Walter Hampden

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Walter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty June 30 1879 in Brooklyn June 11 1955 in Los Angeles was a US actor and theatre manager He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty 18771947 He went to England for apprenticeship for six years Later he played Hamlet Henry V and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway In 1925 he became manager of the Colonial Theatre on Broadway He became noted for his Shakespearean roles as well as for Cyrano which he played in several productions between 1923 and 1936 Hampdens last stage role was as Danforth in the original Broadway production of Arthur Millers The Crucible Hampden appeared in a few silent films but did not really begin his film career in earnest until 1939 when he played the good Archbishop of Paris1 Frollos brother in The Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo This was Hampdens first sound film he was sixty at the time he made it Several other roles followedJarvis Langdon in the 1944 film The Adventures of Mark Twain among them but all were supporting character roles not the lead roles that Hampden played onstage He had a small but notable role as the longwinded dinner speaker in the first scene of All About Eve 1950 and played the father of Humphrey Bogart and William Holden in Billy Wilders 1954 comedy Sabrina These last two films are arguably the ones that Hampden is most well known to modern audiences for He also played longbearded patriarchs in biblical epics like The Silver Chalice 1954 and The Prodigal 1955 In The Silver Chalice he was Joseph of Arimathea Hampden reprised his legendary portrayal of Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac in the first episode of the radio program Great Scenes from Great Plays which Hampden hosted from 19481949 In addition to his radio roles The Adventures of Leonidas Witherall Hampden also appeared in several dramas during the early days of television He made his TV debut in 1949 playing Macbeth for the last time at the age of 69 His last role was the nonsinging one of King Louis XI of France considered by some to be one of his best performances in the otherwise unremarkable 1956 Technicolor remake of Rudolf Frimls 1925 operetta The Vagabond King It was released posthumously more than a year after Hampdens death For 27 years Walter Hampden was president of the Players Club The clubs library is named for him Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Hampden licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia