In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school plays. He worked some in vaudeville and also in various jobs such as clerking in a bank and as a lumberjack. He toured in small musical comedy companies before entering the military in 1917. After his war service he went to Guatemala and raised pineapples, then migrated to Los Angeles, where he speculated in real estate. A few jobs as a film extra came his way beginning in 1923, then some work as a stuntman. He eventually achieved speaking roles, going from bit parts to substantial supporting parts in scores of features and short subjects between 1927 and 1938. In 1936 his role in _Come and Get It . He died in 1974 of emphysema, a beloved figure in movies and TV, the target of countless comic impressionists, and one of the best and most prolific actors of his time.
First actor to accumulate three Academy Awards and to date still the only actor to win three Oscars as Best Supporting Actor.
Father of Ruth Brennan with Ruth Wells Brennan.
Father of Arthur Wells Mike Brennan and Andy Brennan with Ruth Wells 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 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 , directed by the prickly John Ford. Ford and Brennan did not get along, and Ford was one of the few directors Brennan didnt collaborate with more than once throughout his career.
Always fiscally and ideologically 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.
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 cords, leaving him with the high-pitched voice texture that made him a natural for old man roles while still in his thirties.
"The Real McCoys" was such a hit that John Wayne s production company, Batjac, was persuaded to release a previously shelved film, William A. Wellman s Good-bye, My Lady , about a boy, an old man, and a dog, during the shows run.
Actively supported Ronald Reagan s campaign to become Governor of California in 1966.
Campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, after the senator had voted against the Civil Rights Act.
There was some controversy over the Academy Awards Brennan won because in that period of time the rules of the Academy permitted extras to cast votes for the nominees, and Brennan, who had been an extra for some time before his more substantial roles came along, was popular among his fellow extra workers and they felt they were voting for one of their own.
Director Howard Hawks had related the story that, after completing Red River , he was approached by an actor but couldnt quite place the face. The actor removed his teeth and said, "Do you recognize me now?" Hawks immediately recognized him as Brennan.
In 1925 Gary Cooper befriended another young, struggling, would-be actor named Walter Brennan. 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. Most memorably they starred in The Westerner together, where the general critical consensus was that Brennans underplayed performance as Judge Roy Bean had stolen the film from Cooper.
Although he was known for playing "old-coot" Southerners complete with cackling laugh and thick Southern accent, in reality he actually had somewhat of a New England accent, being born and raised in Massachusets,.
He was offered the supporting role of Mr. Judson in Herbie Rides Again , but was too ill with emphysema to take the job. It was then recast with John McIntire. Brennan died 90 days after the movie was released to theaters, on June 6, 1974.
He and Katharine Hepburn are the only actors to win 3 Oscars on 3 consecutive nominations.
Holds the record for winning the most acting Oscars in the shortest amount of time (3 in 4 years).
2 of his 3 Oscar-winning performances were directed by William Wyler. This makes him one of four actors to win two Oscars under the same persons direction. The other three are: Jack Nicholson for Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets (both directed by James L. Brooks ), Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway (both directed by Woody Allen ) and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained (both directed by Quentin Tarantino ).
In June 1928, filming a scene in San Diego, he accidentally drove a automobile into the harbor.
His third Oscar win led to the disenfranchisement of the Extras Union from voting.
During the 1960s he was convinced that the anti-Vietnam 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, Alabama, were the result of perfectly content "negroes" being stirred up by a handful of trouble-makers with an anti-American agenda.
Members of the cast and crew 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 - said that he cackled with delight upon learning of Martin Luther King s assassination.
Son of William (September 2, 1868-August 17, 1936) and Margaret (ne Flanagan) Brennan ((June 4, 1869-February 1, 1955). Both parents were born in the state of Massachusetts and died in the state of California.
Paternal grandson of William (1844-1925), born in Scotland, and Helen (ne Griffith) Brennan (1848-1903), born in England. Both died in the state of Massachusetts.
Maternal grandson of Michael (1846-1903) and Margaret (ne Hewett) Flanagan (1849-1904). Both were born in Ireland and died in the state of Massachusetts.
Maternal great grandson of John (1807-1882) and Bridget (ne Neagle) Hewett (1817-1858). Both were born in Ireland and died in the state of Massachusetts.
I never made a movie I would not take my family to see.
