John Elliott (actor)


John Elliott was an American actor who appeared on Broadway and in over 300 films during his career. He worked sporadically during the silent film era, but with the advent of sound his career took off, where he worked constantly for 25 years, finding a particular niche in "B" westerns. His versatility allowed him to play both "good guys" and "bad guys" with equal aplomb, working right up until his death in 1956.

Life and career

Elliott was born on July 5, 1876, one day after the United States' Centennial, in Keosauqua, Iowa, to Sarah E. Norris and Jehue S. Elliott. He was the third of four children, and the only boy; his two older sisters were named Elizabeth and Fanny, with his younger sister named Nina. In February 1897, when Elliott was 20, his mother, his sister Fanny came down with typhoid fever. Elliott would be the only one of the three to survive. Two months later, on April 14, Elliot married Cleo Kelly, despite her parents' objections to her marrying an actor.
Elliot began his acting career on stage, where he reached Broadway in 1917, appearing as Robert Goring in the very successful play, Eyes of Youth. The play was produced by A. H. Woods, Lee Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert, and ran for over a year at the Maxine Elliott Theatre. Elliott's screen debut came in the featured role of Sir Robert Eastbourne in the 1919 silent film When a Man Loves. Less than two dozen of his film appearances were during the silent era. Beginning with the advent of sound, Elliott would begin to make the bulk of his 300 film appearances.
In 1930, he had the featured role of General Robert E. Lee in Only the Brave, starring Gary Cooper. It was a role he would play in several films, such as Carolina, starring Janet Gaynor and Lionel Barrymore; and Operator 13, again starring Cooper. His roles would run the gamut, from small nameless roles, as a banker in the 1939 film, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, starring Don Ameche and Loretta Young; to smaller named roles such as Captain Wilkins in The Conquering Horde, starring Richard Arlen and Fay Wray; to featured roles like that of Jess Roarke in 1936's Ridin' On.
Other notable films in which Elliot appeared include: a small role as a padre in Michael Curtiz' 1934 military drama, The Key, starring William Powell; a bit part as one of the directors in the 1935 comedy, A Night at the Ritz, starring William Gargan; as Judge Matthews in 1939's Jesse James, starring Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda; the role of Tremont in Hold That Co-ed, a 1938 comedy starring John Barrymore, George Murphy and Marjorie Weaver; a small role as a purchaser in the 1938 drama Kentucky, starring Loretta Young and Richard Greene; a small role in Orson Welles' 1942 historical drama, The Magnificent Ambersons, starring Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, and Tim Holt; an admiral in 1944's Marine Raiders, starring Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, and Ruth Hussey; the role of Hooker in Randolph Scott's 1946 western, Badman's Territory; as the judge in the 1947 film noir The Unfaithful, starring Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres and Zachary Scott; as a train conductor in the 1947 biopic The Babe Ruth Story, starring William Bendix and Claire Trevor; as a workman in Jean Renoir's 1947 drama, The Woman on the Beach, starring Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett, and Charles Bickford; as a clerk in Orson Welles' film noir, The Lady from Shanghai, starring Rita Hayworth and Welles; and as a judge in the 1949 crime drama, Flaxy Martin, starring Virginia Mayo. His final appearance in a feature film was as the minister in George Cukor's 1952 comedy-drama, The Marrying Kind, starring Aldo Ray and Judy Holliday. His final acting appearance was in the 1956 western serial, Perils of the Wilderness, in the role of Homer Lynch. Elliott died on December 12, 1956 in Los Angeles, less than a year after the release of his final performance.

Filmography