Tom Ewell
Encyclopedia
Tom Ewell was an American
actor
.
, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers.
Ewell began acting in summer stock in 1928 with Don Ameche
, before moving to New York in 1931. He enrolled in the Actors Studio
alongside classmates Montgomery Clift
and Karl Malden
. He made his Broadway
debut in 1934 and his film debut in 1940, and for several years played comic supporting roles. He attracted attention with a strong performance in the film Adam's Rib
(1949) and he began to receive Hollywood roles more frequently. Ewell continued acting in summer stock through the 1940s: He starred opposite June Lockhart
in Lawrence Riley
's biographical play Kin Hubbard in 1951, the story of one of America's greatest humorists and cartoonists. With this play, Ewell also made his debut as a producer. In 1947 he won a Clarence Derwent Award
for his portrayal of Fred Taylor in the original Broadway cast of John Loves Mary.
His most successful and arguably most identifiable role came in 1952 when he began the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch
. With Vanessa Brown
as "The Girl", the show ran for almost three years, and Ewell played the part more than 900 times, as he said when he appeared as a mystery guest on "What's My Line?
" to promote the movie. He won a 1953 Tony Award
for this role. He reprised his role in the 1955 film version, with Brown replaced by Marilyn Monroe
. The scene of Ewell slyly admiring Monroe as she stood over a subway grate with her skirt billowing has become one of the most iconic moments in films. He won a Golden Globe Award for his performance.
He enjoyed another film success in The Girl Can't Help It
(1956) opposite Jayne Mansfield
. He co-starred in the U.S. premiere of Waiting for Godot
with Bert Lahr
in 1956 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse
in Miami, Florida
. However, as his film and theater careers seemed to have reached their peaks, he turned his attention to television. Over several years he played guest roles in numerous series, and received an Emmy Award
nomination for his continuing role in the television series Baretta
, with Ewell commenting that working on that series had given him greater pleasure than any project he had ever worked on. His final acting performance was in a 1986 episode of Murder, She Wrote
.
In a 1983 interview Ewell stated that the theater was the only arena in which actors could be creative, because films were the work of directors, and television was the work of technicians. He said he did not hold any particular regard for any of his films, with the exception of The Seven Year Itch. He also spoke highly of his co-star Monroe, saying that he "adored" her and that she was "such a lovely person to work with". He claimed never to have seen any of his films, including The Seven Year Itch, and had only ever seen glimpses of himself onscreen when his wife was watching television. He said he suffered from an inferiority complex and could not bear to see himself on screen as he was too critical of himself.
, which lasted for one season and thirty episodes. In the mid-1970s, Ewell enjoyed popular success with a recurring role as retired veteran policeman 'Billy Truman' in the 1970s Emmy-winning TV series Baretta
. Ewell appeared in three dozen episodes of the popular TV-cop series, which starred Robert Blake
as 'Det Tony Barretta', until its end in 1978. In 1979, he was a guest star on Taxi (TV series)
.
director George Abbott
; the short-lived marriage ended in divorce a year later. Ewell then married Marjorie Sanborn on May 5, 1948, producing a son, Taylor. On September 12, 1994, Tom Ewell died of undisclosed causes, aged 85, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital
in Woodland Hills, California. His widow said that Ewell had suffered a long series of illnesses. Ewell was also survived by his son, Taylor, and by his 105 year old mother, Martine Tompkins (February 17, 1889 - March 6, 1998), who lived in Curdsville, Kentucky
, when she died in 1998, at age 109.
Hall of Fame.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Early life and career
Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, KentuckyOwensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is the fourth largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Daviess County. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about southeast of Evansville, Indiana, and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's...
, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers.
Ewell began acting in summer stock in 1928 with Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
, before moving to New York in 1931. He enrolled in the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
alongside classmates Montgomery Clift
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....
and Karl Malden
Karl Malden
Karl Malden was an American actor. In a career that spanned more than seven decades, he performed in such classic films as A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, On the Waterfront and One-Eyed Jacks...
. He made his 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...
debut in 1934 and his film debut in 1940, and for several years played comic supporting roles. He attracted attention with a strong performance in the film Adam's Rib
Adam's Rib
Adam's Rib is a 1949 American film written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and directed by George Cukor. It stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as married lawyers who come to oppose each other in court. Judy Holliday co-stars in her first substantial film role...
(1949) and he began to receive Hollywood roles more frequently. Ewell continued acting in summer stock through the 1940s: He starred opposite June Lockhart
June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr...
in Lawrence Riley
Lawrence Riley
Lawrence Riley was a successful American playwright and screenwriter. He gained fame in 1934 as the author of the Broadway hit Personal Appearance, which was turned by Mae West into the classic film Go West, Young Man , starring herself.-Biography:Riley was a Princeton University alumnus and a...
's biographical play Kin Hubbard in 1951, the story of one of America's greatest humorists and cartoonists. With this play, Ewell also made his debut as a producer. In 1947 he won a Clarence Derwent Award
Clarence Derwent Awards
The Clarence Derwent Awards are theatre awards given annually by the Actors' Equity Association on Broadway in the United States and by Equity, the performers union, in the West End in the United Kingdom....
for his portrayal of Fred Taylor in the original Broadway cast of John Loves Mary.
His most successful and arguably most identifiable role came in 1952 when he began the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role...
. With Vanessa Brown
Vanessa Brown
Vanessa Brown was an Austrian-American actress who was successful in radio, film, theater, and television.-Early life:...
as "The Girl", the show ran for almost three years, and Ewell played the part more than 900 times, as he said when he appeared as a mystery guest on "What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
" to promote the movie. He won a 1953 Tony Award
Tony 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 this role. He reprised his role in the 1955 film version, with Brown replaced by Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. The scene of Ewell slyly admiring Monroe as she stood over a subway grate with her skirt billowing has become one of the most iconic moments in films. He won a Golden Globe Award for his performance.
He enjoyed another film success in The Girl Can't Help It
The Girl Can't Help It
The Girl Can't Help It is a 1956 comedy musical film starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O'Brien. It was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenplay adapted by Tashlin and Herbert Baker from an uncredited novel Do Re Me by Garson Kanin...
(1956) opposite Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
. He co-starred in the U.S. premiere of Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
with Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...
in 1956 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse
Coconut Grove Playhouse
The Coconut Grove Playhouse was a legitimate theater in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States.The building was originally constructed as a movie theater called the Player's State Theater. It first opened on January 3, 1927 as a part of the Paramount chain. The movie house...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. However, as his film and theater careers seemed to have reached their peaks, he turned his attention to television. Over several years he played guest roles in numerous series, and received an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination for his continuing role in the television series Baretta
Baretta
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma...
, with Ewell commenting that working on that series had given him greater pleasure than any project he had ever worked on. His final acting performance was in a 1986 episode of Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
.
In a 1983 interview Ewell stated that the theater was the only arena in which actors could be creative, because films were the work of directors, and television was the work of technicians. He said he did not hold any particular regard for any of his films, with the exception of The Seven Year Itch. He also spoke highly of his co-star Monroe, saying that he "adored" her and that she was "such a lovely person to work with". He claimed never to have seen any of his films, including The Seven Year Itch, and had only ever seen glimpses of himself onscreen when his wife was watching television. He said he suffered from an inferiority complex and could not bear to see himself on screen as he was too critical of himself.
Television
From September 1960 to May 1961, Tom Ewell starred in his own television series, in the self-titled The Tom Ewell ShowThe Tom Ewell Show
The Tom Ewell Show was a television situation comedy broadcast in the United States in the 1960-61 television season.-Summary:The Tom Ewell Show was created by Madelyn Martin and Bob Carroll, Jr. , and produced by Tom Ewell's own production company...
, which lasted for one season and thirty episodes. In the mid-1970s, Ewell enjoyed popular success with a recurring role as retired veteran policeman 'Billy Truman' in the 1970s Emmy-winning TV series Baretta
Baretta
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma...
. Ewell appeared in three dozen episodes of the popular TV-cop series, which starred Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
as 'Det Tony Barretta', until its end in 1978. In 1979, he was a guest star on Taxi (TV series)
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
.
Personal life and death
On March 18, 1946, he married Ann Abbott, daughter of BroadwayBroadway 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...
director George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
; the short-lived marriage ended in divorce a year later. Ewell then married Marjorie Sanborn on May 5, 1948, producing a son, Taylor. On September 12, 1994, Tom Ewell died of undisclosed causes, aged 85, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital
Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
The Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital is a retirement community, with individual cottages, and a fully licensed, acute-care hospital, located at 23388 Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills, California...
in Woodland Hills, California. His widow said that Ewell had suffered a long series of illnesses. Ewell was also survived by his son, Taylor, and by his 105 year old mother, Martine Tompkins (February 17, 1889 - March 6, 1998), who lived in Curdsville, Kentucky
Daviess County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 91,545 people, 36,033 households, and 24,826 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 38,432 housing units at an average density of...
, when she died in 1998, at age 109.
Birthplace Hall of Fame honor
In 2003, Tom Ewell was inducted into the Owensboro High SchoolOwensboro High School
Owensboro High School is a high school located at 1800 Frederica Street in Owensboro, Kentucky. The school's newspaper is The Scoop and its yearbook is the Owensboroan. Owensboro High School is one of only 33 high schools in Kentucky to be listed among the “Best High Schools 2009 Search” published...
Hall of Fame.