Walter Hampden

Walter Hampden

Born: June 28, 1879
Died: June 11, 1955
in Brooklyn, New York, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Walter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty (June 30, 1879 in Brooklyn – June 11, 1955 in Los Angeles) was a U.S. actor and theatre manager. He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty (1877-1947).

He went to England for apprenticeship for six years. Later, he played Hamlet, Henry V and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway. In 1925, he became manager of the Colonial Theatre on Broadway. He became noted for his Shakespearean roles as well as for Cyrano, which he played in several productions between 1923 and 1936. Hampden's last stage role was as Danforth in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Hampden appeared in a few silent films, but did not really begin his film career in earnest until 1939, when he played the good Archbishop of Paris[1] (Frollo's brother) in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo. This was Hampden's first sound film ; he was sixty at the time he made it. Several other roles followed—Jarvis Langdon in the 1944 film The Adventures of Mark Twain among them, but all were supporting character roles, not the lead roles that Hampden played onstage. He had a small, but notable role as the long-winded dinner speaker in the first scene of All About Eve (1950), and played the father of Humphrey Bogart and William Holden in Billy Wilder's 1954 comedy Sabrina. These last two films are arguably the ones that Hampden is most well known to modern audiences for. He also played long-bearded patriarchs in biblical epics like The Silver Chalice (1954) and The Prodigal (1955). (In The Silver Chalice, he was Joseph of Arimathea.)

Hampden reprised his legendary portrayal of Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac in the first episode of the radio program Great Scenes from Great Plays, which Hampden hosted from 1948-1949. In addition to his radio roles (The Adventures of Leonidas Witherall), Hampden also appeared in several dramas during the early days of television. He made his TV debut in 1949, playing Macbeth for the last time at the age of 69.

His last role was the non-singing one of King Louis XI of France, considered by some to be one of his best performances, in the otherwise unremarkable 1956 Technicolor remake of Rudolf Friml's 1925 operetta The Vagabond King. It was released posthumously, more than a year after Hampden's death.

For 27 years, Walter Hampden was president of the Players' Club. The club's library is named for him.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Hampden, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Walter Hampden...

The Vagabond King
Title: The Vagabond King
Character: King Louis XI
Released: August 28, 1956
Type: Movie
Louis XI of France drafts Paris's popular "king" of criminals as Provost Marshal in his fight against usurper Charles of Burgundy and the traitorous nobles who rally around him.
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The Prodigal
Title: The Prodigal
Character: Eli
Released: May 6, 1955
Type: Movie
A wealthy young Hebrew traveling in Damascus renounces his faith after he is seduced by an alluring pagan priestess and cheated of his fortune by the High Priest as well.
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Strange Lady in Town
Title: Strange Lady in Town
Character: Father Gabriel Mendoza
Released: April 12, 1955
Type: Movie
Julia Garth, a female doctor, plans to introduce modern techniques of medicine to old Santa Fe in 1880, but is opposed by an established doctor, Rourke O'Brien.
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The Silver Chalice
Title: The Silver Chalice
Character: Joseph of Arimathea
Released: December 20, 1954
Type: Movie
A Greek artisan is commissioned to cast the cup of Christ in silver and sculpt around its rim the faces of the disciples and Jesus himself. He travels to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome to complete the task. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper is trying to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah by using nothing more than cheap parlor tricks.
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Sabrina
Title: Sabrina
Character: Oliver Larrabee
Released: September 10, 1954
Type: Movie
Linus and David Larrabee are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work – busily running the family corporate empire, he has no time for a wife and family. David is all play – technically he is employed by the family business, but never shows up for work, spends all his time entertaining, and has been married and divorced three times. Meanwhile, Sabrina Fairchild is the young, shy, and awkward daughter of the household chauffeur, who goes away to Paris for two years, and returns to capture David's attention, while falling in love with Linus.
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Death Is My Neighbor
Title: Death Is My Neighbor
Character: Mr. Clemens
Released: August 25, 1953
Type: Movie
A New York City apartment building supervisor has his job and home threatened by a new tenant.
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Sombrero
Title: Sombrero
Character: Don Carlos Castillo
Released: April 22, 1953
Type: Movie
Mexican love stories follow a dying man, a bullfighter's sister and lovers from feuding villages.
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Treasure of the Golden Condor
Title: Treasure of the Golden Condor
Character: Pierre Champlain
Released: February 4, 1953
Type: Movie
A nobleman searches for a hidden treasure in Guatemala.
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5 Fingers
Title: 5 Fingers
Character: Sir Frederic Taylor
Released: February 22, 1952
Type: Movie
During WWII, the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
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The First Legion
Title: The First Legion
Character: Father Edward Quarterman
Released: May 4, 1951
Type: Movie
A Catholic priest fights against his colleagues' immediate acceptance of an ambiguous “miracle”.
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All About Eve
Title: All About Eve
Character: Aged Actor (uncredited)
Released: November 9, 1950
Type: Movie
From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.
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The Murder Club
Title: The Murder Club
Released: October 31, 1950
Type: Movie
Based on the short story by Ben Hecht.
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Title: The Prudential Family Playhouse
Character: James, Bishop of Broadminster
Released: October 10, 1950
Type: TV
Live dramatic series featuring top rated actors in adaptations of Broadway plays or top rated novels.
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Title: The Ford Theatre Hour
Released: October 17, 1948
Type: TV
An anthology series based in New York City which attracted a high caliber group of actors, often Broadway stars. Stories were both drama and comedies, some original but others adaptions of films and plays.
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The Adventures of Mark Twain
Title: The Adventures of Mark Twain
Character: Jervis Langdon
Released: July 20, 1944
Type: Movie
A dramatised life of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, or Mark Twain.
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Reap the Wild Wind
Title: Reap the Wild Wind
Character: Commodore Devereaux
Released: March 26, 1942
Type: Movie
The Florida Keys in 1840, where the implacable hurricanes of the Caribbean scream, where the salvagers of Key West, like the intrepid and beautiful Loxi Claiborne and her crew, reap, aboard frail schooners, the harvest of the wild wind, facing the shark teeth of the reefs to rescue the sailors and the cargo from the shipwrecks caused by the scavengers of the sea.
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They Died with Their Boots On
Title: They Died with Their Boots On
Character: William Sharp
Released: November 20, 1941
Type: Movie
The story follows General George Armstrong Custer's adventures from his West Point days to his death. He defies orders during the Civil War, trains the 7th Cavalry, appeases Chief Crazy Horse and later engages in bloody battle with the Sioux nation.
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North West Mounted Police
Title: North West Mounted Police
Character: Big Bear
Released: October 22, 1940
Type: Movie
Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)
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All This, and Heaven Too
Title: All This, and Heaven Too
Character: Pasquier
Released: July 5, 1940
Type: Movie
When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy comes to educate the children of the debonair Duc de Praslin, a royal subject to King Louis-Philippe and the husband of the volatile and obsessive Duchesse de Praslin, she instantly incurs the wrath of her mistress, who is insanely jealous of anyone who comes near her estranged husband. Though she saves the duchess's little son from a near-death illness and warms herself to all the children, she is nevertheless dismissed by the vengeful duchess. Meanwhile, the attraction between the duke and Henriette continues to grow, eventually leading to tragedy.
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Character: Archdeacon
Released: December 29, 1939
Type: Movie
Paris, France, 1482. Frollo, Chief Justice of benevolent King Louis XI, gets infatuated by the beauty of Esmeralda, a young Romani girl. The hunchback Quasimodo, Frollo's protege and bell-ringer of Notre Dame, lives in peace among the bells in the heights of the immense cathedral until he is involved by the twisted magistrate in his malicious plans to free himself from Esmeralda's alleged spell, which he believes to be the devil's work.
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The Warfare of the Flesh
Title: The Warfare of the Flesh
Character: Henry Goode
Released: May 22, 1917
Type: Movie
Melodrama in which the rich arrogant George gives money to poor Frank and Jane, so he may spend a night with Jane. Jane goes along with it because she need the money to save her sick husband.
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The Dragon’s Claw
Title: The Dragon’s Claw
Released: October 13, 1915
Type: Movie
A little girl and her father are among the settlers in a small western town. The father is very friendly with the neighboring Indian tribe and is presented with a quaint piece of metal representing a dragon's claw, the tribe's good luck omen. Some time later, while traveling with his daughter, he is held up by a band of bandits and shot dead. A bandit takes from him this dragon's claw. Years pass. The little girl has grown into a beautiful young lady. She marries. Their love is very real and their life most happy. He decides to go out west to see a mine that yields the richest gold and his wife expresses a desire to go along with him. The mine is christened "The Dragon's Claw," because of an Indian charm the man owns. While out on a western desert, he shows the dragon's claw to his wife. She then recognizes it as the kind her father possessed when he was killed. She has understood it to be the only one of its kind. She now believes it is her husband who killed her father.