| Walter Connolly | |
| Birth Date: | 8 April 1887 |
| Birth Place: | Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Film, stage and radio actor |
| Years Active: | 1914 - 1939 |
| Children: | 1 |
Walter Connolly (April 8, 1887[1] - May 28, 1940) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 50 films from 1914 to 1939. His best known film is It Happened One Night (1934).
Born in Cincinnati to Walter Joseph Connolly and Ella Burke, Connolly attended St. Xavier College and the Cincinnati College of Music, and acted locally in amateur theatrical productions. Several years later, following his service with the U. S. Marines in World War I, rather than return directly to the U.S., Connolly elected to visit Ireland, where he enrolled in a number of non-theatre-related courses at the University of Dublin, reportedly with the intention of abandoning the profession altogether. However, numerous visits to the Abbey Theater evidently rekindled Connolly's acting bug,[1] and within four months of his return to the States,[2] Connolly was being praised for his work alongside Margaret Anglin and others in Paul Kester's adaptation of Henry Kistemaeckers' play, The Woman of Bronze.[3] [4]
Between the years of 1916 and 1935, Connolly was a successful stage actor who appeared in twenty-two Broadway productions, notably revivals of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. His first film appearances came in two silent films, The Marked Woman (1914) and A Soldier's Oath (1915), and his first talkie film came in 1930, Many Happy Returns, but his Hollywood film career really began in 1932, when he appeared in four films. His trademark role was that of the exasperated business tycoon or newspaperman, often as the father of the female lead character, as in It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; Broadway Bill (1934), supporting Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy; and Libeled Lady (1936) with William Powell and Loy again. Other notable roles included the worthless uncle of Paul Muni's character in The Good Earth (1937) and one of the two con men encountered by Mickey Rooney's Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). Connolly played General Yen's American advisor in The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933).
Connolly mostly played supporting roles, but starred occasionally, as Nero Wolfe in The League of Frightened Men (1937), in RKO's 5th Ave Girl (1939), opposite Ginger Rogers, and as the title character in The Great Victor Herbert (1939), his last film.
On radio, Connolly starred as the title character in The Adventures of Charlie Chan on NBC Radio from 1932 to 1938.[5]
Connolly died on May 28, 1940 in Beverly Hills, following a stroke,[1] and was buried in St. Joseph New Cemetery in Cincinnati.[6]