Charley Grapewin: The Legendary Actor
Charles Grapewin was a vaudeville artist and film actor lived in America. He was born in Ohio, and left home to become a circus acrobat. He worked for renowned professional circus group P. T. Barnum and travelled around the globe. After leaving the circus group Charley worked with some stock companies and inscribed many stage plays. During that period, he appeared in a stage show ‘It’s up to you Johnny Henry’ produced by Broadway Theatre. Even though he had a long career as stage artist, he worked with Broadway Theatre only for that single show.
His career as a film artist started with silent movies. His debut was in the film ‘moving image shorts’ which was released in 1900. After that, he appeared in two more films, ‘Chimmi Hicks at the Races’ and its sequel which were released in same year. He had a bright career as a film actor and appeared in more than hundred movies. Most of them are so memorable that you remember this great artist through his films.
Charley Grapewin: The Legendary Actor
In 1937, Charley acted in ‘The Good Earth’ as the father of ‘Wang’. Among different films, his performance in ‘The Grape of Wrath’ and ‘Tobacco Road’ is so memorable. However, most of his fans remember him for his acting in ‘The wizard of Oz’ as Uncle Henry. It was one of the leading roles in the film and he delivered a notable performance. This film was produced by MGM technologies in 1939.
Charley married American actress Anna Chance in 1896 and they lived together till her death in 1943. In their long married life of forty-seven years, they had no children. When Charley Grapewin passed away in 1956 at the age of eighty-six his body was buried with her wife’s body at Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in California.
