Thomas Mitchell (actor)


Thomas John Mitchell was an American actor. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Doc Boone in Stagecoach, Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life, Pat Garrett in The Outlaw, and Mayor Jonas Henderson in High Noon. Mitchell was the first male actor to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award.
Mitchell was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the films, The Hurricane, and Stagecoach. He won the award for his role in Stagecoach. He was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 1952 and 1953, for his role in the medical drama The Doctor, and won in 1953. While he was nominated again in 1955, for an appearance on a weekly anthology series, he did not win. Mitchell won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, in 1953, for his role as Dr Downer in the musical comedy Hazel Flagg, based on the 1937 Paramount comedy film Nothing Sacred, rounding out the Triple Crown of Acting. In addition to being an actor, he was also a director, playwright, and screenwriter.

Early life

Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters, and his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of Labor. Later on, in the 1952 presidential election, Mitchell, a Republican himself, would go on to support Eisenhower's campaign. The younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter after graduating from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth. However, Mitchell soon found that he enjoyed writing comic theatrical skits much more than chasing late-breaking scoops. In 1927 Mitchell joined The Lambs.

Acting career

He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with Charles Coburn's Shakespeare Company. Even while playing leading roles on Broadway into the 1920s Mitchell would continue to write. One of the plays he co-authored, Little Accident, was eventually made into a film by Hollywood. Mitchell's first credited screen role was in the 1923 film Six Cylinder Love. Mitchell's breakthrough role was as the embezzler in Frank Capra's film Lost Horizon.
Following this performance, he was much in demand in Hollywood. That same year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Hurricane, directed by John Ford.
Over the next few years, Mitchell appeared in many significant films. Forty-three of the fifty-nine films in which he acted, were made in the 10-year period from 1936–1946. Considered one of the finest character actors in film, in 1939 alone he had key roles in Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gone with the Wind. While probably better remembered as Scarlett O'Hara's loving but doomed father in Gone with the Wind, it was for his performance as the drunken Doc Boone in Stagecoach, co-starring John Wayne, that Mitchell won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. In his acceptance speech, he quipped, "I didn't know I was that good". Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Mitchell acted in a wide variety of roles in productions such as 1940's Swiss Family Robinson, 1942's Moontide, 1944's The Keys of the Kingdom and High Noon as the town mayor. He is probably best known to audiences today for his role as Uncle Billy in Capra's Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life with James Stewart. in trailer for The Black Swan
From the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Mitchell worked primarily in television, appearing in a variety of roles in some of the most well-regarded early series of the era, including Playhouse 90, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, and Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. In 1954, he starred in the television version of the radio program, Mayor of the Town. In 1955, he played Kris Kringle in The 20th Century-Fox Hour version of The Miracle on 34th Street opposite Teresa Wright and MacDonald Carey. In 1957 he hosted The O. Henry Playhouse. In 1959, he starred in thirty-nine episodes of the syndicated television series, Glencannon, which had aired two years earlier in the United Kingdom.
In the early 1960s, Mitchell originated the stage role "Columbo", later made famous on NBC and ABC television by Peter Falk ; Columbo was Mitchell's last role.

Death

Mitchell died at age 70 from peritoneal mesothelioma in Beverly Hills, California. He was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory and his ashes are in vaultage.

Work

Film

Writer

Theatre

Staged by
YearTitleVenue
1931Cloudy with ShowersMorosco Theatre, Broadway
1932-33HoneymoonLittle Theatre, Broadway
Vanderbilt Theatre, Broadway
1933Forsaking All OthersTimes Square Theatre, Broadway
1933Twenty-five Dollars an HourTheatre Masque, Broadway
1935Fly Away Home48th Street Theatre, Broadway
1935Something GayMorosco Theatre, Broadway
1935-36At Home AbroadWinter Garden Theatre, Broadway
1935Stick-in-the-Mud''48th Street Theatre, Broadway

Radio

Awards and Nominations

In 1953, Mitchell became the first man to win the "triple crown" of acting awards. He remains one of only a handful of individuals to have won each of these awards.
YearAwardCategoryProjectResult
1937Academy AwardsBest Supporting ActorThe Hurricane
1939Academy AwardsBest Supporting ActorStagecoach
1939National Board of ReviewBest ActorStagecoach
1940New York Film Critics CircleBest ActorThe Long Voyage Home
1940National Board of ReviewBest ActorThe Long Voyage Home
1942National Board of ReviewBest ActorMoontide
1952Primetime Emmy AwardsBest Actor
1953Primetime Emmy AwardsBest Actor
1955Primetime Emmy AwardsBest Actor in a Single PerformanceThe Ford Television Theatre
1953Tony AwardBest Actor in a MusicalHazel Flagg