Walter Pidgeon

Biography

When the National Film Board of Canada was looking for a narrator for their 1963 documentary marking the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Film Industry they
Walter Pidgeon in a detail from an MGM studio publicity still for My Dear Miss Aldrich, now part of
the Northern Stars® Collection.
turned to one of the most respected actors this country has ever produced, Walter Pidgeon.

Born Walter Davis Pidgeon on September 23, 1897 in East Saint John, New Brunswick, this future star experienced some of life's hardest blows while still a very young man. After graduating from Saint John High School, Walter felt compelled to join the war effort and dropped out of the University of New Brunswick to enlist. While in training at Camp Petawawa in Ontario he was caught between two gun carriages and severely injured. He spent almost a year and half in hospital where at one time or another he also contracted pleurisy and pneumonia. But the accident kept him away from the killing fields of France and in 1919 he married a girl he had met and fallen in love with in high school, Edna Pickles. Edna had moved to Boston to study art and it was in Boston that Walter would receive some very important help. But first he would face another tragedy. Edna died just two years later leaving Walter to care for their only child.

Walter was studying singing in Boston and one night while entertaining at a party, Fred Astaire took note of the tall (6'3") crooner from Canada. Astaire mentioned Walter to one of the legends of that era, Elsie Janis, who was looking for a singer to appear with her in vaudeville. It wasn't long before Walter was noticed by the growing movie industry and he made his debut in
The original of this rare colour postcard of the Hollywood home of Walter Pidgeon is part of the Northern Stars® Collection.

the silent movie, Mannequin in 1926. When the "talkies" arrived the most important attribute an actor had was their voice, and this trained singer was suddenly in high demand. But it took most of the decade before Walter started to come into his own.

His first big role came in 1937 when he was the love interest for Jean Harlow and lost her to Clark Gable in Saratoga. As his career grew, Walter' Pidgeon's name became paired with the greats of Hollywood. For example, one of his best performances came when he met up with Clark Gable again in 1948's Command Decision. He was absolutely charming when he co-starred with Ginger Rogers in Weekend at the Waldorf (1945) and the list of directors he worked with contains some ofHollywood's most legendary names: Fritz Lang, John Ford, William

This detail from a studio publicity still for Blossoms in the Dust is part of the Northern Stars® Collection

Wyler, Mervyn LeRoy, Sam Wood and Otto Preminger. But when asked much later in life what he thought his best films were, he consistently said it was his work with Greer Garson.

In all, Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson made 8 films together starting with Blossoms in the Dust in 1941. Their second pairing, 1942's Mrs. Miniver brought Walter the first of two Oscar nominations. His second came just one year later for his role again opposite Garson in Madame Curie. This was wartime and Walter lent his image to the effort in a number of ways. On screen he was a man on-the-run from Hitler's minion's in the 20th Century Fox production of Fritz Lang's Man Hunt (1941). He also returned to Canada a number of times to raise money for the war effort by appearing in Victory Loan shows across the country in 1942 and 1943.

Walter Pidgeon continued to work well past what many consider to be retirement age making his last film appearance when he was 80. He died two days after his 87th birthday on September 25, 1984 following a series of strokes.