any other actor — and was back the same year as Old Atrocity in Barbary Coast. He continued doing bit parts, as demonstrated by his tiny, virtually unnoticed appearance that year in The Bride of Frankenstein, but after 1935, his films grew fewer in number and the parts much bigger. It was in the rustic drama Come and Get It (1936), starring Frances Farmer and Edward Arnold, that Brennan won his first Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, playing a Swede. Two years later, he won a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Kentucky (1938). That same year, he played major supporting roles in The Texans and The Buccaneer, and delighted younger audiences with his moving portrayal of Muff Potter, the man wrongfully accused of murder in Norman Taurog's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (and a David O. Selznick production — Brennan was already working with the two biggest independent filmmakers in Hollywood). Brennan worked only in high-profile movies from then on, including The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, Stanley and Livingston, and Goldwyn's They Shall Have Music, all in 1939. In 1940, he rejoined Cooper in The Westerner, playing the part of the notoriously corrupt Judge Roy Bean; giving a beautifully understated performance that made the character seem sympathetic and tragic as much as dangerous and reprehensible, he won his third Best Supporting Actor award (in what was really a lead performance). There was no looking back now, as Brennan joined the front rank of leading character actors, except that, unlike most of them, he could convincingly play a vast range of roles. His ethnic portrayals, however, gradually tapered off as Brennan took on parts geared specifically for him. In Frank Capra's Meet John Doe and Howard Hawks' Sergeant York (both 1941), he played clear-thinking, key supporting players to leading men portrayed by Cooper, while in Jean Renoir's Swamp Water (released that same year), he played another virtual leading role as a haunted man driven by demons that almost push him to murder. He played only in major movies from that point on, and always in important roles — Hawks used him again in To Have and Have Not and Red River, in the latter even working in a great plot gag involving Brennan's false teeth. In fact, he got to age into his cantankerous toothless character in Red River, playing a straight, two-fisted role alongside John Wayne in the opening section of the movie. Sam Wood used him in Goldwyn's The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Lewis Milestone cast him as a Russian villager in The North Star (1943), and he was in Goldwyn's production of The Princess and the Pirate (1944) as a comical half-wit who managed to hold his own working alongside Bob Hope. Brennan was able to pick and choose his roles, and turned down the coveted part of Jeeter Lester in John Ford's production of Tobacco Road because the part seemed too morally compromised. Instead, the role went to Charles Grapewin, who became a star in the movie. Brennan did get to play the even more choice role of Ike Clanton in Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946) and reprised his portrayal of an outlaw clan leader in more comic fashion in Burt Kennedy's Support Your Local Sheriff some 23 years later. Remaining one of the top supporting actors in Hollywood into the 1950s, Brennan's name actually lent some box-office allure to weaker titles such as Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay! in 1948. He worked with Cooper again on Delmer Daves' Task Force (1949) and played prominent roles in John Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock and Anthony Mann's The Far Country (both 1955). In 1959, the 64-year-old Brennan got one of the biggest roles of his career in Hawks' Red River, playing Stumpy, the game-legged jailhouse keeper who is backing up the besieged sheriff played by John Wayne. By that time, Brennan had moved to television, starring in the CBS series The Real McCoys, which became a six-season hit built around his portrayal of the cantankerous family patriarch Amos McCoy. From the outset, Brennan essentially devised the character himself — even asking if the producers wanted him to play it with or without his teeth — and designed every element of his costume, reportedly spending hours picking out the right hat. The series was such a hit that John Wayne's production company was persuaded to release a previously shelved film, William Wellman's Goodbye, My Lady (1956), about a boy, an old man, and a dog, during the show's run. Although he had disputes with the network and stayed a season longer than he had wanted, Brennan also liked the spotlight. He even enjoyed a brief, successful career as a recording artist on the Columbia Records label during the 1960s. Following the cancellation of The Real McCoys, Brennan starred in the short-lived series The Tycoon, playing a cantankerous, independent-minded multimillionaire who refuses to behave the way his family or his company's board of directors think a 70-year-old should. By this time, Brennan had become one of the more successful actors in Hollywood, with a 12,000-acre ranch in Northern California that was run by his sons, among other property. He'd invested wisely and also owned a share of his first series. Always an ideological conservative, it was during this period that his political views began taking a sharp turn to the right in response to the strife he saw around him. During the '60s, he was convinced that the anti-war and civil rights movements were being run by overseas communists — and said as much in interviews. He told reporters that he believed the civil rights movement, in particular, and the riots in places like Watts and Newark, and demonstrations in Birmingham, AL, were the result of perfectly content "Negroes" being stirred up by a handful of trouble-makers with an anti-American agenda. Those on the set of his last series, The Guns of Will Sonnett — in which he played the surprisingly complex role of an ex-army scout trying to undo the damage caused by his being a mostly absentee father — say that he cackled with delight upon learning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. Brennan later worked on the 1972 presidential campaign of reactionary right-wing California Congressman John Schmitz, a nominee of the American Party, whose campaign was predicated on the notion that the Republican Party under Richard Nixon had become too moderate. Mostly, though, Brennan was known to the public for his lovable, sometimes comical screen persona, and was still working as the '60s drew to a close, on made-for-TV movies such as The Over-the-Hill Gang, which reunited him with one of his favorite directors, Jean Yarbrough, and his old stablemate Chill Wills. Brennan died of emphysema in 1974 at the age of 80.

Movie Credits
The Gnome-Mobile: Part 1 (1978)
[ Matthew Garber ]
Smoke in the Wind (1975)
The Family Band: Part 2 (1972)
The Family Band: Part 1 (1972)
[ Buddy Ebsen ]
Home for the Holidays (1972)
[ Aaron Spelling ]
Two for the Money (1972)
[ Richard Dreyfuss ][ Aaron Spelling ]
21 Days to Tenstrike (1972)
[ Pete Duel ]
The Day They Hanged Kid Curry (1971)
[ Slim Pickens ]
The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again (1970)
[ Fred Astaire ][ Aaron Spelling ]
The Young Country (1970)
[ Pete Duel ]
A Town in Terror: Part 1 (1969)
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
[ James Garner ][ Bruce Dern ][ Harry Morgan ][ Jack Elam ]
Those Calloways: Part 3 (1969)
[ Brian Keith ]
The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969)
[ Aaron Spelling ][ Jack Elam ][ Ricky Nelson ][ Bruce Glover ]
The Marriage (1969)
Jim Sonnett's Lady (1969)
A Town in Terror: Part 2 (1969)
The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968)
[ Kurt Russell ][ Buddy Ebsen ]
Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)
[ Bob Denver ][ Jamie Farr ][ Paul Winfield ]
The Gnome-Mobile (1967)
[ Walt Disney ][ Matthew Garber ]
The Oscar (1966)
[ Ernest Borgnine ][ Joseph Cotten ]
Honorable Doctor Andrews (1965)
Those Calloways (1965)
[ Walt Disney ][ Tom Skerritt ][ Brian Keith ]
No Place Like Home (1964)
Talent Scout (1964)
East Meets West (1964)
How the West Was Won (1962)
[ John Wayne ][ James Stewart ][ Gregory Peck ][ Henry Fonda ][ Harry Dean Stanton ]
Shoot Out at Big Sag (1962)
[ Chris Robinson ]
Rio Bravo (1959)
[ John Wayne ][ Dean Martin ][ Ward Bond ][ Harry Carey Jr. ][ Ricky Nelson ]
Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)
[ Leslie Nielsen ]
The Way to the Gold (1957)
[ Jeffrey Hunter ]
God Is My Partner (1957)
The Proud Ones (1956)
[ Jeffrey Hunter ][ Robert Ryan ]
Good-bye, My Lady (1956)
[ Sidney Poitier ]
Come Next Spring (1956)
[ James Best ]
Glory (1956)
Vengeance Canyon (1956)
Mr. Ears (1955)
At Gunpoint (1955)
[ Fred MacMurray ][ Dabbs Greer ]
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
[ Ernest Borgnine ][ Lee Marvin ][ Spencer Tracy ][ Robert Ryan ]
Man on a Bus (1955)
Four Guns to the Border (1954)
[ George Nader ]
The Far Country (1954)
[ James Stewart ][ Harry Morgan ][ Jack Elam ]
Drums Across the River (1954)
Sea of Lost Ships (1954)
[ John Derek ]
Lucky Thirteen (1953)
We're Not Married! (1952)
[ Lee Marvin ][ Dabbs Greer ]
Return of the Texan (1952)
Lure of the Wilderness (1952)
[ Jeffrey Hunter ][ Jack Elam ]
The Wild Blue Yonder (1951)
[ Harry Carey Jr. ]
Best of the Badmen (1951)
[ Lawrence Tierney ][ Robert Ryan ]
Along the Great Divide (1951)
[ Kirk Douglas ]
Surrender (1950)
The Showdown (1950)
[ Harry Morgan ]
Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950)
[ Vincent Price ]
A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950)
[ Jack Elam ]
Singing Guns (1950)
[ Ward Bond ]
Task Force (1949)
[ Gary Cooper ]
Brimstone (1949)
The Green Promise (1949)
Blood on the Moon (1948)
[ Robert Mitchum ][ Harry Carey Jr. ]
Red River (1948)
[ John Wayne ][ Montgomery Clift ][ Richard Farnsworth ][ Harry Carey Jr. ]
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948)
Driftwood (1947)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
[ Henry Fonda ][ Jack Lord ][ John Ford ][ Ward Bond ][ Victor Mature ]
Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
Centennial Summer (1946)
A Stolen Life (1946)
[ Glenn Ford ]
Dakota (1945)
[ John Wayne ][ Robert Blake ][ Ward Bond ]
The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
[ Bob Hope ]
To Have and Have Not (1944)
[ Humphrey Bogart ][ Ernest Hemingway ]
Home in Indiana (1944)
[ Ward Bond ]
The North Star (1943)
[ Dana Andrews ][ Farley Granger ]
The Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith (1943)
[ George Reeves ][ Fred MacMurray ][ Lionel Barrymore ]
Slightly Dangerous (1943)
[ Robert Blake ][ Ward Bond ]
Hangmen Also Die (1943)
[ Fritz Lang ]
Stand by for Action (1942)
[ Charles Laughton ][ Robert Taylor ]
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
[ Gary Cooper ][ Irving Berlin ]
Swamp Water (1941)
[ Dana Andrews ][ Ward Bond ]
Sergeant York (1941)
[ Gary Cooper ][ Ward Bond ]
Meet John Doe (1941)
[ Gary Cooper ]
This Woman Is Mine (1941)
Nice Girl? (1941)
[ Robert Stack ]
Rise and Shine (1941)
The Westerner (1940)
[ Gary Cooper ][ Dana Andrews ]
Maryland (1940)
Northwest Passage (1940)
[ Spencer Tracy ]
Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President (1939)
Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
[ Spencer Tracy ]
They Shall Have Music (1939)
[ Joel McCrea ]
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
[ Fred Astaire ][ Irving Berlin ]
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
The Buccaneer (1938)
[ Anthony Quinn ]
Kentucky (1938)
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)
[ Gary Cooper ]
Mother Carey's Chickens (1938)
The Texans (1938)
[ Randolph Scott ][ Clayton Moore ]
Wild and Woolly (1937)
[ Lon Chaney Jr. ]
Affairs of Cappy Ricks (1937)
When Love Is Young (1937)
She's Dangerous (1937)
[ Cesar Romero ]
Banjo on My Knee (1936)
[ Buddy Ebsen ][ Joel McCrea ]
Come and Get It (1936)
[ Joel McCrea ]
Fury (1936)
[ Spencer Tracy ][ Fritz Lang ]
The Moon's Our Home (1936)
[ Henry Fonda ]
These Three (1936)
[ Joel McCrea ]
Three Godfathers (1936)
The Perfect Tribute (1935)
Horses' Collars (1935)
Alice Adams (1935)
[ Katharine Hepburn ][ Fred MacMurray ]
Helldorado (1935)
[ Ralph Bellamy ]
Welcome Home (1935)
[ William Frawley ]
Biography of a Bachelor Girl (1935)
Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)
Lady Tubbs (1935)
Spring Tonic (1935)
Party Wire (1935)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
[ Boris Karloff ][ Billy Barty ]
West Point of the Air (1935)
[ Mickey Rooney ][ Robert Taylor ]
The Wedding Night (1935)
[ Gary Cooper ][ Ralph Bellamy ]
Hunger Pains (1935)
Restless Knights (1935)
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935)
Law Beyond the Range (1935)
Metropolitan (1935)
[ Cesar Romero ]
Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)
[ Claude Rains ]
Barbary Coast (1935)
[ David Niven ][ Joel McCrea ]
Northern Frontier (1935)
[ Tyrone Power ]
We're in the Money (1935)
Brick-a-Brac (1935)
Woman Haters (1934)
Fishing for Trouble (1934)
I'll Tell the World (1934)
[ Ward Bond ]
A Wicked Woman (1934)
[ Robert Taylor ]
Uncertain Lady (1934)
The Painted Veil (1934)
Riptide (1934)
Prescott Kid (1934)
Good Dame (1934)
Cheating Cheaters (1934)
[ Cesar Romero ]
George White's Scandals (1934)
There's Always Tomorrow (1934)
[ Robert Taylor ]
The Crosby Case (1934)
Tailspin Tommy (1934)
The Poor Rich (1934)
[ Ward Bond ]
Gridiron Flash (1934)
Radio Dough (1934)
Great Expectations (1934)
Paradise Valley (1934)
Death on the Diamond (1934)
[ Mickey Rooney ][ Ward Bond ]
You Can't Buy Everything (1934)
Whom the Gods Destroy (1934)
Cross Country Cruise (1934)
Murder in the Private Car (1934)
Fugitive Lovers (1934)
The Life of Vergie Winters (1934)
[ Lon Chaney Jr. ]
Beloved (1934)
[ Mickey Rooney ]
Half a Sinner (1934)
[ Mickey Rooney ][ Joel McCrea ]
From Headquarters (1933)
Rustlers' Roundup (1933)
The Invisible Man (1933)
[ Claude Rains ]
Girl Missing (1933)
My Woman (1933)
Goldie Gets Along (1933)
Curtain at Eight (1933)
Parachute Jumper (1933)
Saturday's Millions (1933)
[ Alan Ladd ]
Man of Action (1933)
Golden Harvest (1933)
Sensation Hunters (1933)
One Year Later (1933)
Sing, Sinner, Sing (1933)
Baby Face (1933)
[ John Wayne ]
Strange People (1933)
Phantom of the Air (1933)
Lilly Turner (1933)
The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)
The Big Cage (1933)
[ Mickey Rooney ]
King for a Night (1933)
The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble (1933)
Hello Trouble (1932)
[ Ward Bond ]
Two-Fisted Law (1932)
[ John Wayne ]
Scandal for Sale (1932)
The Airmail Mystery (1932)
Impatient Maiden (1932)
Law and Order (1932)
Manhattan Tower (1932)
Texas Cyclone (1932)
[ John Wayne ]
Afraid to Talk (1932)
Strange Justice (1932)
Once in a Lifetime (1932)
[ Alan Ladd ]
The All-American (1932)
The Fourth Horseman (1932)
Fighting for Justice (1932)
Iceman's Ball (1932)
Cornered (1932)
Speed Madness (1932)
Miss Pinkerton (1932)
A House Divided (1931)
Scratch-As-Catch-Can (1931)
Neck and Neck (1931)
Is There Justice? (1931)
Dancing Dynamite (1931)
Honeymoon Lane (1931)
Heroes of the Flames (1931)
Many a Slip (1931)
Hello Russia (1931)
Ooh La-La (1930)
See America Thirst (1930)
Parlez Vous (1930)
Little Accident (1930)
Captain of the Guard (1930)
Dames Ahoy (1930)
The Shannons of Broadway (1929)
The Long, Long Trail (1929)
One Hysterical Night (1929)
Flying High (1929)
The Lariat Kid (1929)
Smilin' Guns (1929)
The Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City (1929)
Silks and Saddles (1929)
The Ballyhoo Buster (1928)
The Racket (1928)
Hot Heels (1928)
The Last Performance (1927)
Blake of Scotland Yard (1927)
The Ridin' Rowdy (1927)
Tearin' Into Trouble (1927)
Sensation Seekers (1927)
Flashing Oars (1927)
The Collegians (1926)
The Ice Flood (1926)
Watch Your Wife (1926)
[ Gary Cooper ]
Webs of Steel (1925)
Lorraine of the Lions (1925)

Trivia

  • First actor to accumulate three Academy Awards and to date still the only actor to win three Oscars as Best Supporting Actor.
  • Daughter: Ruth Brennan
  • Sons: Arthur Wells 'Mike' Brennan and Andy Brennan.
  • Interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, San Fernando, Los Angeles County, California, USA
  • Had four top 100 singles, including the Top 5 hit "Old Rivers" (Liberty Records) which first charted on April 7, 1962. The single spent 11 weeks on the Billboard charts and peaked at number 5.
  • He won the first ever Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1936 for "Come and Get It."
  • Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1970.
  • His relatives still live in and around Joseph, Oregon where the actor maintained a functioning ranch.
  • Owned a ranch and several businesses in Joseph, Oregon, including the Indian Lodge Motel which still displays several of his portraits in the office.
  • Hardly ever played the villain, usually being cast as the somewhat eccentric pal to the hero. An exception was his turn as the heartless Old Man Clanton in My Darling Clementine (1946), directed by the prickly John Ford. Ford and Brennan did not get along, and Ford was one of the few directors Brennan didn't collaborate with more than once throughout his career.
  • Always fiscally conservative, he became politically active in later life when he saw many of the things he held dear being eroded by the counterculture movement. He supported George Wallace's presidential campaign in 1968 and in 1972 supported extreme right-wing Republican Representative John Schmitz, as the incumbent President Richard Nixon was viewed as too progressive by many Republicans.
  • After his military service during World War I, Brennan moved to Los Angeles, where he got involved in the real-estate market and made a fortune. Unfortunately the market took a sudden downturn and Brennan lost almost all of his money. Broke, he began taking bit parts in films in order to earn money, and his career progressed from there.

Naked Photos of Walter Brennan are available at MaleStars.com. They currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips, Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.

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