Harry Shannon was an American character actor. He often appeared in Western films

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

.

Biography

Shannon was born on a farm in Saginaw, Michigan

Saginaw, Michigan

Saginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...

. Developing into a first-rate musical comedy performer, Shannon went on to work in virtually all branches of live entertainment, including vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

. By the 1930s, Shannon was a member of Joseph Schildkraut

Joseph Schildkraut

Joseph Schildkraut was an Austrian stage and film actor.-Early life:Born in Vienna, Austria, Schildkraut was the son of stage actor Rudolph Schildkraut. The younger Schildkraut moved to the United States in the early 1900s. He appeared in many Broadway productions...

's Hollywood Theater Guild, which led to film assignments. Though he was busiest playing Irish cops and Western sheriffs, Harry Shannon is best remembered as Charles Foster Kane's alcoholic father in Orson Welles

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

' masterpiece Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...

(1941), along with Someone to Remember (1943), San Quentin (1946), and Witness to Murder

Witness to Murder

Witness to Murder is a 1954 suspense film starring Barbara Stanwyck.-Plot:A woman, while looking out her bedroom window, witnesses a young woman being strangled to death. The woman reports the killing to the police, but no one believes her. In fact, the body can't even be found...

(1954).

Shannon died in Hollywood, California, aged 74.

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