1. Samuel Laird Cregar was an American stage and film actor.
37 Facts About Laird Cregar
1. 2.
Laird Cregar quickly rose to stardom, appearing in a variety of genres from film noir to screwball comedy to horror movies.
3.
Laird Cregar was a popular actor at the time of his death in 1944 at age 31, a result of complications from binge dieting undertaken to suit him for leading man roles.
4.
Laird Cregar was born in Philadelphia, the youngest of six sons of Elizabeth and Edward Matthews Cregar.
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Laird Cregar was a cricketer, a member and later the coach of a team called the Gentlemen of Philadelphia, which toured internationally in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
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Laird Cregar's biographer writes that in interviews "he let a few facts mix with fancy".
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Laird Cregar lied about his age, reducing it by three years.
8.
Laird Cregar claimed descent from John Wilkes Booth, though Booth never married and is not known to have fathered a child.
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Laird Cregar described being sent to England at the age of eight to be educated at Winchester College, where he developed his abilities with British accents.
10.
Laird Cregar cited as his first appearances on the stage the role of a page boy with the Stratford-upon-Avon theatrical troupe, as well as other productions at Stratford.
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Laird Cregar said he returned home from school in England upon his father's death from cancer, though he was three years old at the time.
12.
Laird Cregar followed his older brothers into the public school system until, not yet 16, he ran away to Miami and then Hollywood.
13.
Laird Cregar was back home with his brothers and widowed mother to be recorded by the census of March 1930.
14.
Laird Cregar later reported that he acted with other stock companies in Philadelphia and wrote some plays that were performed by amateur groups.
15.
In 1936, Laird Cregar persuaded the Philadelphia Rotary Club to support him with a $400 loan to study acting and gain on-stage experience at California's Pasadena Playhouse, where he remained for about two years without being noticed.
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Laird Cregar later said Thomas Browne Henry of the Playhouse gave him the best advice he possibly could, telling him "not to lose a pound of weight, but instead to develop a thin man's personality".
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Laird Cregar returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and took more small roles, finally getting noticed by Variety for his work in The Great American Family.
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Laird Cregar made his film debut with a pair of uncredited appearances as a court clerk in Granny Get Your Gun and as a mechanic in Oh Johnny, How You Can Love.
19.
Laird Cregar persuaded a pair of inexperienced producers to back a production of the controversial play and Cregar opened as Wilde at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on April 22,1940.
20.
Laird Cregar was tested by 20th Century Fox, which considered him as a replacement for Tyrone Power in The Great Commandment.
21.
Laird Cregar performed Oscar Wilde for a two-week run in San Francisco, then signed with 20th Century Fox.
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Laird Cregar followed this up supporting Tyrone Power in Blood and Sand, although he came down with measles during production, forcing filming to shut down for a week.
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Laird Cregar then played the father of college student James Ellison, an actor three years older than he was, in the perennial comedy Charley's Aunt.
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Laird Cregar portrayed an obsessed detective in I Wake Up Screaming, "looking very elephantine and a shade on the psychopathic side" according to Bosley Crowther.
25.
Laird Cregar briefly returned to the stage to appear in the title role of The Man Who Came to Dinner and was well received.
26.
Laird Cregar appeared opposite Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd as the "unctuous, deceitful epicure" who double crosses his hired gun.
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Laird Cregar followed that with the successful screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers playing a con artist opposite Gene Tierney.
28.
Laird Cregar began crash diets to lose weight, hoping to give the character a "romantic veneer".
29.
Laird Cregar is exploited by the woman he worships until he kills her and her lover and then takes his own life.
30.
Laird Cregar was appalled by the script and refused to perform, which led Marlene Dietrich, who was about to sign on to the project, to abandon it.
31.
The film Hangover Square, released after Laird Cregar's death, received a mixed reception.
32.
In 1943, David Bacon, a young actor with whom Laird Cregar had been having an affair, was knifed to death, and press accounts of his death carried pictures of Laird Cregar, describing him as "such a good friend" of Bacon.
33.
Gossip columnists reported Laird Cregar had a crush at one time or another on Linda Darnell or Dorothy McGuire, or was dating Renie Riano, an older actress, or linked him romantically to Van Johnson.
34.
The crash diet that Laird Cregar followed for his roles in The Lodger and Hangover Square placed a strain on his system, resulting in severe abdominal problems.
35.
Laird Cregar underwent surgery at the beginning of December 1944.
36.
Laird Cregar is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
37.
On February 8,1960, Laird Cregar received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1716 Vine Street for his contributions to the film industry.