Thomas John Mitchell (; July 11, 1892 â December 17, 1962) was an American actor, writer, and theatre director. He is considered one of the great character actors of Golden Age of Hollywood and a leading man on Broadway.
He appeared in over 115 film and television roles between 1923 and 1961, along with numerous stage appearances. Among Mitchell's most famous film roles in a long career are those of Scarlett O'Hara's father Gerald O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, alcoholic Doc Boone in Stagecoach (1939), Pat Garrett in The Outlaw, and Mayor Jonas Henderson in High Noon. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Stagecoach. He is probably best known to today's audiences for his role as affable Uncle Billy in Frank Capra's Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) with James Stewart.
Thomas Mitchell was the first male actor to gain the Triple Crown of Acting by winning an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Stagecoach, with a previous nomination in the same category for The Hurricane (1937). He was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Drama Series: in 1952 and 1953 for his role in the medical drama The DoctorâÂÂwinning in 1953âÂÂand in 1955 for an appearance on a weekly anthology series. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1953 for his role as Dr Downer in the musical comedy Hazel Flagg.
Thomas John Mitchell was born on July 11, 1892, to Irish immigrants, James Mitchell and Mary Donnelly, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters, and his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of Labor. The younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter after graduating from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth. However, Mitchell soon found that he enjoyed writing theatrical skits much more than chasing scoops. In 1927 Mitchell joined The Lambs.
He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with Charles Coburn's Shakespeare Company. Even while playing leading roles on Broadway into the 1920s, Mitchell continued to write. One of the plays he co-authored, Little Accident, was eventually made into a film (three times) by Hollywood. Mitchell's first credited screen role was in the 1923 film Six Cylinder Love. Mitchell's breakthrough role was as the embezzler in Frank Capra's film Lost Horizon (1937).
Following this performance, he was much in demand in Hollywood. That same year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Hurricane, directed by John Ford.
Over the next few years, Mitchell appeared in many significant films. Forty-three of the 59 films in which he acted were made in the 10-year period from 1936 to 1946. Considered one of the finest character actors in film, in 1939 alone he had key roles in Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gone with the Wind. While probably better remembered as Scarlett O'Hara's loving but doomed father in Gone with the Wind, it was for his performance as the drunken Doc Boone in Stagecoach, co-starring John Wayne (in Wayne's breakthrough role), that Mitchell won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. In his acceptance speech, he quipped, "I didn't know I was that good". Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Mitchell acted in a wide variety of roles in productions such as 1940's Swiss Family Robinson, 1942's Moontide, 1944's The Keys of the Kingdom (as an atheist doctor) and High Noon (1952) as the town mayor.
From the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Mitchell worked primarily in television, appearing in a variety of roles in some of the most well-regarded early series of the era, including Playhouse 90, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater (in a pilot episode that became the CBS series Johnny Ringo), and Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. In 1955, he played Kris Kringle in The 20th Century-Fox Hour version of The Miracle on 34th Street opposite Teresa Wright and MacDonald Carey.
Thomas Mitchell starred in three syndicated television series, each running 39 episodes, for producers Jack J. Gross and Philip N. Krasne. In 1954-55 there was the television adaptation of the radio program Mayor of the Town. In The O. Henry Playhouse (1956-57), Mitchell portrayed the author O. Henry, with the writer telling his slice-of-life stories. Mitchell was so successful in his portrayal that he was asked to visit high school English classes. His first appearance in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was so inspiring to the students that producers Gross and Krasne sent Mitchell on a nationwide tour of high schools. In 1959 Mitchell starred in Glencannon, filmed in England by Gross-Krasne and starring Mitchell as a ship's engineer.
Mitchell's last screen role was as a larcenous but genteel Damon Runyon character in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles (1961). Mitchell's last stage role was Columbo, a detective character previously played by Bert Freed on an episode of The Chevy Mystery Show and later made famous on NBC and ABC television by Peter Falk.
Mitchell died on December 17, 1962, at age 70 from peritoneal mesothelioma in Beverly Hills, California. He was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory and, at his request, his ashes were placed in private vaultage.
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In 1953, Mitchell became the first male actor to win the Triple Crown of Acting (he's one of 24 performers to have reached this achievement).