CHARLES BICKFORD BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Charles Bickford was born on January 1st, 1891 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the fifth of seven children in his family. Charles was not a very well behaved child and even as he entered into his teen years, he was a wonderer and never really had a direction for his life.
He had various odd jobs to financially support himself such as a lumberjack, investment promoter and also ran a pet extermination business. He also worked as a fireman in the United States Army. It was on a dare from his friend to join burlesque that he actually became involved in the acting industry.
His original goal was to get his life back on track and attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earn a degree in engineering, however after his friend convinced him to try burlesque his goals changed direction. In 1911, his stage debut was in Oakland, California where he officially decided this was exactly the direction he wanted to take his life and abandoned his goals of becoming an engineer for good.
His actual professional stage debut was with the John Craig Stock Company at the Castle Square Theatre in Boston in 1912. From here, he joined a traveling stage company. He began working with Broadway and appeared in a play called, "Outside Looking In" (1925) which he got rave reviews for and this lead to his first film role offer on, "Beau Geste" (1926), however, he was enjoying his success in his stage career so much, that he turned this film role down.
A film contract was soon offered to him from Cecil B. DeMille with MGM studios and this time he decided to take the offer. He starred in, "Anna Christie" (1930) and became an overnight sensation.
Even though he was proving himself to be a very talented actor, he had a very abrupt and stubborn personality and seemed to have issues with everyone he worked with. He was very hard headed and strong willed, that in one incident, he actually punched out the director, DeMille during the filming of, "Dynamite". He rejected numerous scripts and soon his contract with MGM came to an end.
Bickford became blacklisted by many studios who did not want to deal with his hard headed temper, so he worked for several years as an independent actor. He was working for a while with Fox Studios and was on a film called, "East of Java" (1935), but sadly was injured working with a lion and while undergoing recovery, Fox dropped his contract.
However, Bickford managed to still get work and some decent film roles were offered to him. Some of his more successful work was, "The Farmers Daughter" (1947), "Johnny Belinda" (1948), "A Star is Born" (1954), "Whirlpool" (1948) and "Not as a Stranger" (1955). He was nominated Three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for, "The Song of Bernadette", "The Farmers Daughter" and "Johnny Belinda".
Bickford was very talented at playing character roles, and despite his bad attitude, he became highly sought after. Along with a highly successful film career, he also made his mark on television. He was the host of the television series, "The Man Behind the Badge" (1950) and also guest starred on the, "Barbara Stanwyck Show".
Bickford, like many other actors of his era also wrote and published his own autobiography, "Bulls Balls Bicycles and Actors" in 1965. Charles Bickford passed away November 9th, 1967 from a blood infection in Los Angeles, California. He had two children, a son Rex and a daughter Doris.
Filmography
1962-1967 The Virginian
1966 A Big Hand for the Little Lady
1964 Suspense
1964 Della
1963 The Eleventh Hour
1961-1963 The Dick Powell Zane Grey Theatre
1963 Alcoa Premiere
1962 Days of Wine and Roses
1962 The Farmer's Daughter
1961 Dr. Kildare
1961 G.E. True Theater
1961 The Americans
1960 The Islanders
1960 The Barbara Stanwyck Show
1960 Checkmate
1960 The Gambler, the Nun and the Radio
1960 The Unforgiven
1956-1960 Playhouse 90
1959 Hallmark Hall of Fame
1959 Woman on the Run
1958 The Big Country
1958 Wagon Train
1957 Undercurrent
1957 Climax!
1957 The 20th Century-Fox Hour
1957 Mister Cory
1952-1956 The Ford Television Theatre
1956 You Can't Run Away from It
1953-1956 Schlitz Playhouse
1955 The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
1955 Screen Directors Playhouse
1955 Celebrity Playhouse
1955 Not as a Stranger
1955 Prince of Players
1954 A Star Is Born
1953 The Revlon Mirror Theater
1953 The Last Posse
1951 The Raging Tide
1951 Elopement
1951 Jim Thorpe All-American
1950 Branded
1950 Riding High
1950 Guilty of Treason
1949 Whirlpool
1949 Roseanna McCoy
1948 Command Decision
1948 Johnny Belinda
1948 The Babe Ruth Story
1948 Four Faces West
1947 Brute Force
1947 The Woman on the Beach
1947 The Farmer's Daughter
1946 Duel in the Sun
1945 Fallen Angel
1945 Captain Eddie
1944 Wing and a Prayer
1943 The Song of Bernadette
1943 Mr. Lucky
1942 Tarzan's New York Adventure
1942 Reap the Wild Wind
1941 Burma Convoy
1941 Riders of Death Valley
1940 Queen of the Yukon
1940 South to Karanga
1940 Girl from God's Country
1939 Thou Shalt Not Kill
1939 Of Mice and Men
1939 One Hour to Live
1939 Mutiny in the Big House
1939 Our Leading Citizen
1939 Street of Missing Men
1939 Romance of the Redwoods
1939 Stand Up and Fight
1938 The Storm
1938 Valley of the Giants
1938 Gangs of New York
1937 Daughter of Shanghai
1937 Night Club Scandal
1937 Thunder Trail
1937 High, Wide, and Handsome
1936 The Plainsman
1936 Pride of the Marines
1936 Rose of the Rancho
1935 East of Java
1935 The Farmer Takes a Wife
1935 Under Pressure
1935 A Notorious Gentleman
1934 A Wicked Woman
1934 Little Miss Marker
1933 Red Wagon
1933 White Woman
1933 This Day and Age
1933 Song of the Eagle
1933 No Other Woman
1932 Vanity Street
1932 The Last Man
1932 Thunder Below
1932 Scandal for Sale
1932 Panama Flo
1931 Men in Her Life
1931 The Pagan Lady
1931 The Squaw Man
1931 East of Borneo
1930 Passion Flower
1930 River's End
1930 The Sea Bat
1930 Anna Christie
1929 Hell's Heroes
1929 Dynamite
1929 South Sea Rose
