Monty Woolley(1888-1963)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Large and hearty Monty Woolley was born to privilege on August 17,
1888, the son of a hotel proprietor who owned the Marie Antoinette
Hotel on Broadway. A part of Manhattan's elite social circle at a young
age, he studied at both Yale (Master's degree) and Harvard and returned
to Yale as an English instructor and coach of graduate dramatics. Among
his students were Thornton Wilder and
Stephen Vincent Benet.
Directly involved in the theater arts via his close association with
intimate Yale friend and confidante
Cole Porter, Monty directed several Broadway
musicals and reviews, many in collaboration with Porter, including
"Fifty Million Frenchmen" (1929) (an early success for Porter), "The
New Yorkers" and "Jubilee" (1935). In 1936, at age 47, the witty,
erudite gent had a career renaissance and gave up his Ivy League
professorship once and for all in order to pursue the stage
professionally. He took his first Broadway bow in the hit musical "On
Your Toes" alongside Ray Bolger. Hollywood
soon took notice and he began receiving supporting credit as assorted
judges and doctors for such MGM fare as
Live, Love and Learn (1937),
Everybody Sing (1938), the
Margaret Sullavan tearjerker
Three Comrades (1938),
Lord Jeff (1938), the
Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy
musical
The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
and Young Dr. Kildare (1938).
Typically playing cunning character leads and support roles, he was
affectionately nicknamed "The Beard" by friend
Cole Porter for his distinguished,
impeccably-trimmed white whiskers. It was Monty who introduced Porter
into the famed New York theater circle. Known for his sartorial
elegance, ribald sense of humor and snob appeal, he and Porter were
highly prominent carousers in the New York gay social underground.
Monty came into his own in 40s films, earning a best actor Oscar
nomination for his role in the WWII drama
The Pied Piper (1942), a
supporting actor nod in another war classic,
Since You Went Away (1944),
and portrayed himself in the absurdly fictionalized (and sanitized)
"biography" of Cole Porter entitled
Night and Day (1946) starring a
woefully miscast but admittedly flattering
Cary Grant in the lead. A flashy delight in
other movie roles, Monty received top billing in
Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944)
with June Haver and
Dick Haymes, playing a twinkle-eyed con man;
appeared opposite Brit comedienne
Grace Field in the English-humored
Molly and Me (1945) and
Holy Matrimony (1943); again with
Cary Grant along with
Loretta Young and
David Niven as a professor in the
perennial Christmas classic
The Bishop's Wife (1947);
plots against his own retirement in the mild comedy
As Young as You Feel (1951)
opposite another scene-stealing favorite,
Thelma Ritter; and ended his film career
with the role of Omar Khayyam in the glossy MGM operetta
Kismet (1955).
Above all, however, Monty will be forever and indelibly cherished as
the irascible (and definitive) radio personality Sheridan Whiteside in
the stage and film versions of Kaufman and Hart's screwball classic
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941).
Playing the razor-tongued, wheelchair-bound celebrity who wreaks havoc
for everyone within knife-throwing distance, this would be the hallmark
of his never-too-late-to-try career. He played another uppity and
bombastic celebrity, this time a washed-up classical actor, in the more
sentimental
Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942),
another role dripping with crusty sarcasm.
Monty appeared sporadically on radio and TV before and after his last
filming in 1955. He died of kidney/heart problems in 1963 at the age of
74.
1888, the son of a hotel proprietor who owned the Marie Antoinette
Hotel on Broadway. A part of Manhattan's elite social circle at a young
age, he studied at both Yale (Master's degree) and Harvard and returned
to Yale as an English instructor and coach of graduate dramatics. Among
his students were Thornton Wilder and
Stephen Vincent Benet.
Directly involved in the theater arts via his close association with
intimate Yale friend and confidante
Cole Porter, Monty directed several Broadway
musicals and reviews, many in collaboration with Porter, including
"Fifty Million Frenchmen" (1929) (an early success for Porter), "The
New Yorkers" and "Jubilee" (1935). In 1936, at age 47, the witty,
erudite gent had a career renaissance and gave up his Ivy League
professorship once and for all in order to pursue the stage
professionally. He took his first Broadway bow in the hit musical "On
Your Toes" alongside Ray Bolger. Hollywood
soon took notice and he began receiving supporting credit as assorted
judges and doctors for such MGM fare as
Live, Love and Learn (1937),
Everybody Sing (1938), the
Margaret Sullavan tearjerker
Three Comrades (1938),
Lord Jeff (1938), the
Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy
musical
The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
and Young Dr. Kildare (1938).
Typically playing cunning character leads and support roles, he was
affectionately nicknamed "The Beard" by friend
Cole Porter for his distinguished,
impeccably-trimmed white whiskers. It was Monty who introduced Porter
into the famed New York theater circle. Known for his sartorial
elegance, ribald sense of humor and snob appeal, he and Porter were
highly prominent carousers in the New York gay social underground.
Monty came into his own in 40s films, earning a best actor Oscar
nomination for his role in the WWII drama
The Pied Piper (1942), a
supporting actor nod in another war classic,
Since You Went Away (1944),
and portrayed himself in the absurdly fictionalized (and sanitized)
"biography" of Cole Porter entitled
Night and Day (1946) starring a
woefully miscast but admittedly flattering
Cary Grant in the lead. A flashy delight in
other movie roles, Monty received top billing in
Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944)
with June Haver and
Dick Haymes, playing a twinkle-eyed con man;
appeared opposite Brit comedienne
Grace Field in the English-humored
Molly and Me (1945) and
Holy Matrimony (1943); again with
Cary Grant along with
Loretta Young and
David Niven as a professor in the
perennial Christmas classic
The Bishop's Wife (1947);
plots against his own retirement in the mild comedy
As Young as You Feel (1951)
opposite another scene-stealing favorite,
Thelma Ritter; and ended his film career
with the role of Omar Khayyam in the glossy MGM operetta
Kismet (1955).
Above all, however, Monty will be forever and indelibly cherished as
the irascible (and definitive) radio personality Sheridan Whiteside in
the stage and film versions of Kaufman and Hart's screwball classic
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941).
Playing the razor-tongued, wheelchair-bound celebrity who wreaks havoc
for everyone within knife-throwing distance, this would be the hallmark
of his never-too-late-to-try career. He played another uppity and
bombastic celebrity, this time a washed-up classical actor, in the more
sentimental
Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942),
another role dripping with crusty sarcasm.
Monty appeared sporadically on radio and TV before and after his last
filming in 1955. He died of kidney/heart problems in 1963 at the age of
74.