Melvyn Douglas was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting.
20 Facts About Melvyn Douglas
2.
Melvyn Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a concert pianist and composer.
3.
Melvyn Douglas's father was a Jewish emigrant from Riga, Latvia, then part of Russia.
4.
Melvyn Douglas writes that he "admired them unstintingly"; and they in turn treated him like a son.
5.
Melvyn Douglas took the surname of his maternal grandmother and became known as Melvyn Douglas.
6.
Melvyn Douglas developed his acting skills in Shakespearean repertory while in his teens and with stock companies in Sioux City, Iowa, Evansville, Indiana, Madison, Wisconsin and Detroit, Michigan.
7.
Melvyn Douglas served in the United States Army in World War I Melvyn Douglas established an outdoor theatre in Chicago.
8.
Melvyn Douglas had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930 Broadway role in Tonight or Never until just before his death.
9.
Melvyn Douglas shared top billing with Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton in James Whale's sardonic horror classic The Old Dark House in 1932.
10.
Melvyn Douglas was the hero in the 1932 horror film The Vampire Bat and the sophisticated leading man in 1935's She Married Her Boss.
11.
Melvyn Douglas played opposite Joan Crawford in several films, most notably A Woman's Face, and appeared opposite Greta Garbo in three films: As You Desire Me, Ninotchka and Garbo's final film Two-Faced Woman.
12.
Melvyn Douglas returned to play more mature roles in The Sea of Grass and Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House.
13.
From November 1952 to January 1953, Melvyn Douglas starred in the DuMont detective show Steve Randall which then moved to CBS.
14.
Melvyn Douglas won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama Being There.
15.
However, Melvyn Douglas confirmed in one of his final interviews that he refused to attend the 52nd Academy Awards because he could not bear competing against child actor Justin Henry for Kramer vs Kramer.
16.
Melvyn Douglas' final completed screen appearance was in Ghost Story.
17.
Melvyn Douglas did not finish shooting all of his scenes for the film The Hot Touch before his death; the film had to be edited to compensate for Douglas' incomplete role.
18.
Melvyn Douglas has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 6423 Hollywood Blvd.
19.
Melvyn Douglas died a year later, in 1981, aged 80, from pneumonia and cardiac complications in New York City.
20.
Melvyn Douglas staged Moor Born, Mother Lode and Within the Gates and produced Call Me Mister.