Filmography
1926
Mannequin
The Outsider
Old Loves and New
Miss Nobody
Marriage License?
1927
Heart of Salome
Sumuru
The Thirteenth Juror
The Gorilla
1928
The Gateway of the Moon
Woman Wise
Turn Back the Hours
Clothes Make the Woman
Melody of Love
1929
The Voice Within
Her Private Life
A Most Immoral Lady
1930
Bride of the Regiment
Sweet Kitty Bellairs
The Gorilla
Viennese Nights
Going Wild
1931
Kiss Me Again
The Hot Heiress
1932
Rockabye
1933
The Kiss Before the Mirror
1934
Journal of a Crime
1936
Big Brown Eyes
Fatal Lady
1937
She’s Dangerous
Girl Overboard
As Good as Married
Saratoga
My Dear Miss Aldrich
A Girl with Ideas
1938
Man-Proof
The Girl of the Golden West
Too Hot to Handle
Listen, Darling
1939
Society Lawyer
6,000 Enemies
Stronger Than Desire
Nick Carter, Master Detective
1940
The House Across the Bay
It’s a Date
Dark Command
Phantom Raiders
Sky Murder
Flight Command
1941
Man Hunt
Blossoms in the Dust
Design for Scandal
1942
White Cargo
1943
The Youngest Profession
1944
1945
Week-End at the Waldorf
1946
Holiday in Mexico
The Secret Heart
1947
Cass Timberlane
If Winter Comes
1948
Command Decision
1949
The Red Danube
That Forsyte Woman
1950
The Miniver Story
1951
Soldiers Three
Calling Bulldog Drummond
Quo Vadis
The Unknown Man
1952
The Sellout
Million Dollar Mermaid
Scandal at Scourie
1953
Dream Wife
1954
Men of the Fighting Lady
The Last Time I Saw Paris
Deep in My Heart
1955
Hit the Deck
1956
These Wilder Years
The Rack
1961
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1962
Big Red
1963
The Two Colonels
Anniversary
1965
Cinderella
1967
Warning Shot
1968
The Vatican Affair
1969
Rascal
1972
Skyjacked
1973
The Neptune Factor
Harry in Your Pocket
1976
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
1976
Two-Minute Warning
1978
Sextette
Awards
Walter Pidgeon was nominated for two Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Awards, Mrs. Miniver (1942), and Madame Curie (1943)
I was like a kept woman during my twenty-one years at MGM.
~ Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon: Learn more about him, review his filmography and more
Walter Pidgeon was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He attended local schools and the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His university education was interrupted by World War I, and he enlisted in the 65th Battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery. He never saw action, however, as he was severely injured in an accident when he was crushed between two gun carriages and spent seventeen months in a military hospital. Following the war, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a bank runner, at the same time studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Discontented with banking, Pidgeon moved to New York City, where he walked into the office of E.E. Clive, announced that he could act and sing and could prove it. After acting on stage for several years, he made his Broadway debut in 1925. Pidgeon made a number of silent films in the 1920s. He became a huge star with the arrival of talkies, thanks to his singing voice. He starred in extravagant early Technicolor musicals, including The Bride of the Regiment (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Viennese Nights (1930) and Kiss Me Again (1931). He became associated with musicals, and when the public grew weary of them his career began to falter.
In 1935 he took a break from Hollywood and did a stint on Broadway. When he returned to movies, he was relegated to playing secondary roles in films like Saratoga and The Girl of the Golden West. One of his better known roles was in The Dark Command, where he portrayed the villain opposite John Wayne , Claire Trevor , and a young Roy Rogers.
It was not until he starred in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture How Green Was My Valley (1941) that his popularity returned. He then starred opposite Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) and its sequel, The Miniver Story in 1950. He was also nominated in 1944 for Madame Curie , again opposite Garson. His partnership with her continued throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s with Mrs. Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), and finally Scandal at Scourie (1953).
Although he continued to make films, including The Bad and the Beautiful and Forbidden Planet , Pidgeon returned to work on Broadway in the mid-1950s after a 20-year absence and ventured into television. He continued making films, playing Admiral Harriman Nelson in 1961’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, James Haggin in Walt Disney’s Big Red (1962), and the Senate Majority Leader in Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent . His role as Florenz Ziegfeld in Funny Girl (1968) was well received. Later, he played Casey, James Coburn’s sidekick, in Harry in Your Pocket (1973).
Pidgeon became a United States citizen on December 24, 1943.
Pidgeon married twice. In 1919, he wed the former Edna Muriel Pickles, who died in 1921 during the birth of their daughter, also named Edna. In 1931, Pidgeon married his secretary, Ruth Walker, to whom he remained married until his death.
He died on September 25, 1984 in Santa Monica, California two days after his 87th birthday, following a series of strokes.
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