Grant Withers
_Biography |
subject_name = Grant Withers|
image_name = GrantWithers0.jpg|
image_caption =
Grant Withers in a 1930s promotional photo from
Warner Bros. Pictures.| date_of_birth =
January 17,
1905| place_of_birth =
Pueblo, Colorado|
dead = dead|
date_of_death =
March 27,
1959| place_of_death =
North Hollywood, California|}}
Grant Withers, (
January 17,
1905,
Pueblo, Colorado –
March 27,
1959,
North Hollywood, California), born
Granville G. Withers, was a prolific
American film actor with a sizeable body of work.
He had worked as an oil company salesman and newspaper reporter before breaking into movies near the end of the silent era. His nearly 50-year acting career took off in the late 1920s, while in his 20s, when his hairy-chested rugged good looks made him the leading man "hero" over such rising talent as
James Cagney. (In fact, his screen credit for the 1928
Tillie's Punctured Romance was "Hero".) Tall (6'3") and tough, yet capable of sensitivity, it was his early roles for
Warner Bros. Pictures/
The Vitaphone Corporation that brought him his highest accolades.
Starring roles in major pictures later dwindled to supporting parts, mainly as villains in
B-movies and serials. Notable exceptions included a 12-part
Jungle Jim movie serial by
Universal Pictures, starring Grant Withers, in 1937 and the recurring role of the brash police Captain Bill Street in
Monogram's Mr. Wong series beginning in 1938.
He was under a
Republic Term Contract from February, 1944 through April, 1954. Withers' film credits at Republic number about 60 from 1937 - 1957. From 1940 on he was pretty much a
character actor as a popular
Western tough guy taking numerous supporting roles in television as his demand in film work waned.
All told he appeared in over 200 films.
In 1930, at 26, his elopement to
Yuma, Arizona, with a 17-year-old
Loretta Young was widely reported and ended in annulment in 1931, just as their second movie together, (ironically titled
Too Young to Marry), was released. He was also married to Gladys Joyce Walsh.
Some of Withers' later screen appearances were arranged through the auspices of his friends
John Ford and
John Wayne He appeared in nine movies with John Wayne, including
Fort Apache (1948) and
Rio Grande (1950). On Sunday evenings Withers and the "good ol' boys club" met at the John Ford Ranch in the
San Fernando Valley. John Ford and John Wayne would be at the Ranch, and some others;
Ben Johnson,
Chill Wills,
Ward Bond,
Harry Carey, Jr. and many of the other supporting actors that were usually in all of Wayne's pictures. Sometimes,
Lee Marvin would show up. They were sometimes known as
The John Ford Stock Company.
Wayne was best man at Withers' fifth marriage; it was to Cuban-born actress Estelita Rodriguez (24)
(Rio Bravo), at age 49, in January, 1953, in
Reno, Nevada. They too resided in the
San Fernando Valley on Woodcliff Avenue in
Sherman Oaks, California. Estelita began a night club singing career at the end of her Republic contract. They divorced in 1955.
With failing health Withers worked up until his suicide in 1959 when he died from an overdose of barbiturates, leaving behind a note in which he apologized to all the people he'd let down during his Hollywood days.
"Please forgive me, my family. I was so unhappy. It's better this way.", he said.
[http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/233/Estelita+Rodriguez/index.html/]*Having worked with
Buster Keaton and
W. C. Fields in silent films and with over 200 known titles to his name, Grant Withers filmography surpasses that of many more well-known stars, making him almost a daily regular on cable movie channels like
Turner Classic Movies. These are among his films known to be released on
DVD:
|
Grant Withers starring in the DVD release of 1937's Bill Cracks Down. |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|
| 1935 | The Fighting Marines | Cpl. Larry Lawrence |
| 1936 | The Arizona Raiders | Monroe Adams |
| 1937 | Jungle Jim - Serial | Jim 'Jungle Jim' Bradley |
| 1937 | Bill Cracks Down | "Tons" Walker |
| 1938 | Mr. Wong - Mr. Wong, Detective | Capt. William 'Bill' Street |
| 1939 | Boy's Reformatory | Doctor Owens |
| 1939 | Mr. Wong - Mr. Wong in Chinatown | Capt. William 'Bill' Street |
| 1939 | Daughter of the Tong | Ralph Dickson |
| 1940 | Mr. Wong - Fatal Hour | Capt. William 'Bill' Street |
| 1940 | Mr. Wong - Doomed to Die | Capt. William 'Bill' Street |
| 1940 | Mr. Wong - Mr. Wong Phanthom of Chinatown | Capt. William 'Bill' Street |
| 1944 | The Fighting Seabees | Whanger Spreckles |
| 1946 | My Darling Clementine | Ike Clanton |
| 1948 | Fort Apache | Silas Meacham |
| 1948 | Wake of the Red Witch | Capt. Wilde Youngeur |
| 1950 | Bells of Coronado | Craig Bennett |
| 1950 | Rio Grande | Deputy Marshal |
* Note that most biographies have Withers' birth year as 1904, but his burial marker shows 1905.
* Grant Withers headlined over supporting actor
James Cagney's first film,
Sinner's Holiday (1930), and his third,
Other Men's Women (1931). In the 1955 western
Run For Cover, the billing would be reversed.
*
The New York Times / Grant Withers*
Republic Bad Guys and Action Heavies / Grant Withers*
A Macro Bio*
Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen / Estelita Rodriguez*
Silents Are Golden*
Find A Grave / Grant Withers
