Louis Calhern and Paul Robeson

Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Paul Robeson.

Louis Calhern Born February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn [in New York City], New York, USA Died May 12, 1956 in Tokyo, Japan (heart attack) Birth Name Carl Henry Vogt Nickname Lou Height 6' 1½" (1.87 m) Mini Bio (1) Tall, distinguished, aristocratic Louis Calhern seemed to be the poster boy for old-money, upper-crust urban society, but he was actually born Carl Vogt, to middle-class parents in New York City. His family moved to St. Louis when he was a child, and it was while playing football in high school there that he was spotted by a representative of a touring acting troupe and hired as an actor. He returned to New York to work in the theater, but his career was interrupted by military service in France in World War I. He returned to the stage after the war, and eventually broke into films. Although his regal bearing would seem to pigeonhole him in aristocratic parts in serious drama, he proved to be a very versatile actor, as much at home playing a comic foil to The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933) as he was as Buffalo Bill to Betty Hutton's Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) or, most memorably, the lawyer involved with the criminal gang in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Married four times, he was in Tokyo, Japan, filming The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Spouse (4) Marianne Stewart (25 November 1946 - 19 July 1955) ( divorced) Natalie Schafer (20 April 1933 - 1942) ( divorced) Julia Hoyt (17 September 1927 - 6 August 1932) ( divorced) Ilka Chase (June 1926 - 1927) ( divorced) Trade Mark (2) Snobby and/or excessively-powerful characters Tall frame, erect carriage and often upturned nose Trivia (5) In 1950 he replaced Frank Morgan as Buffalo Bill, when Morgan died of a heart attack while filming Annie Get Your Gun (1950). In 1956, Paul Ford replaced Calhern when Calhern died of a heart attack while filming The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956). In Executive Suite (1954) he plays an unscrupulous businessman who tries to take advantage of the situation after the president of a corporation dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Calhern also died suddenly from the same cause. Appeared as a character in Gore Vidal's 1974 novel "Myron," his sequel to Myra Breckinridge (1970), co-starring with Maria Montez and Bruce Cabot in the apocryphal movie "Siren of Babylon" that is being shot on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot in 1948 in the novel. In the "movie," Calhern "played" the role of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Calhern joined the famed actors club, The Lambs, in NYC in 1922. Was in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Life of Emile Zola (1937), Heaven Can Wait (1943) and Julius Caesar (1953), with the first of these the only winner. Personal Quotes (1) [Romantic suggestions for André Previn] Take my advice. Forget it with chorus girls. Find somebody older. Get some cuff links.