Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt in Brooklyn, New York, in 1895, the son of Eugene Adolf Vogt and Hubertina Friese Vogt, both of whom immigrated to New York from Germany. He had one known sibling, a sister.[2] His father was a tobacco dealer.[3] His family left New York while he was in elementary school and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was raised. While playing high school football, a stage manager from a touring theatrical stock company noticed the tall, handsome youth, and hired him as a bit player. (Another source says, "Grace George hired his entire high school football team as supers for a Shakespearean play.") His stage name is an amalgamation of his hometown of St. Louis and his first and middle names, Carl and Henry ("Calhern").[3]
Stage
Just prior to World War I, Calhern decided to return to New York to pursue an acting career. He began as a prop boy and bit player with various touring and burlesque companies. He became a matinee idol by virtue of a play titled Cobra.
Louis Calhern and Claire Windsor in The Blot (Lois Weber Productions, 1921).
Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s; the most notable being The Blot in 1921. A contemporary newspaper article commented, "The new arrival in stardom is Louis Calhern, who, until Miss Weber engaged him to enact the leading male role in What's Worth While?, had been playing leads in the Morosco Stock company of Los Angeles."[7]
In 1923, Calhern left the movies to devote his career entirely to the stage, but he would return to the screen eight years later after the advent of sound pictures. He was primarily cast as a character actor in films, while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. He reached his peak in the early 1950s as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Among his many memorable screen roles were Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup (1933) and three that he appeared in at MGM in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn MonroeinJohn Huston's film noir classic The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated performance as Oliver Wendell HolmesinThe Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his role from the Broadway stage). He was also praised for his portrayal of the title role in the John Houseman production of Julius Caesar (adapted from the Shakespeare play) in 1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Calhern also played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation in the 1954 production of Executive Suite.
Calhern was married four times, to Ilka Chase (1900–1978) from 1926 to 1927, Julia Hoyt (1897–1955) from 1927 to 1932, Natalie Schafer (1900–1991) from 1933 to 1942, and Marianne Stewart (1922–1992) from 1946 to 1955. All four marriages ended in divorce.
Calhern suffered from alcoholism.[2] According to Schafer, Calhern's inability to overcome his addiction during their marriage undermined their relationship. While he was willing to consult doctors, she said Calhern refused to attend Alcoholics Anonymous because he was an atheist, and he considered it a religious organization. He reportedly overcame his alcohol addiction in the late 1940s.[8]
^Katz, Ephraim (1979). The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume. Perigee Books. ISBN0-399-50601-2. P. 195
