33 Facts About Clifton Webb

Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck, known professionally as Clifton Webb, was an American actor, singer, and dancer.

Clifton Webb worked extensively and was known for his stage appearances in the plays of Noel Coward, including Blithe Spirit, as well as appearances on Broadway in a number of successful musical revues.

Clifton Webb was the only child of Jacob Grant Hollenbeck, the ticket-clerk son of a grocer from an Indiana farming family, and his wife, the former Mabel A Parmelee, the daughter of David Parmelee, a railroad conductor.

In 1909, using his new stage name, 19-year-old Clifton Webb had become a professional ballroom dancer, often partnering with "exceedingly decorative" star dancer Bonnie Glass ; they would perform in about two dozen operettas.

Clifton Webb's mother was listed in the program as a member of the opening-night cast.

Clifton Webb's next musical was an Al Jolson vehicle, Sigmund Romberg's Dancing Around, which opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on October 10,1914, ran for 145 performances, and closed in the following February.

Later in 1915, Clifton Webb was cast in the all-star revue Ned Wayburn's Town Topics, which boasted 117 famous performers, including Will Rogers, as listed in the Century Theatre opening-night program for September 23,1915.

Clifton Webb appeared that year with other Broadway stars in the National Red Cross Pageant a 50-minute film of a stage production held to benefit the American Red Cross.

Clifton Webb's final show of the 1910s, the musical Listen Lester, had the longest run, 272 performances.

Clifton Webb then played in the musical Jack and Jill at the Globe Theatre for 92 performances between March 22 and June 9 of 1923, followed by Lynn Starling's comic play Meet the Wife, which opened on November 26,1923, and ran through the summer of 1924.

In 1925, Clifton Webb appeared on stage in a dance act with vaudeville star and silent film actress Mary Hay.

Later that year, when her husband, Tol'able David star Richard Barthelmess and she decided to produce and star the film New Toys, they chose Clifton Webb to be second lead.

The film proved to be financially successful, but 19 more years would pass before Clifton Webb appeared in another feature film.

Clifton Webb's performance won him wide acclaim, and he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Clifton Webb worked for them solely for the rest of his career.

Clifton Webb was then reunited with Tierney in another highly praised role as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge.

Clifton Webb received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Clifton Webb was billed in a starring role in Sitting Pretty, playing Mr Belvedere, a snide, know-it-all babysitter.

Less successful at the box-office was For Heaven's Sake in which Clifton Webb played an angel trying to help a couple on earth.

Clifton Webb made Mr Belvedere Rings the Bell, with Belvedere causing trouble in an old-folks home, but the film was not as successful at the box-office as the first two, resulting in the end of the series.

Clifton Webb played a father trying to cancel his daughter Anne Francis' marriage in Elopement, a minor hit.

Clifton Webb made a brief appearance in Belles on Their Toes, a sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen, which covered the family's life after the death of the father.

Clifton Webb then starred as college professor Thornton Sayre, who in his younger days was known as silent-film idol Bruce "Dreamboat" Blair.

Now a distinguished academic who wants no part of his past fame, he sets out to stop the showing of his old films on television in Dreamboat, which concludes with Clifton Webb's alter ego Sayre watching himself star in Sitting Pretty.

Clifton Webb was a Belvedere-like scoutmaster in Mister Scoutmaster.

Clifton Webb had his most dramatic role as the doomed but brave husband of unfaithful Barbara Stanwyck in Titanic.

Clifton Webb was top billed as a company owner in Woman's World, a corporate drama.

The British film The Man Who Never Was featured Clifton Webb playing the part of Royal Navy Lt.

Clifton Webb starred in The Remarkable Mr Pennypacker, a Cheaper By the Dozen comedy as a man with two families, and Holiday for Lovers, a family comedy set in South America.

Clifton Webb's final film role was an initially sarcastic, but ultimately self-sacrificing Catholic priest in Leo McCarey's Satan Never Sleeps.

Clifton Webb was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6850 Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the motion picture industry.

On October 13,1966, Clifton Webb suffered a fatal heart attack at his home at the age of 76.

Clifton Webb is interred in crypt 2350, corridor G-6, Abbey of the Psalms in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, alongside his mother.