One of the best character actors around.
Over a career that lasted some 40 years and spanning about 150 screen and tv credits, Cecil Kellaway found himself usually turning up as a good hearted scamp with a twinkle in his delivery.
He won two best supporting actor nominations for roles as ‘Horace’ the leprechaun in 1948’s The Luck of the Irish.….
…and as the wise and kindly ‘Monsignor Ryan’ in 1967’s Guess Whose Coming To Dinner, the late Hepburn-Tracy outing with Sidney Poitier.
In Harvey, Kellaway was cast as kindly Dr. Chumley.
Kellaway was often thought of as an Irishman, but he was actually born in South Africa in 1893. And prior to Hollywood, he worked for years as an actor, writer and director in Australia. He commenced his Hollywood career in the early 1930’s cast mainly in gangster parts. Director William Wyler salvaged his career, casting Kellaway in 1939’s Wuthering Heights.
Probably the most perplexing casting decision involving Kellaway was MGM’s plopping him in the midst of that wonderfully steamy film noir, 1946’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. The actor’s cheerful cluelessness is a bit at odds with the motif of murder and lust expressed by illicit lovers, John Garfield and Lana Turner (whose expression below tells all.)
Kellaway’s character, the older husband name Nick Smith, is played with much more gusto and credibility by Italian actor Juan de Landa in director Luchino Visconti’s handling of the same material in 1943’s Ossessione.
But we bet de Landa never played Santa Claus on television as Kellaway did in an episode of 1964’s Bewitched.
February 28’s article got here early…
Not a lot you can say about CECIL LAURISTON KELLAWAY, except he was a fine, reliable character actor who always stood out in any movie he was in.
In the fine seafaring feature DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS (1949) Kellaway plays ‘Slush’ Tubbs, the cook on a whaling ship out of Massachusetts at the end of the 19th century. Cooks were often nicknamed ‘Slush’ or ‘Slushy’ because they boiled salt pork or salt beef for the crew and the grease that came to the surface was called ‘slush’. Some of it was spread on biscuits in lieu of butter. Any excess was sold to candle-makers or soap makers and the money received was used to purchase things for the ship. So, if you ever wondered where the term ‘slush fund’ originated, well, now you know.
Of all the Christmas movies made down the decades, 1947’s MIRACLE ON 34th STREET must surely rank as one of the most cherished by movie-goers. While Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and 8 year-old Natalie Wood are good in their roles, it was the performance from Edmund Gwenn as Santa Claus that will be most fondly remembered. Without exception, the cast and crew described him as a delightfully kind and charming man who embodied the spirit of Santa Claus effortlessly. No wonder he won an Oscar for his work. As is often the case, however, he only got the role because his real life cousin Cecil Kellaway turned it down. It almost defies belief that the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD) could possibly find fault with this wholesome fare – but it did. The Legion gave it a ‘B’ rating (morally objectionable in part). Why? Because Maureen O’Hara was playing a divorcee.
CECIL KELLAWAY in one of his last great movie roles GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, he almost steals the show as Monsignor Ryan from Spencer Tracy who sadly in very poor health, was only weeks away from death.
As I sometimes say… Anyone else care to COMMENT?
And fortunately our new commenter DAN has done very well opening up the topics that Joe & Frank put out… And that’s what a site like this is supposed to get from it’s ‘readers’ isn’t it?
Thanks, Graham.
I was surprised to encounter Kellaway as Daniel, a malevolent warlock and father to Veronica Lake’s Jennifer in “I Married a Witch.” A movie that SEEMS like it ought to be better known, if only because of its peculiar off-kilteredness. Everyone in it plays a few degrees outside of their normal wheelhouse. Fredric March is even able to be a little less stolid than he normally played. One of Rene Clair’s Hollywood ventures. Had a LOT of writers, including Marc Connolly and Dalton Trumbo, for heaven’s sake. Heaven might not be the exact word to use. Made at Paramount during the height of Preston Sturges’ remarkable run. And the whole movie (“Witch”) feels like it could only have been made in that period, while no one was looking.
In this odd outing, Cecil Kellaway is his usual twinkly avuncular self–a self so irritating as Nick Smith in Postman, and given its valedictory sendoff as the kindly clergyman in (speaking of stolid) Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. But boy oh boy, is he a nasty vengeful creature in this movie. Playing against type beautifully even as he was playing his usual self.
I think Paramount’s publicity department outdid itself in proclaiming Veronica Lake’s “HEX APPEAL!”
I wonder if Mr. Kellaway and Edmund Gwenn knew each other.