George Barbier

After a 40-year career on the stage, actor George Barbier went on to another 15-year run in films, generally as a supporting player in successful businessman and troubled father roles. Born in Philadelphia, he initially studied for the ministry before a seminary pageant lured him to the stage, first in Pennsylvania and for a subsequent decade on Broadway. He joined the Hollywood ranks when already well into his 60s, beginning with the 1930 romantic comedy "The Big Pond." Notable films include a pair of Ernst Lubitsch musicals, "The Smiling Lieutenant" and "The Merry Widow," both featuring Maurice Chevalier, and the pre-Code gem "Skyscraper Souls," where Barbier plays a delightfully lecherous drunk competing with Warren William for Maureen O'Sullivan's attention. He worked steadily into the '40s with appearances in other popular fare such as the James Cagney biopic musical about George M. Cohan, "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and the comedy with Bette Davis as part of an ensemble cast, "The Man Who Came to Dinner." Barbier died of a heart attack in 1945, shortly after completing work on the musical comedy "Her Lucky Night."