Walter Brennan
One of the most immediately recognizable character actors of the 20th century, Walter Brennan enjoyed a four-decade career playing colorful, often sage older men in a vast array of legendary films, including "Kentucky" (1938), "The Westerner" (1940), "To Have and Have Not" (1943) and "My Darling Clementine" (1946). Damaged vocal cords allowed him to play elderly men while still in his forties, which Brennan imbued with a rascally charm that made him an immediate favorite among moviegoers. After toiling in bit parts for a decade, he claimed his first Oscar as Frances Farmer's father in "Come and Get It" (1936), then repeated the feat as a curmudgeonly horse owner in "Kentucky" (1938). His third Oscar came with one of his most memorable turns as the corrupt Old West judge Roy Bean, who, in Brennan's capable hands, was equally winning and frightening in "The Westerner" (1940). He soon became a fixture of screen Westerns, including "My Darling Clementine" (1946) and "Red River" (1948), before moving to television for the popular "Real McCoys" (ABC, 1957-1962). The series extended his career for another two decades, as did films like "Rio Bravo" (1959), "How the West Was Won" (1963). Still active into his seventh decade, Brennan died in 1974, leaving behind a storied legacy of screen roles that enshrined him as one of the most memorable character actors in Hollywood history.
Photos
Walter Brennan
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Smoke in the Wind | H.P. Kingman (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet |
|
Home for the Holidays | Benjamin Morgan (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Two for the Money | Cody Guilford (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Day They Hanged Kid Curry | Silky O'Sullivan (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again | Nash Crawford (Character) | - | 1970 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Young Country | Sheriff Matt Fenley (Character) | - | 1970 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Over-the-Hill Gang | Nash Crawford (Character) | - | 1969 |
80% |
|
Support Your Local Sheriff! | Pa Danby (Character) | - | 1969 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Family Band | Grandpa Bower (Character) | - | 1968 |
No Score Yet |
|
Who's Minding the Mint? | Pop Gillis (Character) | - | 1967 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Gnome-Mobile |
D.J. Mulrooney/ |
- | 1967 |
12% |
|
The Oscar | Orrin C. Quentin (Character) | - | 1966 |
No Score Yet |
|
Those Calloways | Alf Simes (Character) | - | 1964 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Shoot Out at Big Sag | "Preacher" Hawker (Character) | - | 1962 |
88% |
|
How the West Was Won | Col. Jeb Hawkins (Character) | - | 1962 |
96% |
|
Rio Bravo | Stumpy (Character) | - | 1959 |
No Score Yet |
|
Tammy and the Bachelor | Grandpa (Character) | - | 1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | God Is My Partner | Dr. Charles Grayson (Character) | - | 1957 |
No Score Yet |
|
Goodbye, My Lady | Uncle Jesse Jackson (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Proud Ones | Jake (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Glory | Ned Otis (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet |
|
Come Next Spring | Jeffrey Storys (Character) | - | 1955 |
100% |
|
The Far Country | Ben Tatum (Character) | - | 1955 |
97% |
|
Bad Day at Black Rock | Doc T.R. Velie Jr. (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet |
|
At Gunpoint | Doc Lacy (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Drums Across the River | Sam Brannon (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Four Guns to the Border | Simon Bhumer (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Sea of Lost Ships | C.P.O 'Chief' O'Malley (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Lure of the Wilderness | Jim Harper (Character) | - | 1952 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Return of the Texan | Grandpa Firth Crockett (Character) | - | 1952 |
No Score Yet |
|
Best of the Badmen | Ephraim "Doc" Butcher (Character) | - | 1951 |
No Score Yet |
|
Along the Great Divide | Timothy `'Pop'` Keith (Character) | - | 1951 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Showdown | Cap MacKellar (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Singing Guns | Dr. Jonathan Mark (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Curtain Call at Cactus Creek | Rimrock Thomas (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Surrender | Sheriff Bill Howard (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet |
|
A Ticket to Tomahawk | Terence Sweeny (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Green Promise | Mr. Matthews (Character) | - | 1949 |
No Score Yet |
|
Task Force | Pete Richard (Character) | - | 1949 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Brimstone | Brimstone "Pop" Courteen (Character) | - | 1949 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay! | Tony Maule (Character) | - | 1948 |
83% |
|
Blood on the Moon | Kris Barden (Character) | - | 1948 |
100% |
|
Red River | Groot Nadine (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet |
|
Driftwood | Murph (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet |
|
A Stolen Life | Eben Folger (Character) | - | 1946 |
No Score Yet |
|
Nobody Lives Forever | Pop Gruber (Character) | - | 1946 |
100% |
|
My Darling Clementine | Old Man Clanton (Character) | - | 1946 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Centennial Summer | Jesse Rogers (Character) | - | 1946 |
No Score Yet |
|
Dakota | Capt. Bounce (Character) | - | 1945 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Princess and the Pirate | Featherhead (Character) | - | 1944 |
No Score Yet |
|
Home in Indiana | J. F. `'Thunder'` Bolt (Character) | - | 1944 |
94% |
|
To Have and Have Not | Eddie (Character) | - | 1944 |
No Score Yet |
|
Slightly Dangerous | Cornelius Burden (Character) | - | 1943 |
87% |
|
Hangmen Also Die | Prof. Stephen Novotny (Character) | - | 1943 |
No Score Yet |
|
The North Star | Karp (Character) | - | 1943 |
94% |
|
The Pride of the Yankees | Sam Blake (Character) | - | 1942 |
No Score Yet |
|
Stand by for Action | Chief Yeoman Henry Johnson (Character) | - | 1942 |
92% |
|
Meet John Doe | The Colonel (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet |
|
Swamp Water | Tom Keefer (Character) | - | 1941 |
85% |
|
Sergeant York | Pastor Rosier Pile (Character) | - | 1941 |
80% |
|
Nice Girl? | Hector Titus (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Rise and Shine | Grandpa (Character) | - | 1941 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Maryland | William Stewart (Character) | - | 1940 |
100% |
|
Northwest Passage | `'Hunk'` Marriner (Character) | - | 1940 |
100% |
|
The Westerner | Judge Roy Bean (Character) | - | 1940 |
No Score Yet |
|
They Shall Have Music | Professor Lawson (Character) | - | 1939 |
No Score Yet |
|
Stanley and Livingstone | Jeff Slocum (Character) | - | 1939 |
86% |
|
The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle | Walter Ash (Character) | - | 1939 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President | Jim (Character) | - | 1939 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Cowboy and the Lady | Sugar (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet |
|
Kentucky | Peter Goodwin (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Texans | Chuckawalla (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Muff Potter (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mother Carey's Chickens | Mr. Ossian Popham (Character) | - | 1938 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Affairs of Cappy Ricks | Cappy Ricks (Character) | - | 1937 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | She's Dangerous | Ote O'Leary (Character) | - | 1937 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Wild and Woolly | Gramp 'Hercules' Flynn (Character) | - | 1937 |
91% |
|
Come and Get It | Swan Bostrom (Character) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet |
|
Banjo on My Knee | Newt Holley (Character) | - | 1936 |
94% |
|
Fury | `'Bugs'` Meyers (Character) | - | 1936 |
50% |
|
Three Godfathers | Sam "Gus" Barton (Character) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Miracle in the Sand | Gus (Character) | - | 1936 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Northern Frontier | Stuttering Cook (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Wedding Night | Bill Jenkins (Character) | - | 1935 |
92% |
|
Barbary Coast | Old Atrocity (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Perfect Tribute | Unknown (Character) | - | 1935 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Life of Vergie Winters | Roscoe - a Gossiper (uncredited) (Character) | - | 1934 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Death on the Diamond | Hot Dog Vendor (Character) | - | 1934 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Man of Action | Summers - Cashier (Character) | - | 1933 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Two-Fisted Law | Deputy Sheriff Bendix (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet |
|
Miss Pinkerton | Police Dispatcher (uncredited) (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet |
|
Texas Cyclone | Sheriff Lew Collins (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Scratch-As-Catch-Can | Unknown (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The All-American | Unknown (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Guns A'Blazing | Lanky Smith (Character) | - | 1932 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Grief Street | Walt (Character) | - | 1931 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Real McCoys | Grampa Amos McCoy (Character) | 1957-1963 2022 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Alias Smith and Jones | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1971-1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Guns of Will Sonnett | Unknown (Character) | 1967-1969 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | What's My Line? | Guest | 1957 1959 1966 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | I've Got a Secret | Guest | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Zane Grey Theatre | Unknown (Character) | 1956-1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Showcase 39 | Unknown (Character) | 1956 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Screen Directors Playhouse | Unknown (Character) | 1955 |