Douglas Walton (actor)

Douglas Walton (October 16, 1910 – November 15, 1961) was a Canadian actor who worked in American films during the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in 60 films between 1931 and 1950.

Life and career

Born J. Douglas Dunder in Toronto, Canada, Walton began his acting career in the theatres of Chicago and New York City. Tall, blond and elegant, Walton played many aristocratic, intellectual or sophisticated English or European men in films such as The Count of Monte Cristo in 1934; The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), in which Walton memorably played the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in the film's prologue; the Clark Gable version of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935); and director John Ford's Mary of Scotland (1936) starring Katharine Hepburn, in which Walton gave his best performance as the effeminate and cowardly "Lord Darnley".^[1][2] Walton was also directed by Ford in 1934's The Lost Patrol, Bad Lands in 1939, and The Long Voyage Home (1940), starring John Wayne.^[1]

In 1939, Walton returned to New York to appear on Broadway in the comedy Billy Draws a Horse.^[3]

In the 1940s, Walton's parts were secondary characters or even uncredited roles in B-movies, or sometimes in high profile films such as King Vidor's Northwest Passage (1940), starring Spencer Tracy, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945).^[1] One sizable role was "Percival Priceless" in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1947).^[2] His final film was Three Came Home (1950).^[4]

Walton retired in 1950 and died eleven years later, in 1961, from a heart attack, at age 51.^[1]

Partial filmography

• Over the Hill (1931)
• The Lost Patrol (1934)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
• Charlie Chan in London (1934)
• The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• The Dark Angel (1935)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• The Garden Murder Case (1936)
• Mary of Scotland (1936)
• The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
• The Sun Never Sets (1939)
• Bad Lands (1939)
• Northwest Passage (1940)
• The Long Voyage Home (1940)
• Murder, My Sweet (1944)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
• Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1947)
• Green Dolphin Street (1947)
• The Secret of St. Ives (1949)
• Three Came Home (1950)

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Curtis, James (1998). James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston, Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19285-8.

External links

• Douglas Walton at the Internet Movie Database
• Douglas Walton at the TCM Movie Database