Charley Grapewin

Known for ActingBorn 1869-12-20Died 1956-02-02Xenia, Ohio, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville performer, writer and a stage and silent and sound actor, and comedian who was best known for portraying Aunt Em's husband, Uncle Henry in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Wizard of Oz (1939) as well as Grandpa Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road (1941). He usually portrayed elderly folksy-type characters in a rustic setting, in all appearing in over 100 films. He was the oldest cast member of The Wizard of Oz. Born in Xenia, Ohio, Charles Ellsworth Grapewin ran away from home to be a circus acrobat which led him to work as an aerialist and trapeze artist in a traveling circus before turning to acting. He traveled all over the world with the famous P. T. Barnum circus. Grapewin also appeared in the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz, 36 years before he would appear in the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version. After this he continued in theatre, on and offstage, for the next thirty years, starting with various stock companies, and wrote stage plays as a vehicle for himself. His sole Broadway theatre credit was the short-lived play It's Up to You John Henry in 1905. Grapewin married actress Anna Chance (1875–1943) in 1896, and they remained a devoted couple until her death some 47 years later. Two years after his first wife's death, Grapewin married Loretta McGowan Becker on Jan 10, 1945. Grapewin began in silent films at the turn of the twentieth century. His very first films were two "moving image shorts" made by Frederick S. Armitage and released in November 1900; Chimmie Hicks at the Races (also known as Above the Limit) and Chimmie Hicks and the Rum Omelet, both shot in September and October 1900 and released in November of that year. During his long career, Grapewin appeared in more than one hundred films, including The Good Earth, The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, and in what is probably his best-remembered role: Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz. He also had a recurring role as Inspector Queen in the Ellery Queen film series of the early 1940s. Grapewin died of natural causes in Corona, California at age 86, and his ashes are interred with his wife's in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, at the Great Mausoleum's Columbarium of Inspiration. Read more

Movies & web series

The Enchanted Valley

King Solomon of Broadway

Wild Horse Mesa

For the Love of Fanny

Going Hollywood: The '30s

The Dark Side of the Rainbow

The Quitter

Party Wire

Bad Guy

The Loudspeaker

Don't Bet on Love

The Woman in Room 13

The Shannons of Broadway

The Grapes of Wrath

Big City

MGM Parade

The Wizard of Oz

The Millionaire

The Big Parade of Comedy

The Night of June 13

When I Grow Up

Captains Courageous

That's Entertainment, Part II

Libeled Lady

Without Orders

Shanghai

Two Alone

Three Comrades

Beauty for Sale

The Petrified Forest

Heroes for Sale

Pilgrimage

Sudden Money

The Man Who Dared

Super Speed

Hello, Everybody!

Hell and High Water

Huddle

Rhythm on the River

American Madness

Tobacco Road

Johnny Apollo

Ah, Wilderness!

The Bad Man of Brimstone

Wild Boys of the Road

The Washington Masquerade

Midnight Mary

They Died with Their Boots On