Clifton Webb (born November 19, 1889) was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura (1944), amd The Razor's Edge (1946).
Birth Name: Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 10"
Quote: "In my case self-absortion is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention."
Webb was in his mid-fifties when actor/director Otto Preminger chose him to play the elegant but evil radio columnist Waldo Lydecker, who is obsessed with Gene Tierney's character in the 1944 film noir Laura. His performance won him wide acclaim, and Webb was signed to a long-term contract with Twentieth Century Fox. Two years later he was reunited with Tierney in another highly praised role as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946). He received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for both.
Webb also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1949 for Sitting Pretty, the first in a three-film series of comedic Mr. Belvedere features with Webb portraying a snide and omniscient babysitter.
In the 1950 film Cheaper by the Dozen, Webb and Myrna Loy played Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, real-life efficiency experts of the 1910s and 1920s, and the parents of 12 children. The film's success led to a sequel, Belles on Their Toes, with Webb appearing only in a cameo flashback as the movie covers the family's life after the death of the father.
Webb's subsequent film roles include that of college professor Thornton Sayre, who in his younger days was known as silent film idol Bruce "Dreamboat" Blair. Now a distinguished academic who wants no part of his past fame, he sets out to stop the showing of his old films on television in 1952's Dreamboat which concludes with Webb's alter ego Sayre watching himself star in Sitting Pretty.
Also in 1952 he starred in the Technicolor film biography of bandmaster John Philip Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever. In 1953, he had his most dramatic role as the doomed but brave husband of unfaithful Barbara Stanwyck in Titanic and in 1954 played the (fictional) novelist John Frederick Shadwell in Three Coins in the Fountain.
The 1956 British film The Man Who Never Was saw him playing the part of Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu in the true story of Operation Mincemeat, the elaborate plan to trick the Axis powers about the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II. In 1957's Boy on a Dolphin, second-billed to Alan Ladd, with third-billed Sophia Loren, he portrayed a wealthy sophisticate who enjoyed collecting illegally obtained Greek antiquities. In a nod to his own identity, the character's name was Victor Parmalee.
Webb's final film role was an initially sarcastic, but ultimately self-sacrificing Catholic priest in Leo McCarey's Satan Never Sleeps.
Because of health problems, Webb spent the last five years of his life as a recluse at his home in Beverly Hills, California, eventually succumbing to a heart attack on October 13, 1966, at the age of 76.
Birth Name: Webb Parmelee HollenbeckHair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 10"
Quote: "In my case self-absortion is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention."
Webb was in his mid-fifties when actor/director Otto Preminger chose him to play the elegant but evil radio columnist Waldo Lydecker, who is obsessed with Gene Tierney's character in the 1944 film noir Laura. His performance won him wide acclaim, and Webb was signed to a long-term contract with Twentieth Century Fox. Two years later he was reunited with Tierney in another highly praised role as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946). He received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for both.
Webb also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1949 for Sitting Pretty, the first in a three-film series of comedic Mr. Belvedere features with Webb portraying a snide and omniscient babysitter.
In the 1950 film Cheaper by the Dozen, Webb and Myrna Loy played Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, real-life efficiency experts of the 1910s and 1920s, and the parents of 12 children. The film's success led to a sequel, Belles on Their Toes, with Webb appearing only in a cameo flashback as the movie covers the family's life after the death of the father.
Webb's subsequent film roles include that of college professor Thornton Sayre, who in his younger days was known as silent film idol Bruce "Dreamboat" Blair. Now a distinguished academic who wants no part of his past fame, he sets out to stop the showing of his old films on television in 1952's Dreamboat which concludes with Webb's alter ego Sayre watching himself star in Sitting Pretty.
Also in 1952 he starred in the Technicolor film biography of bandmaster John Philip Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever. In 1953, he had his most dramatic role as the doomed but brave husband of unfaithful Barbara Stanwyck in Titanic and in 1954 played the (fictional) novelist John Frederick Shadwell in Three Coins in the Fountain.
The 1956 British film The Man Who Never Was saw him playing the part of Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu in the true story of Operation Mincemeat, the elaborate plan to trick the Axis powers about the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II. In 1957's Boy on a Dolphin, second-billed to Alan Ladd, with third-billed Sophia Loren, he portrayed a wealthy sophisticate who enjoyed collecting illegally obtained Greek antiquities. In a nod to his own identity, the character's name was Victor Parmalee.
Webb's final film role was an initially sarcastic, but ultimately self-sacrificing Catholic priest in Leo McCarey's Satan Never Sleeps.
Because of health problems, Webb spent the last five years of his life as a recluse at his home in Beverly Hills, California, eventually succumbing to a heart attack on October 13, 1966, at the age of 76.
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