18 Facts About Monty Woolley

Edgar Montillion "Monty" Woolley was an American film and theater actor.

Monty Woolley received a bachelor's degree at Yale University, where Cole Porter was an intimate friend and classmate, and master's degrees from Yale and Harvard Universities.

Monty Woolley eventually became an assistant professor of English and drama coach at Yale.

Monty Woolley served in World War I with the US Army as a first lieutenant assigned to the general staff in Paris.

Monty Woolley began directing on Broadway in 1929 with Fifty Million Frenchmen, and began acting there in 1936 after leaving his academic career.

Monty Woolley signed with 20th Century Fox in the 1940s and appeared in many films through the mid-1950s.

Monty Woolley was a frequent radio guest performer, first appearing in the medium as a foil to Al Jolson.

Monty Woolley became a familiar guest on such shows as The Fred Allen Show, Duffy's Tavern, The Big Show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and others.

In 1950, Monty Woolley landed the starring role in the NBC series The Magnificent Montague.

Monty Woolley played a former Shakespearean actor whose long fall onto hard times forced him to swallow his pride and take a role on daily network radio, becoming an unlikely star while sparring with his wife, Lily, and his wise-cracking maid, Agnes.

Monty Woolley starred in a CBS TV adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1954, which he and some reviewers lambasted, and appeared in other televised dramas in the series Best of Broadway.

Monty Woolley was nominated twice for an Academy Award, for Best Actor in 1943 for The Pied Piper and for Best Supporting Actor in 1945 for Since You Went Away.

Monty Woolley won a Best Actor award from the National Board of Review in 1942 for his role in The Pied Piper.

Monty Woolley received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, officially listed in the "Motion Picture" category, though his star bears the television emblem.

Monty Woolley has been described in scholarly and other works as gay and closeted.

Monty Woolley was portrayed by Allan Corduner in the 2004 biopic of Cole Porter, De-Lovely.

Monty Woolley died of complications from kidney and heart ailments on May 6,1963, in Albany, New York, aged 74.

Monty Woolley is interred at the Greenridge Cemetery, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, New York.