Charles Halton (March 16, 1876 – April 16, 1959) was an American character actor who appeared in over 180 films.
Contents
Life and career
Early years
Halton was born in Washington, District of Columbia, in 1876. He trained at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Career
In the early 1900s Halton toured Europe with Lillian Russell. He made his Broadway debut in 1901, after which he appeared in about 35 productions during the next 50 years. For the summer of 1911 he performed as a member of the summer stock cast at Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado. From the 1920s, Halton's thinning hair, rimless glasses, stern-looking face and officious manner were also familiar to generations of American moviegoers. Whether playing the neighborhood busybody, a stern government bureaucrat or weaselly attorney, Halton's characters tried to drive the "immoral influences" out of the neighborhood, foreclose on the orphanage, evict the poor widow and her children from their apartment, or any other number of dastardly deeds, all justified usually by "...I'm sorry but that's my job."
Among Halton's best-known roles were Dr. Glass, the hotel doctor in Room Service (1938), starring the Marx Brothers; Mr. Carter, the bank examiner in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946); the Polish theatre producer Dobosh in Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942), and a county official from Idaho in Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). In Enemy of Women (1944), the story of Joseph Goebbels, Halton played against type as a kindly radio performer of children's stories who is arrested by the Nazis.
Although his career slowed down in the 1950s, he also played roles in numerous television series. His 40-year film career ended with High School Confidential (1958), after which he retired.
Personal life and death
Halton married the former Lelah Coyle on August 8, 1944, in Gardnerville, Nevada, after she was divorced from John J. Beckman. On April 16, 1959, he died of hepatitis at his home in Los Angeles. He was 83.