Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (
September 23,
1897â€"
September 25,
1984) was a
Canadian actor.
Born near
Saint John, New Brunswick, he began his career by studying at the
New England Conservatory of Music in
Boston. He was a classicaly trained
baritone. After working as an actor on stage for a few years, he made his
Broadway debut in 1925. He made several
silent movies in the
1920s, followed by some early talkie musicals. Afterwards Pidgeon played secondary roles to the main male star in such films as
Saratoga and
The Girl of the Golden West. It wasn't until he starred in
How Green Was My Valley that he became well known.
He starred opposite
Greer Garson in
Blossoms in the Dust and in
Mrs. Miniver (for which he was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor). He was nominated again in
1944 for
Madame Curie. Although he continued making films, including the Shakespeare/Tempest-based
Forbidden Planet, Pidgeon returned to work on Broadway in the mid-
1950s after a twenty-year absence, and was featured in
Take Me Along with Jackie Gleason. He continued films in 1961, playing Admiral Harriman Nelson in
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and in 1962, in
Walt Disney's
Big Red and
Otto Preminger's
Advise and Consent. His role as
Florenz Ziegfield in
Funny Girl (1965) was well received. During his career, he guest-starred in many television programs, including
Perry Mason,
The FBI, and
Marcus Welby, M.D..
He retired fully in
1970, and died in
Santa Monica, California, in 1984. In accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to the
UCLA Medical School for medical research.
Pidgeon has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6414 Hollywood Blvd.
*
Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood*
Walter Pidgeon at Northern Stars® - Canadians in the Movies 
