Harry Davenport (actor)


Harold George Bryant Davenport was an American film and stage actor who worked in show business from the age of six until his death. After a long and prolific Broadway career, he came to Hollywood in the 1930s, where he often played grandfathers, judges, doctors, and ministers. His roles include Dr. Meade in Gone with the Wind and Grandpa in Meet Me in St. Louis. Bette Davis once called Davenport "without a doubt the greatest character actor of all time."

Early life

Davenport was born January 19, 1866, in Boston. He came from a long line of stage actors; his father was thespian Edward Loomis Davenport and his mother, Fanny Vining Davenport, was an English actress and a descendant of the renowned 18th-century Irish stage actor Jack Johnson. His sister was actress Fanny Davenport.

Career

He made his stage debut — at the third Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia — at the age of five in the play Damon and Pythias. Davenport made his Broadway debut in The Voyage of Suzette and appeared there in numerous plays.

Film career

Harry Davenport was one of the best-known and busiest "old men" in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s. He started his film career at the age of 47, debuting in the 1913 silent short film Kenton's Heir. The next year, he starred in Fogg's Millions co-starring Rose Tapley. The film became the first in a series of silent comedy shorts. In addition, he also directed some silent features and many shorts between 1915 and 1917, including many of the films in the Mr. and Mrs. Jarr series.
Harry Davenport played Dr. Meade in Gone with the Wind. Some of his other film roles are a lone resident in a ghost town in The Bride Came C.O.D., filmed on location in Death Valley, and the aged Louis XI of France in The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara and Cedric Hardwicke. He also had supporting roles in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Foreign Correspondent, William A. Wellman's western The Ox-Bow Incident and in Kings Row with Ronald Reagan. Davenport also played the grandfather of Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli's classic Meet Me in St. Louis and the great-uncle of Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. His last film, Frank Capra's Riding High, was released after his death.
Harry Davenport appeared in over 160 films. Asked why he made so many films at his age, he replied:

I hate to see men of my age sit down as if their lives were ended and accept a dole. An old man must show that he knows his job and is no loafer. If he can do that, they can take their pension money and buy daisies with it.

Actors' Equity Association

In 1913, he co-founded, along with actor Eddie Foy, the Actors' Equity Association, an American labor union for actors. The original organization, known as the White Rats, was spearheaded by Davenport. After a nine-month stretch, the actors' group united in defiance of the appalling treatment of actors by theater owners such as the Shubert family and David Belasco, among others, by refusing to appear on stage by striking. The actions of the association caused the closure of all the theatres on Broadway, the only exception being theaters owned by George M. Cohan's company.

Personal life

He and his wife Alice were wed in 1893. They had one daughter, Dorothy Davenport, who also became an actress. After divorcing Alice in 1896, he married actress Phyllis Rankin that same year. They had three biological children: Ned, Ann, and Kate, who all became actors. Harry also adopted Phyllis's son, Arthur Rankin. Actress Anne Seymour and her brother, radio personality Bill Seymour, were Harry Davenport's great-niece and great-nephew by their mother, May Davenport.
Through his marriage to Phyllis, Davenport was the brother-in-law of Lionel Barrymore, who at the time was married to Phyllis' sister Doris. Phyllis's father, McKee Rankin, had been the top actor at the Arch Street Theater, which was run by Lionel's grandmother and Sidney's mother, Louisa Lane Drew. Davenport was the grandfather of producer Dirk Wayne Summers, Arthur Rankin Jr., and Wallace Reid Jr.
After Phyllis's death, Davenport moved to Los Angeles and lived with his now-grown children. He died of a sudden heart attack at age 83, one hour after he asked his agent Walter Herzbrun about a new film role. He was buried in Kensico Cemetery, Westchester County, New York. In the obituary, a newspaper called him the "white-haired character actor" with "the longest acting career in American history".

Filmography

Actor

Kenton's Heir as The DoctorToo Many Husbands as Dr. CraneThe Accomplished Mrs. Thompson Fogg's Millions Rainy, the Lion Killer as Jack BrownThe Professional Scapegoat as The Lawyer

Director

The Island of Regeneration The Jarr Family Discovers Harlem Mr. Jarr Brings Home a Turkey Mr. Jarr and the Lady Reformer The Enemies Mr. Jarr Takes a Night Off Mr. Jarr's Magnetic Friend The Closing of the Circuit The Jarrs Visit Arcadia Mr. Jarr and the Dachshund Mr. Jarr Visits His Home Town Mrs. Jarr's Auction Bridge Mrs. Jarr and the Beauty Treatment Mr. Jarr and the Ladies' Cup Philanthropic Tommy Mr. Jarr and Love's Young Dream Mr. Jarr and the Captive Maid Mr. Jarr and Gertrude's Beaux Mr. Jarr's Big Vacation Mr. Jarr and Circumstantial Evidence Mr. Jarr and the Visiting Firemen Mrs. Jarr and the Society Circus The Woman in the Box The Making Over of Geoffrey Manning For a Woman's Fair Name The Supreme Temptation Myrtle the Manicurist The Rookie The Resurrection of Hollis O'Hagan's Scoop Carew and Son Letitia The Heart of a Fool A Woman Alone Tillie Wakes Up The Millionaire's Double The False Friend A Son of the Hills
  • ''A Man's Law''