Granville Bates

American actor (1882–1940

Pearl Dowell
​
​
(m. 1913; div. 1919)​
  • Josephine Weller
    ​
    (m. 1930)​

    • Granville Bates (January 7, 1882 – July 8, 1940) was an American character actor and bit player, appearing in over ninety films.

    Biography

    Bates was born in Chicago in 1882 to Granville Bates, Sr., a developer and builder,[1] and Adaline Bates (née Gleason). He grew up in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago on the southeast corner of Evanston (now Broadway) Ave. and Oakdale Ave.[2] in a townhouse that his father later demolished, along with all of the others on the block, to redevelop as a four-story commercial building with apartments above.[3]

    Bates began his film career in the 1910s with Essanay Studios of the Chicago film industry,[4] and his World War I draft Registration Card listed him as a travelling actor for Francis Owen & Co. He appeared on Broadway in the late 1920s and early 1930s, notably in the original production of Merrily We Roll Along (1934) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.[5] He was also the Conductor in the original production of Twentieth Century (1932).[6]

    Bates' grave at Graceland Cemetery

    From the 1930s, he appeared in a number of classic films, although sometimes uncredited. He received favorable notice for his character roles, such as in My Favorite Wife (1940), where he played an irascible judge - The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote "Mr. Bates deserves a separate mention for his masterpiece of comic creation."[7] Another New York Times reviewer noted that "Edward Ellis and Granville Bates provoked an early audience yesterday to gentle laughter in a brief but quietly amusing sequence" in Chatterbox (1936),[8] while Crowther praised his work in Men Against the Sky (1940): "The players' performances are stock and pedestrian, excepting that of Granville Bates as a cynical banker".[9]

    Bates died of a heart attack in Hollywood on July 9, 1940.[10] He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.[11]

    Selected plays in which Granville Bates appeared

    Run Title Character Playwright(s) Theater/Location
    Nov 12, 1924 - Jan 1925 Silence Dr. Thorpe Max Marcin
    List
    • - National Theatre (Nederlander Theatre)
    • - New York, NY
    Oct 06, 1927 - Oct 22, 1927 My Princess Mitchell Edward Sheldon and Dorothy Donnelly
    List
    • - Shubert Theatre
    • - New York, NY
    Nov 07, 1927 - Nov 1927 The Stairs Gianfranchi Rosso di San Secondo
    List
    • - Bijoy Theatre (Demolished 1982)
    • - New York, NY
    Aug 27, 1928 - Dec 1928 Gentlemen of the Press Braddock Ward Morehouse
    List
    Jan 08, 1930 - Jan 1930 So Was Napoleon (Sap from Syracuse) Solomon Hycross Jack O'Donnell and John Wray
    List
    Sep 24, 1930 - Sep 05, 1931 Once in a Lifetime Bishop (replacement) Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
    List
    Feb 18, 1932 - Apr 1932 Trick for Trick Lieutenant Jed Dodson Vivian Crosby, Shirley Warde and Harry Wagstaff Gribble
    List
    Sep 19, 1932 - Oct 1932 Lilly Turner Dave Turner George Abbott and Philip Dunning
    List
    Dec 29, 1932 - May 20, 1933 Twentieth Century Conductor Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur; Based on a play by Charles Bruce Millholland
    List
    Sep 21, 1933 - Jan 1934 Double Door Mortimer Neff Elizabeth McFadden
    List
    May 15, 1934 - Jun 02, 1934 Come What May Dr. Hughes Richard F. Flournoy
    List
    Sep 29, 1934 - Feb 1935 Merrily We Roll Along Mr. Murney George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
    List
    • - Music Box Theatre
    • - New York, NY
    Feb 12, 1935 - Mar 1935 Rain Joe Horn John Colton and Clemence Randolph; from a story by W. Somerset Maugham
    List
    • - Music Box Theatre
    • - New York, NY


    This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2022)

    Selected filmography

    References

    1. ^ "GENERAL NOTICES - Champion Builders of Chicago". The Chicago Tribune. XXIII (213): 1. January 19, 1870.
    2. ^ The Lakeview Directory. Chicago: R.R. Donnelly & Sons. 1888. p. 86.
    3. ^ "Recent Sales, Leases and Loans". The Chicago Tribune. LIX (329): 38. November 25, 1900.
    4. ^ "No Holiday for Death". Oakland (CA) Tribune. July 14, 1940. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
    5. ^ "Granville Bates". Playbill. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
    6. ^ "Twentieth Century". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
    7. ^ Bosley Crowther (May 31, 1940). "The Screen; 'My Favorite Wife' a Lively Farce, With Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, at the Music Hall--2 Other Films". The New York Times.
    8. ^ T. M. P. (February 15, 1936). "At the RKO Albee". The New York Times.
    9. ^ Bosley Crowther (September 12, 1940). "The Screen; At the Rialto". The New York Times.
    10. ^ "Veteran Actor Taken by Death". Los Angeles Times. July 10, 1940. p. 37. Retrieved November 21, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
    11. ^ "OBITUARIES - Granville Bates". The Chicago Tribune. XCIX (167): 14. July 12, 1940.
    12. ^ The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Volume 1. University of California Press. 1993. p. 63. ISBN 9780520079083. Retrieved January 1, 2018.

    External links

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