Cecil Kellaway

The former character actor Cecil Kellaway began acting in Australia, then came over to the United States for more film work in the late 1930s. His early turning point was playing Earnshaw in the 1939 screen adaptation of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights," which starred Laurence Oliver and David Niven. Kellaway followed a decade later as a leprechaun--Horace--in the 1948 romantic comedy "The Luck of the Irish," as Tyrone Power's conscience/guardian angel. The role earned Kellaway a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and led to numerous television theater appearances, along with his continuing film roles, which were primarily in comedy. Whether or not he was the perfect leprechaun, despite not being Irish, Kellaway had a certain quintessential je-ne-sais-quoi character-actor quality that kept him consistently active, and he worked with all the big names. From Olivier in the '30s, he also worked with Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" in 1946, James Stewart in "Harvey" in 1950, and Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotton in "Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte" in 1964 (the same year he played Santa on an episode of "Bewitched"). Despite his relative anonymity, Kellaway landed an especially significant role--and another Oscar nomination--toward the end of his career, as Monsignor Ryan in the Oscar-winning, landmark race relations film "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner," with Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, who won the Best Actress Oscar. Kellaway died at age 73.