Louis Calhern

Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known by his stage name Louis Calhern, was an American actor. Described by one film historian as a “star leading man of the theater and a star character actor of the screen,” he appeared in over 100 roles on the Broadway stage and in films and television, between 1923 and 1956. He was nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for portraying U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the 1950 film The Magnificent Yankee.

Often cast as distinguished and sophisticated characters, Calhern appeared in several other notable film roles including the scheming Ambassador Trentino in the classic Marx Brothers comedy Duck Soup (1933), the antagonist to Robert Donat's Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), the head of the US Secret Service in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946), the pivotal villain Alonzo Emmerich in John Huston’s film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Buffalo Bill in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950), and the title character in the Joseph L. Mankiewicz all-star adaption of Julius Caesar (1953). He won a Special Jury Prize at the 15th Venice International Film Festival for his performance in Executive Suite (1954).