Walter brennan

And it is that after more than a century of cinema, very few interpreters have won a whopping 3 Oscars. The great Walter Brennan did it, and it doesn’t matter that it was the statuette for the best secondary. In fact, he managed to ensure that his roles were never secondary; with him they were always great, often very nice (does anyone remember a character more ‘salty’ than the drunkard Eddie from To Have and Have Not ?), although he also knew how to play evil, as he demonstrated in Passion of the Strong , where he was the head of the Clanton clan, which fights against the mythical sheriff Wyatt Earp. Be that as it may, Walter Brennan left a lot behind with each of his roles, he worked in more than 200 films and critics and the public always showed his support. Until 1997 Brennan held the record for solo Oscar Awards; That year Jack Nicholson also reached his third statuette thanks to Better… Impossible .

Walter Andrew Brennan was born on July 25, 1894 in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He studied Engineering at Cambridge University, but while there he also became interested in acting thanks to his participation in some plays. He later worked in small musical productions and was a ‘vaudeville’ artist, before enlisting in the army in 1917. He fought in Europe and upon his return, after a season in Guatemala, he settled in Los Angeles . His first film role was obtained in 1923, and it was as a specialist. Until 1936 he played numerous roles in more than fifty films, but for the most part his name did not even appear credited. Among them are The King of Jazz (1931);The Texas Cyclone (1932), where he met John Wayne for the first time ;Angel Face (1933), with Barbara Stanwyck ;Cabaret Lady (1933), by Charles Vidor ;The lawless city (1935), or West Point of the Air (1935).

In 1936 two renowned films arrived where Brennan’s genius became even more known. The actor was 40 years old, and from here another 40 years of more films and successes would await him. He stood out like this in the first film of the German Fritz Lang in Hollywood,Fury (1936) , and also in Rivals (1936) , where the actor managed to win his first golden statuette. Two years later he would repeat the award in the sports dramaKentucky . From 1938 are also the wonderfulThe Cowboy and the Lady , a western with Gary Cooper , and the family The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . The following year she had a successful role in the romantic musical The Irene Castle Story , with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers . Brennan’s prestige was already enormous, although always as a supporting actor, so in 1940 he won his third Oscar thanks toThe Outsider , a formidable western starring Gary Cooper and directed by William Wyler . In it, Brennan plays a peculiar judge who, without any scruples, does and undoes as he pleases, and who is platonically in love with a dancer.

His filmography was widening with films of ever higher quality. She earned her fourth Oscar nomination the following year with her work inSergeant York , also with Gary Cooper, with whom he would succeed again in films likeJuan Nadie (1941) or The Pride of the Yankees (1942). He was great atThe executioners also die (1943), by Fritz Lang, and in the funny The Princess and the Pirate (1944), with Bob Hope . And his comedian skills were more than demonstrated that same year with the aforementioned role of Eddie inTo have and not to have .

Walter Brennan worked on several more than memorable westerns, true masterpieces of the genre. There they are cataloged Passion of the strong (1946), by John Ford ;Red River (1948), by Howard Hawks ;Far Lands (1954), by Anthony Mann ; YRio Bravo (1959), also by Hawks. Along with these, she was a prominent figure in other films of the genre, well above average, such asDakota (1945),Gallows Road (1951),This is how the brave die (1955) orWon the West (1962).

Among other films in his filmography, the family comedy Disney ‘s Grandpa Is Crazy (1954), the warlike Command Bridge (1949) and the intense and intriguingConspiracy of Silence (1955).

Walter Brennan must have been such a good person as an actor. He was a family man and married Ruth Wells in 1920, with whom he remained until his death in 1974, after more than half a century of marriage. They had three children, one of them the director, actor and producer Andy Brennan, who precisely directed his father in his last film appearance: Where the Wind Dies , released in 1975.