John Cromwell (director)
Encyclopedia
Elwood Dager Cromwell known as John Cromwell, was an American
film actor, director
and producer
.
, Cromwell made his New York City
stage
debut in Marian De Forest's adaptation of Little Women
(1912) on Broadway
. It was a hit and ran for 184 performances. He then directed the play
The Painted Woman (1913), which failed. Next, he acted in and co-directed with Frank Craven
the hit show Too Many Cooks (1914), which ran for 223 performances.
Cromwell played Charles Lomax in the original Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw
's play Major Barbara (1915), about a woman of The Salvation Army
, and he played the role as Capt. Kearney in the revival of Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion
(1916). Among others, he also had a role in The Racket (1927), which ran for 119 performances. The following year while the Broadway company was playing The Racket in Los Angeles
, Cromwell was signed to a Paramount Pictures contract
as an actor and student director
.
debut playing Walter Babbing in the comedy
The Dummy (1929
), a talkie
starring Ruth Chatterton
and Fredric March
, with Jack Oakie
, and Zasu Pitts
. His work as co-director with Edward Sutherland on the musical/romance Close Harmony starring Buddy Rogers, Nancy Carroll
, Harry Green, and Jack Oakie, and the musical/drama The Dance of Life (both released in 1929
), was so skillful he was allowed to begin directing without collaboration, beginning with The Mighty that same year starring George Bancroft
, in which he also played the part of Mr. Jamieson.
He directed Tom Sawyer
(1930
) starring Jackie Coogan
in the title role; Sinclair Lewis
's Ann Vickers
(1933
) starring Irene Dunne
, Walter Huston
, Conrad Nagel
, Bruce Cabot
, and Edna May Oliver
; and Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (1934
) starring Leslie Howard
, Bette Davis
, and Frances Dee
.
The latter two movies were at RKO and both had censorship
trouble. In the novel
by Lewis, Ann Vickers is a birth control
advocate and reformer who has an extramarital affair. The screenplay
was finally approved by the Production Code
when the studio
agreed to make Vickers an unmarried woman at the time of her affair, thus eliminating the issue of adultery
. The screenplay for Maugham's Of Human Bondage was unacceptable because the prostitute, Mildred Rogers (played by Davis), whom the club-footed medical student, Philip Carey (played by Howard), falls in love with, comes down with syphilis
. Will Hays's office demanded that Mildred be made a waitress who comes down with TB
, and that she be married to Carey's friend she cheats on him with. RKO agreed to everything to keep from having to pay a $25,000 fine.
for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as John Gray in Point of No Return
(1951) starring Henry Fonda
. Of his Shakespearean
roles on Broadway, Cromwell played Paris, kinsman to the prince, in Romeo and Juliet
(1935) starring Katharine Cornell
, who also produced the play, and Maurice Evans
, in the title roles; Rosencrantz in Hamlet
(1936), which was staged and produced by Guthrie McClintic
(Cornell's husband, who had been married to Estelle Winwood
), starring John Gielgud
in the title role, Judith Anderson
as Gertrude, and Lillian Gish
as Ophelia; and Lennox in the revival of Macbeth
(1948) starring Michael Redgrave
in the title role and Flora Robson
as Lady Macbeth, with Julie Harris
as a witch, Martin Balsam
as one of the three murderers, and Beatrice Straight
as Lady MacDuff.
Cromwell also appeared on Broadway in the role of Brother Martin Ladvenu in Katharine Cornell's revival of Saint Joan
(1936), which was directed by Guthrie McClintic; and as Freddy Eynsford Hill in Cedric Hardwicke
's revival of Pygmalion
(1945) starring Gertrude Lawrence
as Eliza Doolittle and Raymond Massey
as Henry Higgins.
Among the movies Cromwell directed are Little Lord Fauntleroy
(1936) starring Freddie Bartholomew
and Dolores Costello
; The Prisoner of Zenda
(1937) starring Ronald Colman
and Madeleine Carroll
, with Raymond Massey, Mary Astor
, David Niven
, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
; Algiers
(1938) starring Charles Boyer
and Hedy Lamarr
; Abe Lincoln in Illinois
(1940) starring Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart
, and Ruth Gordon
; Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) starring Tyrone Power
, Gene Tierney
; Since You Went Away
(1944) starring Claudette Colbert
, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten
, Shirley Temple
, and Lionel Barrymore
, with Hattie McDaniel
, Agnes Moorehead
, Alla Nazimova
, and Keenan Wynn
; Anna and the King of Siam (1946) starring Irene Dunne
, Rex Harrison
, Linda Darnell
, Lee J. Cobb
, and Gale Sondergaard
; Dead Reckoning (1947) starring Humphrey Bogart
and Lizabeth Scott
; the women's prison drama Caged (1950) and the noir crime/drama The Racket (1951) starring Robert Mitchum
, Lizabeth Scott
, and Robert Ryan
, which Cromwell had appeared in onstage in New York and on tour.
Cromwell was president of the Screen Directors Guild
from 1944 to 1946. He was blacklist
ed in Hollywood from 1951 to 1958 for his political affiliations.
Cromwell was cast by Robert Altman
in the role as Mr. Rose in the movie 3 Women
(1977) starring Shelley Duvall
and Sissy Spacek
, and as Bishop Martin in A Wedding
(1978) starring Desi Arnaz, Jr.
, Carol Burnett
, Geraldine Chaplin
, Mia Farrow
, Vittorio Gassman
and Lillian Gish
.
(married 1928 - divorced 1946); and actress Ruth Nelson (1946–1979; his death). He and Kay Johnson had two sons, one of whom is actor James Cromwell
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film actor, director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
.
Biography
Born in Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, Cromwell made his New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
debut in Marian De Forest's adaptation of Little Women
Little Women
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . The book was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts. It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869...
(1912) on 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...
. It was a hit and ran for 184 performances. He then directed the play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
The Painted Woman (1913), which failed. Next, he acted in and co-directed with Frank Craven
Frank Craven
Frank Craven was an American stage and film actor, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for originating the role of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town....
the hit show Too Many Cooks (1914), which ran for 223 performances.
Cromwell played Charles Lomax in the original Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's play Major Barbara (1915), about a woman of The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, and he played the role as Capt. Kearney in the revival of Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion
Captain Brassbound's Conversion
Captain Brassbound's Conversion is a play by G. Bernard Shaw. It was published in Shaw's 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans . The first American production of the play starred Ellen Terry in 1907....
(1916). Among others, he also had a role in The Racket (1927), which ran for 119 performances. The following year while the Broadway company was playing The Racket in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Cromwell was signed to a Paramount Pictures contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
as an actor and student director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
Film & television
He made his motion pictureFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
debut playing Walter Babbing in the comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
The Dummy (1929
1929 in film
-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
), a talkie
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
starring Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...
and Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
, with Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television.-Early life:...
, and Zasu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...
. His work as co-director with Edward Sutherland on the musical/romance Close Harmony starring Buddy Rogers, Nancy Carroll
Nancy Carroll
Nancy Carroll was an American actress.-Career:She was christened Ann Veronica Lahiff in New York City. Of Irish parentage, she and her sister once performed a dancing act in a local contest of amateur talent. This led her to a stage career and then to the screen. She began her acting career in...
, Harry Green, and Jack Oakie, and the musical/drama The Dance of Life (both released in 1929
1929 in film
-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
), was so skillful he was allowed to begin directing without collaboration, beginning with The Mighty that same year starring George Bancroft
George Bancroft
George Bancroft was an American historian and statesman who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state and at the national level. During his tenure as U.S. Secretary of the Navy, he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845...
, in which he also played the part of Mr. Jamieson.
He directed Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer (1930 film)
Tom Sawyer is a 1930 American drama film directed by John Cromwell. The screenplay by Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, and Sam Mintz is based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain....
(1930
1930 in film
-Events:* November 1: The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne in his first starring role is released in both 35mm, and a very early form of 70mm film and was the first large scale big-budget film of the sound era costing over $2 million. The film was praised for its aesthetic quality and realism...
) starring Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan
John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
in the title role; Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
's Ann Vickers
Ann Vickers
Ann Vickers is a 1933 novel by Sinclair Lewis.It is also a 1933 drama film directed by John Cromwell, adapted by Jane Murfin from Lewis's novel, and starring Irene Dunne, Bruce Cabot, Walter Huston, and Conrad Nagel...
(1933
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....
) starring Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
, Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
, Conrad Nagel
Conrad Nagel
Conrad Nagel was an American screen actor and matinee idol of the silent film era and beyond. He was also a well-known television actor and radio performer.-Biography:...
, Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
, and Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...
; and Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (1934
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
) starring Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
, Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, and Frances Dee
Frances Dee
Frances Marion Dee was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, The Playboy of Paris...
.
The latter two movies were at RKO and both had censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
trouble. In the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Lewis, Ann Vickers is a birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
advocate and reformer who has an extramarital affair. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was finally approved by the Production Code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
when the studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
agreed to make Vickers an unmarried woman at the time of her affair, thus eliminating the issue of adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
. The screenplay for Maugham's Of Human Bondage was unacceptable because the prostitute, Mildred Rogers (played by Davis), whom the club-footed medical student, Philip Carey (played by Howard), falls in love with, comes down with syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
. Will Hays's office demanded that Mildred be made a waitress who comes down with TB
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and that she be married to Carey's friend she cheats on him with. RKO agreed to everything to keep from having to pay a $25,000 fine.
Broadway
Cromwell won the 1952 TonyTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as John Gray in Point of No Return
Point of No Return (play)
Point of No Return was a Broadway play starring Henry Fonda. It was written by Paul Osborn, based on the novel of the same name by John P. Marquand.Prior to its Broadway opening, Point of No Return had its world premiere in New Haven on 29 October 1951...
(1951) starring Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
. Of his Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
roles on Broadway, Cromwell played Paris, kinsman to the prince, in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
(1935) starring Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
, who also produced the play, and Maurice Evans
Maurice Evans (actor)
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...
, in the title roles; Rosencrantz in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(1936), which was staged and produced by Guthrie McClintic
Guthrie McClintic
Guthrie McClintic was a successful theatre director, film director and producer based in New York. -Life and career:...
(Cornell's husband, who had been married to Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood was an English stage and film actress who moved to the United States in mid-career and became celebrated for her longevity.-Early life and early career:...
), starring John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
in the title role, Judith Anderson
Judith Anderson
Dame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE was an Australian-born American-based actress of stage, film and television. She won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award.-Early life:...
as Gertrude, and Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
as Ophelia; and Lennox in the revival of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
(1948) starring Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
in the title role and Flora Robson
Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...
as Lady Macbeth, with Julie Harris
Julie Harris
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
as a witch, Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
as one of the three murderers, and Beatrice Straight
Beatrice Straight
Beatrice Whitney Straight was an American theatre, film, and television actress. Hers remains the shortest acting performance in a film to win an Oscar. In her winning role in the 1976 film Network, she was on screen for five minutes and forty seconds, the shortest time ever for the winner of the...
as Lady MacDuff.
Cromwell also appeared on Broadway in the role of Brother Martin Ladvenu in Katharine Cornell's revival of Saint Joan
Saint Joan (play)
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
(1936), which was directed by Guthrie McClintic; and as Freddy Eynsford Hill in Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years...
's revival of Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
(1945) starring Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
as Eliza Doolittle and Raymond Massey
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
as Henry Higgins.
Among the movies Cromwell directed are Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936 film)
Little Lord Fauntleroy is a 1936 drama film based on the 1886 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The film stars Freddie Bartholomew, Dolores Costello, , and C. Aubrey Smith...
(1936) starring Freddie Bartholomew
Freddie Bartholomew
Frederick Cecil Bartholomew , known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor. One of the most famous child actors of all time, he became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films...
and Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen"...
; The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 film)
The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1937 black-and-white adventure film based on the Anthony Hope 1894 novel of the same name and the 1896 play. Of the many film adaptations, this is considered by many to be the definitive version....
(1937) starring Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
and Madeleine Carroll
Madeleine Carroll
Edith Madeleine Carroll was an English actress, popular in the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:Carroll was born at 32 Herbert Street in West Bromwich, England. She graduated from the University of Birmingham, England with a B.A. degree...
, with Raymond Massey, Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
, David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...
; Algiers
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938) starring Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
and Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...
; Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (film)
Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as President of the United States....
(1940) starring Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart
Gene Lockhart
Eugene "Gene" Lockhart was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs.-Early life:...
, and Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...
; Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) starring Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
, Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
; Since You Went Away
Since You Went Away
Since You Went Away is a 1944 film distributed by United Artists, a big-budget epic about the American home front during World War II. It was directed by John Cromwell and adapted and produced by David O. Selznick from the novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret...
(1944) starring Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
, Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
, and Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
, with Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
, Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
, Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...
, and Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
; Anna and the King of Siam (1946) starring Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
, Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
, Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
, Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
, and Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.Sondergaard began her acting career in theatre, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse...
; Dead Reckoning (1947) starring Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
and Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott is an American actress and singer widely known for her film noir roles.-Early life:She was born Emma Matzo in the Pine Brook section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of six children, to Ruthenian parents who had emigrated from Uzhgorod, in what is now Ukraine...
; the women's prison drama Caged (1950) and the noir crime/drama The Racket (1951) starring Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott is an American actress and singer widely known for her film noir roles.-Early life:She was born Emma Matzo in the Pine Brook section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of six children, to Ruthenian parents who had emigrated from Uzhgorod, in what is now Ukraine...
, and Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...
, which Cromwell had appeared in onstage in New York and on tour.
Cromwell was president of the Screen Directors Guild
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
from 1944 to 1946. He was blacklist
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
ed in Hollywood from 1951 to 1958 for his political affiliations.
Cromwell was cast by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
in the role as Mr. Rose in the movie 3 Women
3 Women (film)
3 Women is a 1977 American film directed by Robert Altman, starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule. The story came directly from a dream Altman had, which he did not fully understand, but nonetheless adapted into a treatment, intending to film without a script...
(1977) starring Shelley Duvall
Shelley Duvall
Shelley Alexis Duvall is an American film and television actress best known for her roles in The Shining, Popeye, Thieves Like Us and 3 Women....
and Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
, and as Bishop Martin in A Wedding
A Wedding
A Wedding is a 1978 black comedy film directed by Robert Altman, starring Carol Burnett, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lauren Hutton, Craig Richard Nelson, Pam Dawber, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Paul Dooley, Dennis Christopher, and Howard Duff...
(1978) starring Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Desi Arnaz, Jr. , is an American actor and musician and the son of entertainers Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.-Early life:...
, Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
, Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Chaplin
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an English-American actress and the daughter of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin first came to prominence for her Golden Globe-nominated role of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago . She received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville...
, Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
, Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman Knight Grand Cross OMRI , popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director...
and Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
.
Personal life
Cromwell married four times. His first wife, stage actress Alice Lindahl died of influenza in 1918; stage actress Marie Goff (divorced); actress Kay JohnsonKay Johnson
Kay Johnson was an American actress who performed on the stage and in Hollywood films.-Family:Catherine Townsend Johnson was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1904. Her father was architect Thomas R. Johnson who designed several noteworthy buildings in the New York City...
(married 1928 - divorced 1946); and actress Ruth Nelson (1946–1979; his death). He and Kay Johnson had two sons, one of whom is actor James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Credited as | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Actor | Role | ||
| 1929 | The Dummy The Dummy "The Dummy" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:The episode opens with ventriloquist Jerry Etherson and his dummy Willie in the middle of one of his acts, somewhere in New York City. After the act, he goes back to his dressing room and begins to... |
Walter Babbing | ||
| Close Harmony Close Harmony (1929 film) Close Harmony is a black and white American comedy-drama musical film released by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:A musically talented young woman named Marjorie who is part of a stage show, meets a warehouse clerk named Al West who has put together an unusual jazz band... |
Doorkeeper | |||
| The Dance of Life The Dance of Life The Dance of Life is the first of three film adaptations of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, the others being Swing High, Swing Low and When My Baby Smiles at Me . The Dance of Life was made with Technicolor sequences, directed by John Cromwell and A... |
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| The Mighty | Mr. Jamieson | |||
| 1930 | Street of Chance Street of Chance (1930 film) Street of Chance is a 1930 film directed by John Cromwell and starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, Kay Francis and Regis Toomey.- Plot :... |
Imbrie | ||
| The Texan | ||||
| For the Defense | Second reporter at trial | |||
| Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer (1930 film) Tom Sawyer is a 1930 American drama film directed by John Cromwell. The screenplay by Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, and Sam Mintz is based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.... |
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| 1931 | Scandal Sheet | |||
| Unfaithful | ||||
| The Vice Squad | ||||
| Rich Man's Folly | ||||
| 1932 | World and the Flesh | |||
| 1933 | Sweepings | |||
| The Silver Cord | ||||
| Double Harness Double Harness Double Harness is a film starring Ann Harding and William Powell. It was based on the play of the same name by Edward Poor Montgomery. A young woman maneuvers a lazy playboy into marrying her.... |
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| Ann Vickers Ann Vickers Ann Vickers is a 1933 novel by Sinclair Lewis.It is also a 1933 drama film directed by John Cromwell, adapted by Jane Murfin from Lewis's novel, and starring Irene Dunne, Bruce Cabot, Walter Huston, and Conrad Nagel... |
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| 1934 | Spitfire Spitfire (1934 film) Spitfire is a 1934 drama film based on the play Trigger by Lula Vollmer. It was directed by John Cromwell and starred Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young and Ralph Bellamy.-Plot summary:... |
|||
| This Man Is Mine This Man Is Mine (1934 film) This Man is Mine is a 1934 American film directed by John Cromwell and starring Irene Dunne. It is based on the play Love Flies in the Window by Anne Morrison Chapin- Plot :... |
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| Of Human Bondage | ||||
| The Fountain | ||||
| 1935 | Village Tale | |||
| Jalna | ||||
| I Dream Too Much I Dream Too Much I Dream Too Much is a 1935 romantic comedy film directed by John Cromwell. It stars Henry Fonda, Lily Pons, and Lucille Ball in one of her earliest roles. It has been described as a "somewhat wispy operetta." Songs are by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields... |
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| 1936 | Little Lord Fauntleroy Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936 film) Little Lord Fauntleroy is a 1936 drama film based on the 1886 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The film stars Freddie Bartholomew, Dolores Costello, , and C. Aubrey Smith... |
|||
| To Mary - with Love | ||||
| Banjo on My Knee Banjo on My Knee (film) Banjo on My Knee is a 1936 American comedy film directed by John Cromwell. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound Recording Banjo on My Knee is a 1936 American comedy film directed by John Cromwell. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound... |
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| 1937 | The Prisoner of Zenda The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 film) The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1937 black-and-white adventure film based on the Anthony Hope 1894 novel of the same name and the 1896 play. Of the many film adaptations, this is considered by many to be the definitive version.... |
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| 1938 | The Adventures of Marco Polo The Adventures of Marco Polo The Adventures of Marco Polo is a 1938 drama-adventure genre film, and one of the most elaborate and costly of Samuel Goldwyn's productions.-Plot:... |
|||
| Algiers Algiers (film) Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name... |
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| 1939 | Made for Each Other Made for Each Other (1939 film) Made for Each Other is a 1939 drama film directed by John Cromwell and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Carole Lombard and James Stewart as a couple who get married after only knowing each other very briefly.-Plot:... |
|||
| In Name Only In Name Only In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the 1935 novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.-Plot:... |
||||
| 1940 | Abe Lincoln in Illinois Abe Lincoln in Illinois (film) Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as President of the United States.... |
John Brown John Brown (abolitionist) John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the... |
||
| Victory | ||||
| 1941 | So Ends Our Night | |||
| 1942 | Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake is a 1942 adventure film directed by John Cromwell, starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney. The film was adapted from Edison Marshall's 1941 historical novel Benjamin Blake.-Plot:... |
|||
| 1944 | Since You Went Away Since You Went Away Since You Went Away is a 1944 film distributed by United Artists, a big-budget epic about the American home front during World War II. It was directed by John Cromwell and adapted and produced by David O. Selznick from the novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret... |
|||
| 1945 | The Enchanted Cottage The Enchanted Cottage (1945 film) The Enchanted Cottage is a 1945 romantic film fantasy starring Robert Young, Dorothy McGuire, and Mildred Natwick. It was based on a play by Arthur Wing Pinero... |
|||
| Watchtower Over Tomorrow | ||||
| 1946 | Anna and the King of Siam | |||
| 1947 | Dead Reckoning | |||
| 1948 | Night Song Night Song (film) Night Song is a 1948 American Drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon and Ethel Barrymore. A wealthy woman befriends a blind musician.... |
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| 1950 | Caged Caged (1950 film) Caged is a 1950 film released by Warner Bros. It tells the story of a teenage newlywed, who is sent to prison for being an accessory to a robbery... |
|||
| 1951 | The Company She Keeps | Policeman | ||
| The Racket The Racket (1951 film) The Racket is a 1951 remake of the the 1928 film The Racket. This film noir-style black-and-white film was directed by John Cromwell with uncredited directing help from Nicholas Ray and Mel Ferrer. The police crime drama is based on a popular Bartlett Cormack play. The Racket is a 1951 remake of... |
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| 1957 | Top Secret Affair Top Secret Affair Top Secret Affair is a 1957 romantic comedy film made by Carrollton Inc. and distributed by Warner Bros. that starred Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas. It was directed by H.C. Potter and produced by Martin Rackin and Milton Sperling from a screenplay by Roland Kibbee and Allan Scott.The plot is very... |
General Daniel A. Grimshaw | ||
| 1958 | The Goddess | |||
| 1959 | The Scavengers | |||
| 1961 | A Matter of Moral | |||
| 1977 | 3 Women 3 Women (film) 3 Women is a 1977 American film directed by Robert Altman, starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule. The story came directly from a dream Altman had, which he did not fully understand, but nonetheless adapted into a treatment, intending to film without a script... |
Mr. Rose | ||
| 1978 | A Wedding A Wedding A Wedding is a 1978 black comedy film directed by Robert Altman, starring Carol Burnett, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lauren Hutton, Craig Richard Nelson, Pam Dawber, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Paul Dooley, Dennis Christopher, and Howard Duff... |
Bishop Martin |