39 Facts About Murray Kinnell

Murray Kinnell was a British-born American actor, recognized for playing smooth, gentlemanly, although rather shady characters.

Murray Kinnell began acting on the English stage in 1907, toured in the United States from 1912 through 1914, then returned to England where he served in the British Army during World War I After the war, he emigrated to the US.

Murray Kinnell appeared in 71 films between the pre-code era of 1930 and 1937.

Murray Kinnell later served the Screen Actors Guild in several positions for 16 years.

Murray Kinnell was the second of three sons to John Kinnell, a Scottish-born engineer, and Rose Taylor from Surrey.

Murray Kinnell was educated first at Seaford College in Sussex, then at Mill Hill School in London.

Murray Kinnell's first known stage credits are from 1909 with the company of Allan Wilkie.

Murray Kinnell played in both Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice on English stages, and undoubtedly many other plays as well for which verification is lacking.

Murray Kinnell next appears in 1912 with a touring company playing Pomander Walk in the US and Canada.

Murray Kinnell used the time off to marry the tour's ingenue, Henrietta Goodwin.

Murray Kinnell played two roles in this visual extravaganza based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.

Murray Kinnell had enlisted in the London Scottish during January 1916, but wasn't taken up for training until April of that year.

Murray Kinnell served for three years, until 1919, when he resumed his acting career upon discharge at the war's end.

Later that year Murray Kinnell joined the St James Theater company in the English debut of The Jest, a three-month tour that included his wife in the cast.

However, by January 1921, Murray Kinnell was "at liberty", according to his theatrical card in The Daily Telegraph.

Murray Kinnell then did an original play Oliver Cromwell, written and produced by John Drinkwater and starring Henry Ainley.

In March 1924 Murray Kinnell left the still-going tour for a debut drama based on the book Simon Called Peter.

Murray Kinnell returned to England where he next performed during July 1924 in an original work by Joshua Jordan called The Dream Kiss, described as "a farce of somnambulism".

When it went on tour in the fall of 1925, Murray Kinnell joined his wife in the road company, albeit as a leading actor.

The tour closed in May 1928 and Murray Kinnell joined the Scarborough Stock Company for a six-week season starting in late June.

Murray Kinnell had a leading role in this, starting with tryouts in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, before going to Broadway in December 1928.

Murray Kinnell's next known acting credit did not occur until late February 1930, when he appeared in a tryout for Elizabeth and Essex by Harry Wagstaff Gribble.

Murray Kinnell told an interviewer after completing his first film that he much preferred it to stage acting.

April 1931 saw the release of both that film and The Public Enemy, in which Murray Kinnell played the two-timing petty-larceny hood Putty Nose.

That same month The Mouthpiece was released, another film in which Murray Kinnell had a bit part as a butler.

Murray Kinnell did another George Arliss film called A Successful Calamity in September 1932.

Murray Kinnell did two more Charlie Chan films that year: Charlie Chan's Courage, in which he was the first victim, and Charlie Chan in London, where he played a seemingly sinister butler with an unexpected secret.

Murray Kinnell finished 1934 with the December release of Anne of Green Gables.

Murray Kinnell then began filming another historical picture starring George Arliss, Cardinal Richelieu.

Murray Kinnell played Rev Nelson, the father of Lord Nelson, in a film that one reviewer said "lacks the powerful punch which the first conveyed".

Murray Kinnell was business chairman for the annual SAG fundraising society ball, and he handled issuing temporary credentials for journalists visiting movie lots.

Murray Kinnell oversaw the negotiations for a ten-year agreement between SAG and talent management that would control the terms under which actors could be signed.

Murray Kinnell told SAG officials he was going to take his wife on a long trip abroad, but would be available to the organization on an advisory basis when he returned.

On 11 August 1954, Murray Kinnell died at his home in Santa Barbara, California.

Murray Kinnell married Henrietta Goodwin in Philadelphia on April 14,1914.

Murray Kinnell was a stage actress, born in Tacoma, Washington, but raised in the Washington, DC area.

Murray Kinnell did not join his parents in America until August 1925.

Murray Kinnell was an excellent amateur fencer, and an active member of the Hollywood Cricket Club.

Murray Kinnell was a chess player; in the aftermath of World War II he and other British ex-pat veterans in Hollywood would visit Birmingham Hospital regularly to play disabled US veterans.